“Creativity is an essential part of good hotelkeeping today,” said Lars Wagner, GM of Mandarin Oriental Geneva, Switzerland.
No, he was not imaginative as a boy or teenager. It was when he was F&B at Grand Hyatt Bangkok that he learned the importance of thinking outside the box, to motivate the team and also to bring in more business.
“Hyatt, especially in Asia, has long had an enviable tradition of coming up with new concepts on the food side,” the German-born hotel explained. Bernd Chorengel (Hyatt’s long-time head of global F&B) was a game-changer, and now that title can well go to Andreas Stalder, Hyatt’s current Hong Kong-based Mr. Food. I learned to come up with my own ideas.”
When Wagner was GM of Mandarin Oriental Munich, his team made good use of the hotel’s seventh floor rooftop, which fortunately had a large flat space. “In summer we made a lively outdoor lounge, heavily sponsored by a Champagne house,” he recalled. “That was so successful that we decided to hoist a full-size wood cabin up there, by crane, and all winter-long we served warm gluhwein and comfort food.”
In 2013, Wagner relocated to Mandarin Oriental Geneva, which is also seven floors high, but its roof is angled. He had to think creatively once again. “Last winter we brought a wood chalet, admittedly smaller, into our first floor all-day restaurant, Café Calla,” he said. “It went well, so this spring I put my thinking cap on once again.” The result was Riviera, a pop-up transformation with several hints of Club 55 in St-Tropez, France, and other popular restaurants along the Mediterranean coast.
Wagner sent Café Calla’s managers to research, which of course they thoroughly enjoyed. Wagner himself searched online to find a young artist whose bright and colorful works would make a good temporary exhibition in the space – he found Paulin Nikolli, from Nice.
For four months this past summer Café Calla was Riviera, apart from a sandy beach (it is only a few yards from water, but the Rhône river rather than the sea). The space had temporary flooring, and wisps of hanging white gauze gave a feeling of Mediterranean breezes. Servers wore French-bistro overshirts. Diners sat inside or out on the covered sidewalk terrace, on French-bistro chairs, at tables decorated with whole lemons, tomatoes, and sprigs of herbs.
Dishes included a popular appetizer of sardines, served in the original tin, with French country bread: a best-selling dessert was double cream with tiny meringues, and a complimentary limoncello – many had earlier had at least one glass of Bandol from Provence, served from a magnum.
“By the end of September, when we reverted to our usual menu and Café Calla look, we had more than broken even on the investment, but just as important was that everyone, my team and local diners, had fun,” Wagner said with a big smile.
Wagner also has a program of hosting guest chefs. Anton Mosimann flew from London, September 22-23, 2016, and Paris-based flying chef Pierre Gagnaire is with him this very week. Peru’s wunderkind Diego Oka is slated for next month. “And then it will be time to bring in the winter chalet once again,” Wagner added.
With a father, Gunnar Wagner, who was a Hilton and InterContinental Hotels legend, he had tried to escape the industry. But after Lufthansa thwarted his ambition to be a pilot Lars reverted to what was in his blood.
After learning beverages with Hilton in New York, he climbed the F&B ladder, with Hyatt and Four Seasons, before switching to main operations at Four Seasons in the Czech Republic and southern France. His first GM role was at InterContinental Hotel Paris Le Grand, before joining Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group in 2007.