The Loft Restaurant & Lounge at NYLO Plano at Legacy in Plano, Texas, is making a name as a hub of social activity, combining a sit-down restaurant with a full bar, lounge, social library, and game room, leading to a 6,000-square-foot courtyard complete with an outdoor bar, pool, and fireplace.

The 1,800-square-foot Loft, just off the lobby, “was created to be the social heartbeat of the hotel,” explains General Manager Jason Tyson. “We definitely wanted something that was open as much as possible, since it’s a smaller space.”

To this end, the entire back wall consists of floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the patio area. Sofas, chairs, and fabric are used to create imaginative “little nooks and crannies” in various areas throughout, Tyson adds.

Designers set aside half of the space for functions and half for the restaurant/lounge. The hotel hosts a variety of special events, including corporate happy hours, formal presentations, and executive meetings during the week, as well as an assortment of birthday parties, wedding parties, and bar and bat mitzvahs on weekends.

All of the food and beverage for this multi-use space—as well as for to-go and room service orders—is being generated out of a tiny, highly efficient kitchen. “It’s pretty small,” says Director of F&B Chris DeMers, at no more than 1,000 square feet. The staff handles the workload, he explains, “sort of like they do in a ship’s galley. Every space is utilized. Over the course of the last two years, the team has had an opportunity to grow into the space and become very efficient.”

They have learned, for example, to be “very smart with storage and inventories,” DeMers says. “Obviously, we cross-utilize all the ingredients between the Loft and the banquet menus.”

Most of the food used at NYLO is fresh, a factor that helps with the smaller space. “We don’t need a few huge rooms for dry storage because we don’t use many canned and processed foods in the hotel,” Tyson notes.

While revenue figures specifically for the Loft are unavailable, the hotel takes in an impressive $65 per occupied room for food and beverage per day. “We’re actually quite high for our business model,” Tyson says. Overall, social and corporate catering split evenly, with total annual revenue at about $600,000. Alcohol accounts for 50 to 55 percent of F&B sales, with 60 percent from spirits and 20 percent each from beer and wine.

The members of NYLO’s sales team market the Loft to locals while out and about with corporate customers, says Tyson. “We also have a very strong local following for our lounge on the weekends. We’re really the place to see and be seen in Plano for the midnight lounge scene.”

“A lot of that is primarily organic,” DeMers adds, “at least from the scene perspective. There is not a lot of mass marketing that goes on around that business.”

The Loft’s staff creates custom menus for special events. “Our idea is to give our patrons the opportunity to have every event be unique, from the food and beverage to the arrangement of the room and utilization of the space,” Tyson says, noting that the Plano market “is competitive in its own right. Among the socialites, it’s a challenge to make sure everybody has a unique event.”

The hotel, adds Tyson, is redefining itself in the market. “We’re already known as a social scene; we’re trying to continue adapting to the demands of the market,” he says. Part of that adaptation has been shifting from strictly à la carte to more of what he calls “community-style, social-style dining, with larger plates to be shared. It really is all about the social experience, enhanced by adequate cuisine in an appropriate format.”

Howard Riell is a veteran editor who has written for nearly 140 business and consumer magazines, e-zines, blogs, newspapers, and newsletters. He is based in Las Vegas.

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