18 MAY 2020
IT’S YOUR
BUSINESS
Every month,F&W
Profeatures great ideas andbusiness tips fromleaders in thefood and beverage industry.YE OLDE HOTEL RESTAURANT, stuffy and staid, has a menu that consists
of a mediocre burger and just-edible Caesar salad. That’s the stereotype,
anyway. But in recent years, we’ve seen an increasing number of big-name
chefs partner with hotels to open restaurants that are trendy, timely, and
sometimes straight-up important. For the hotels, these partnerships are
a no-brainer: Talented chefs who already have an established following
drive traffic to the hotel—in real life and on social media. These partner-
ships make sense for the chefs as well. For them, hotels help reduce the
amount of risk that’s typically associated with opening a restaurant and
also solve a range of issues that restaurateurs face, from spearheading
staffing to providing health insurance.ESSENTIAL AMENITIES
“Being in a hotel, if my
oven breaks, I can go
downstairs and say, ‘Hey,
my oven broke,’ and
somebody comes and
fixes it right away. Having
a sales department that
books events for us—
business lunches,
rehearsal dinners—those
help keep the operation
running.” —NINA
COMPTON, COMPÈRE
LAPIN, OLD NO. 77
HOTEL & CHANDLERY,
NEW ORLEANSUNPARALLELED
OPPORTUNITIES
“Being in a hotel is
extremely different than
having a stand-alone
brick-and-mortar. We’re
not paying rent,
essentially. The hotel
provides help with staff-
ing, human resources,
and accounting. I’m able
to offer my staff benefits
like health insurance, a
401K plan, paid vacation,
and full wages to tipped
employees.”
—KWAME ONWUACHI,
KITH/KIN,
INTERCONTINENTAL
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
THE WHARF“To raise the capital to make Onda what it is wouldhave been a huge undertaking. Instead, we were ableto focus on the design of the space, voice of hospitality,and menu.” —JESSICA KOSLOW, ONDA, SANTA MONICA PROPER HOTELKEEP UP WITH F&W PRO
For more stories like this one and the latest episode of Kat Kinsman’s
Communal Table podcast, sign up for the F&W Pro newsletter at
foodandwine.com/newsletter-sign-up.Gabriela Cámara
(left), chef of Onda
in Santa Monica,
California;
Contramar in
Mexico City; and
Cala in San
Francisco; and
Jessica Koslow,
chef of Sqirl in
L.A. and OndaBUILT-IN
INFRASTRUCTURE
“The hotel comes with
anything that I would
possibly need—the
people, the designers. My
now-fiancée was at the
time food and beverage
director for Sydell Group
[which manages The Line
Austin], and we worked
together on picking the
water glasses. She came
with a manageable size of
options that wasn’t over-
whelming, and then I got
to whittle it down to what
I liked and what was
functional.” —KRISTEN
KISH, ARLO GREY,
THE LINE AUSTINSOLID FINANCES
“The financial side is
a huge selling point.
We could never have
afforded to build a
restaurant like this had it
not been for this partner-
ship. It’s a dream restau-
rant. It’s a dream kitchen.
To have that support and
partnership was a holy
s--- moment for us.”
—GREG VERNICK,
VERNICK FISH, FOUR
SE A SONS HOT EL
PHILADELPHIA AT
COMCAST CENTERPositive Partnerships One reason whychefs are partnering with hotels to openrestaurants? Risk reduction. By Nina FriendFROM THE LAWYER’S DESK
According to Jasmine Moy, a New York–based
hospitality lawyer, “Hotel deals take almost all of
the risk off the table.” Moy says there are two main
kinds of chef-hotel partnership deals: Management
agreements usually include a percentage of sales
and profits, and the chef might work with the hotel
on things like loyalty perks and free breakfasts. Con-
sulting agreements might involve base salary for
the chef and a percentage of sales and profits and
require regular updates to several different kinds of
menus, plus a certain amount of on-site presence
per year. Moy says that a third kind of partnership, a
licensing agreement, in which a hotel pays a brand
or chef to put that brand or chef’s name on a restau-
rant, is common in Las Vegas but rare elsewhere.PHOTOGRAPHY: DYLAN + JENI
FW_0520_FWPro.indd 18 FINAL 3/17/20 3:47 PM