A Cocktail of Their Own
Couples request custom-created wedding day drinks
by Michael Costa

Every couple has at least one thing they call their own. It might be a favorite song, vacation spot, or memorable shared moment. Hotels are capitalizing on those connections by creating wedding cocktails that reflect those experiences, pushing drink prices at some properties from the $8 range to $11 or more.

“We do between 70 and 90 weddings a year, and I’d say at least once a month we get asked to do a specialty drink,” says Denise Boersma, Weddings ByRequest, Wyndham Orange County Hotel.

Because weddings are can be very similar, Debbie Nelson, director, private events, Platinum Hotel & Spa, Las Vegas, advises couples to offer a signature drink that their guests will remember. “It’s a personalized touch, and they realize the bride and groom thought of it,” she says.

More Than A Novelty

Boersma and Nelson say interviewing the bride and groom about key moments in their relationship is a great first step toward developing a signature wedding cocktail. Here are a few examples of transforming the couple’s personal story into a personal drink:

Couple’s Story: The groom gave the bride an emerald-cut diamond ring.

Drink Result: The Emerald-Tini, a green concoction containing Midori melon liqueur, rum, lime juice, and apple juice. (Wyndham)

Couple’s Story: The bride and groom plan to honeymoon in the South Pacific and Hawaii.

Drink Result: The Honeymoon Special, a blue cocktail reminiscent of the Pacific Ocean, containing Hpnotiq liqueur, Grey Goose vodka, and lime juice. (Wyndham)

Couple’s Story: The wedding theme was “I Do” and had a color scheme of blue and brown.

Drink Result: Two signature cocktails were created.  The Blue I Do featured Bombay Sapphire gin, and the brown I Don’t contained a mix of Kahlua, vodka, and Baileys Irish Cream. (Platinum Hotel)

“Most of the drinks we’ve had are martini-style cocktails, which is usually the result, based on the recipe and the presentation,” Nelson says.

Memorable specialty drinks also can help a hotel stand out when future brides are considering where to have their weddings.

“We’re all about personalization. We have no problem doing specialty drinks, so we get quite a bit of word-of-mouth referrals,” says Boersma.
 

 RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

¨ Palms South Beach creates multi-cultural cocktails representing the ethnic heritage of the bride and groom.
http://www.hotelfandb.com/biol/nov-dec2007-palms-cocktails.asp

¨ Attracting the lucrative kosher wedding business, including a handy guide to kosher liquors.
http://www.hotelfandb.com/biol/march-april2007-kosher-weddings.asp

 SPONSORED PRODUCT LINKS

¨ Fortessa’s Festini glasses match colors to signature martinis, such as the “Lemon-tini” and “Choco-tini.”
http://www.fortessa.com
 

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Culinary Brew
A chef's passion for pairing beer and food expands his menu
by Dave Steadman

Belgian Master Chef Steven De Bruyn of the Garden City Hotel in Long Island is passionate about his country’s ales and beers. Last fall, De Bruyn introduced beer and pâté pairings at a special event in the hotel’s Polo restaurant. Now, De Bruyn is expanding the idea into permanent menu items.

“That dinner was our first step in pairing beer with food in our hotel,” De Bruyn says. “The reaction of guests encouraged me to regularly include a pairing of pâté and beer as an appetizer on the Rein Bar & Bistro menu.”

De Bruyn is also introducing beer-focused entrées, either prepared with beer or accompanied by a specific brew, on the Polo restaurant menu. He is currently offering a center-cut salmon loin with buttermilk mash and an endive chanterelle ‘chartreuse,’ covered with a maple-glazed pork belly Belgian ale sauce.

The sauce consists of equal parts of cooking liquid from the pork belly and a Saison-style Ale. It’s reduced almost completely, then finished with butter and whipped cream until it’s almost a foam. The entrée is served with complementary Saison-style Ale.

Staff Sense

“In our Rein Bistro & Bar, the waitstaff is encouraged to be knowledgeable about our Belgian beers and food pairings that work,” says De Bruyn. “When guests ask for pairing suggestions, I tell the servers to think of any lager style as a white wine, ales as red wine, and hoppy beers as Chianti or red wines with an edge.”

Chef De Bruyn believes it is important that each ale and beer is served in the proper glass for its style. "For example," he says, “I will not serve Chimay Blue Grand Reserve, Trappist Ale, 9 percent abv, in just any beer glass. There is a special glass designed to maximize the enjoyment of this ale, and that is the glass that we serve it in.”

 RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

¨ Starwood’s Chief Beer Officer Scott Kerkmans sees the fastest-growing group of beer consumers—craft brew drinkers—at the forefront of the beer industry's future.
http://www.hotelfandb.com/biol/july-aug2007-craft-beers.asp

¨ Columbia Sussex creates combination menus of tapas and signature drinks with artful presentations.
http://www.hotelfandb.com/biol/sept-oct2007-columbia-sussex-drink-menus.asp

 SPONSORED PRODUCT LINKS

¨ The Anheuser-Busch Cookbook, Great Food Great Beer, includes 290 pages of beer and ale pairings, plus glassware styles and recommendations for every beer.
http://www.budshop.com/Budshop/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemId=920
 

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Opryland Gets Hip
New Vegas-style nightclub first of a kind in Nashville
by Michael Costa

On a map, Nashville is about 1,800 miles from Las Vegas. But ask a hotelier how far apart the cities are when it comes to nightlife, and they might say a million miles.

The two cities have at least one thing in common now, however: designer Jeffery Beers. He’s famous for creating Mandalay Bay’s Rumjungle, MGM Grand’s Tabu Ultra Lounge, and many other high-profile nightspots around the world.

In Nashville, Beers is designing a club that could bridge the gap in hotel nightclub culture at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center with a yet-to-be named 15,000-square-foot space scheduled to open later this year.

"I see so much potential for a club at this property," Beers says. "My goal is to create a signature look for Gaylord Opryland in tandem with what the hopes and desires are for that space."

The nightspot is intended to be something that currently doesn’t exist in the predominantly honky-tonk nightlife of Nashville.

"There is no Vegas-style nightclub in Nashville. I think people will discover that this is something the city doesn’t have and flock to it,” says Wolfgang Ebenbichler, vice president of food and beverage, Gaylord Opryland Resort Resort & Convention Center.

Seeing Red

There are several red-themed components that make up the signature look Beers created for the Gaylord Opryland’s club, including:

• A red and black color foundation, intended to capture to the feel of the night. Beers says this will be enhanced by large black sofas and ottomans on top of porcelain tile flooring. The room will also be accented with black textured wall coverings.

• A 120-foot “Red Bar” with 20 curving ebony millwork ribs that run up the wall and over the ceiling, all highlighted by concealed red neon lights, which reflect off the mirrors inlaid on top of the bar.

• Columns covered with solid LED lights that can illuminate, blink, or change color, depending on the vibe in the room.

• Server uniforms featuring red wigs, leather mini-skirts, and knee-high boots.

• A 1,575-square-foot dance floor with 1,500 more square feet of circulation area surrounding it.

To help maintain the sophisticated atmosphere, there will be no draft beer served, and the kitchen will feature a yet-to-be-finalized menu of specialty finger foods that will focus on ultra-creative presentations.

“It’s unique. Everything is going to say, ‘I’m different, and I am the new Nashville. We’ve set aside huge marketing funds to make it a local attraction as well as a hit with our guests,” Ebenbichler says.

The District

The club—which will occupy the space that was formerly Rachel’s Buffet restaurant—is just a fraction of the four-stage, $45 million F&B overhaul underway at the 30-year-old property, expected to be finished by the end of 2010.

The hotel is currently in Phase 2 of the project, which focuses on a 100,000-square-foot area called “The District.” It will include the nightclub, along with at least two new restaurants and upscale shopping.

“The buzz around here is huge,” says Ebenbichler. “The idea is to eventually get people to say, ‘I’m not going to downtown Nashville, I’m going to The District.’”

 RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

¨ The Palms Las Vegas delivers an entire evening of dining and nightlife, keeping guest dollars in-house.
http://www.hotelfandb.com/biol/nov-dec2007-palms-casino.asp

¨ Shade Hotel's hip Zinc Bar attracts attention in celebrity-conscious Manhattan Beach.
http://www.hotelfandb.com/biol/nov-dec2007-shade-hotel.asp
 

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Michael Mondavi Meets Hyatt
New signature wines popular with guests
by Michael Costa

Winemaker Michael Mondavi is the son of the legendary Robert Mondavi, but he’s creating his own legacy with his Folio Fine Wine Partners company. He recently helped conceive three signature varietals for Hyatt that debuted last summer under the hotel chain's private Canvas label. Here, Mondavi and Paul Daly, assistant vice president, food and beverage, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, talk about the challenges and rewards of creating specialty wines for a hotel brand.

Hotel F&B:  Michael, what was different about working with Hyatt to develop the Canvas series of wines, as opposed to your normal winemaking process?

Mondavi: What’s unique is that the wines, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay, were created specifically with the Hyatt consumer in mind. We worked with my son Rob, our winemaker Tony [Coltrin], and Andrea Immer Robinson, who is a consultant for Hyatt. We tried to create a wine that the food and beverage managers at each property would embrace.

Hotel F&B:  Who is the Hyatt consumer?

Daly: We have more than 120 hotels in North America, so there’s a very broad guest base. We have what we call an internal beverage committee, and through research we found the Hyatt customer to range from novice to experienced wine drinkers, reflecting our broad guest base. The common ground for everyone is an appreciation for Michael Mondavi and for the Mondavi name. It has a very strong presence in the marketplace.

Hotel F&B:  Because Canvas is a house wine, how were the flavor profiles developed without homogenizing the actual flavor?

Mondavi: Working with Andrea Immer Robinson helped us focus on Hyatt’s customer during the process, so we were able to create a quality wine with good flavor and a proper balance of oak.

Daly: We don’t call Canvas a house wine. We call it our signature wine. Typically when a customer hears “house wine,” they may think that’s code for a bad wine. Canvas is different. It’s very drinkable for someone who’s new to wine, but it's also appropriate for someone who has a seasoned palate.

Hotel F&B:  What was it like working with Andrea?

Mondavi: Fortunately, she is very meticulous, and we had a series of six or seven tastings with her. It was interesting because we had about a half-dozen different blends that we put together. When we got to the final tastings, there was always a consensus on which wines we liked. We decided those were the style, quality, and drinkability that we’d both be proud of.

Daly: We really wanted the culmination of a collaborative effort, and that’s where the name Canvas comes from. Just like an artist starts with a blank canvas and over a period of time creates a piece of art, that was the approach we took with this whole project.

Hotel F&B:  How would you describe each of the three Canvas varietals?

Mondavi: The Cabernet is, needless to say, the bigger of the two red wines. We wanted to make sure it had the distinctive Cabernet character, a nice structure, and the good crisp tannin in the finish. With the Merlot, we wanted it a little more berry-like in the middle palate and a little softer in the finish.

In the Chardonnay, we wanted lively fruit in the aromatics and a crisp finish at the end. The finish on all three of these wines is something that sets them apart, because it’s the finish of the wine that leaves your palate in either a pleasant or unpleasant condition. 

Hotel F&B:  What are the plans beyond those three wines?

Daly: We’ve just introduced a Zinfandel, and, probably at the end of this year, we’ll look at adding another varietal.

Hotel F&B:  What has customer feedback been like?

Daly:  It’s been off the charts. I think we’ve kept it very approachable from a cost standpoint. Obviously, the price changes by market, but it’s around $7 a glass. Our catering customers are going crazy for it, too. Canvas is only available at Hyatt hotels, so its exclusivity is also an attraction. We’ve had a large number of emails from people who have had a glass of Canvas while staying at one of our properties and want to know why they don’t see it at their local grocery stores. In response, the plan is to allow people to buy Canvas online from www.hyattathome.com within the next few months.
 

RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

¨ Feeling left behind, Hyatt plans a new wine, beer, and spirits program.
http://www.hotelfandb.com/biol/nov-dec2007-tibbitts.asp

¨ Rising expectations: The hurdles of room service are never more glaring than when trying to get a glass of wine up the elevator.
http://www.hotelfandb.com/biol/sept-oct2007-in-room-wine.asp