Peppers Waymouth Hotel celebrated its grand opening this week, inviting Adelaide’s key tourism, business and industry contacts to experience an evening celebrating regional food and wine – a key focus for the newly branded hotel.
Formerly the Rendezvous Hotel, the property rebranded under Peppers last month and with it brought the brand’s rich history of celebrating fine food and wine.
“We are looking forward to a long and happy partnership with all things gourmet and see the hotel becoming involved in the local food and wine related events and festivals on the tourism calendar,” said Peppers General Manager, Victor Faisca.
“Likewise it is our aim to see our restaurant come alive with food and wine tasting events; guest chef evenings; and wine challenges that we affectionately call ‘Wine Wars’ at Peppers, which sees rival winemakers compete for the audience preference. A lot of fun and what is sure to be a great celebration of one of South Australia’s greatest assets.”
Peppers Waymouth Chef Zach Riemersma treated guests to an array of local produce including Coffin Bay Oysters; Woodside Chevre from the Adelaide Hills; South Australian Blue Swimmer Crab Ceviche; Clare Valley Gold Seared Beef and Smoked Kangaroo from the Barossa Valley; accompanied by South Australian wines from Yalumba.
The hotel offers 202 five-star hotel rooms and suites, two food and beverage outlets – The Cafe and Lounge 55; a heated indoor lap pool, spa, sauna, and fitness centre. For meetings, events and private functions the 120 square metre conference room caters for up to 150 guests (cocktail) and can be divided into two smaller rooms.
As the premium brand in the Mantra Group portfolio, Peppers ensures a high standard is maintained for its guests and will undertake ongoing upgrades to rooms and public areas over the next 12 months.
“Peppers Waymouth is an exceptional hotel offering, and a continuation of Mantra Group’s strategy to grow the Peppers brand in CBD locations,” said Mantra Group Director of Operations, Tomas Johnsson.
“It is the second CBD and capital city hotel for the brand following the addition last year of Peppers Gallery Hotel Canberra. Along with Canberra and Adelaide, Melbourne will soon have the third CBD Peppers hotel opening early 2016 in the Docklands precinct and another new build Peppers hotel is slated for Perth opening late 2016.”
The CBD expansion further strengthens the evolution of the Peppers brand which started as a small group of boutique retreats 30 years ago in the NSW Hunter Valley, expanding to include larger coastal resorts over the last 10 years before its first foray into metropolitan style accommodation with the opening of Peppers Broadbeach in 2010.
Peppers also recently moved into Asia with the opening of Peppers Sentosa Seminyak in Indonesia.
Peppers Waymouth is expected to be a popular choice during Adelaide’s events and festival season which contribute $62.9 million to the South Australian economy. Enhancements to the Adelaide Convention Centre are predicted to attract large international conferences and Adelaide Oval is set to entice year round AFL and cricket supporters with its recent multi-million dollar upgrades. Cruise ships are another growing market for Adelaide with the number of visiting ships increasing to 36 to date in 2014/15, up from 29 in 2013/14.
South Australian Tourism Minister Leon Bignell said: “Peppers is a welcome addition to the Adelaide hotel scene. With more airlines announcing increased flights into Adelaide and international and domestic tourism markets strengthening, the city is in continual need of quality international hotel brands to help showcase its unique attractions.”
Peppers Waymouth Hotel began its life as an office building built in the 1970’s. It was left vacant for a number of years in the 1990’s before being transformed in 2002 by the Mattioli Group into one of South Australia’s most prestigious hotels. Seeing the potential for a grand hotel offering in what is now a burgeoning food precinct in Adelaide, the Mattioli Group invested $20 million in the development creating a lasting impression on the Adelaide hotel scene.
It joins two Mantra and two BreakFree hotels in Adelaide to bring the total number of Mantra Group hotels to five in Adelaide CBD.
