By Nancy Trejos
Fast food has gone glam at hotel restaurants.
Hotels are moving away from traditional, sit-down restaurants and serving comfort food with an upscale twist.
On many hotel restaurant menus, you're more likely to find kimchi shrimp nachos and Bloody Mary bacon thrice-cooked fries than salmon with a side of spinach. As for where people like to chow down these days: Hip lounges, benches or tiki bars rather elegant dining rooms.
Some examples:
- The Hudson Hotel in New York, a Morgans Hotel Group property, recently opened Hudson Common, "a modern day beer hall and burger joint." Customers order burgers on brioche buns, sandwiches such as the French toast grilled cheese or duck-fat fries from a counter. A text lets them know when they can pick up their food to eat in a dark lounge with leather couches or elsewhere.
- Taco stands are in vogue. IHG's Holiday Inn Resort Los Cabos has turned its La Terraza restaurant into a taco stand between noon to 5 p.m. with a rotating menu of tacos and freshly made drinks. Back in the States, the Hudson Hotel has opened an outdoor taco stand, Tequila Park.
- Kimpton's Eventi Hotel in New York has Brighton, made to look like Brooklyn's Brighton Beach boardwalk. Diners order from GoBurger, Fish Shack or a Tiki Bar. Lobsters rolls, BLTs, shakes and beer can be consumed indoors or outside in the Eventi Plaza.
- All Hotel Indigos have casual, fast-dining options with locally inspired dishes. At Hotel Indigo Alamo in San Antonio, for instance, guests can dine on fresh tacos from1909 Bar & Bistro.
Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the National Restaurant Association, says the casual hotel dining trend is an extension of what's happening across the restaurant industry. A majority of all restaurant traffic, 70%, is take-out or delivery.
More hotels are turning from traditional sit-down restaurants to fast-casual food with an upscale twist. At the Holiday Inn Resort Los Cabos in Mexico, La Terraza restaurant turns into a taco stand from 12 to 5 p.m.
(Photo: InterContinental Hotels Group)
"Hotel dining is definitely not what it was 10 to 20 years ago, just as the industry is structured differently than it was 10 to 20 years ago," he says. "One of the most important drivers of restaurant industry sales, and this is also true of lodging food service, is convenience."
Alan Philips, vice president of food and beverage for Morgans Hotel Group, says the new hotel dining style is much more "democratic."
"We give you the level of food you would get in the best restaurants, and we do it in a manner that is acceptable and easy and casual," he says.
John Averill, a publicist in New York, recently met with friends at Hudson Common. They all got out of work at different hours. Each ordered food and drinks when they wanted, but still got a chance to see each other.
"You're not worrying about a reservation or everyone showing up at once and ordering food together at a large table," he says. "It's nice to have that flexibility."
Source: USA Today (including slideshow)
