Denihan Leverages F&B Partnerships
By Derek Gale, Senior Editor -- Hotels, 6/25/2009 2:01:00 PM
Denihan Hospitality Group (DHG) is a growing hotel management and development company. But with its roster of celebrity chef partners, one might almost mistake the firm as a sort of all-star restaurant group.
Consider these culinarians: Daniel Boulud (Café Boulud), David Burke (David Burke’s Primehouse), Art Smith (Art and Soul), Marcus Samuelsson (C-House) and Geoffrey Zakarian (The Benjamin Hotel), each of whom has a concept connected to a DHG property.
“It’s kind of like the tail wagging the dog,” says Denihan’s chief marketing officer, John Moser. “A great restaurant in a hotel is a great way to introduce people to the hotel. If they have a great experience, they might go around the corner to see what’s going on in the property.”
Meanwhile, for guests already staying at a Denihan hotel who may be having a meal at the restaurant or ordering roomservice, a standout experience may lead to repeat business for the property.
“They’re all lifestyle properties,” Moser explains, “and part of that is bringing in a unique F&B proposition—something that is not ‘typical hotel food.’ Anything institutional is not right for what Denihan owns.”
Whose Food Goes Where?
When considering a partnership with a chef, Moser says the company looks at each hotel property individually, including who the customer is and what the neighborhood is. “We want an F&B experience that feels right,” he notes. “At the end of the day it may not be the [exact] same people, but the people who love the restaurant would be the people who love the hotel.”
There’s also intense conversation around a chef’s philosophy and goals and whether those are in line with Denihan’s objectives.
“That relationship is really important to us, so we spend a lot of time before we do a deal making sure their hopes and aspirations are in line with ours," Moser says. "Art Smith, David Burke, Marcus Samuelsson—all of those guys, when you talk to them, you get a feeling for what they are. And if it didn’t feel right, we wouldn’t do a deal with them. We’ve chosen not to do business with a lot of celebrity chefs because it did not feel right.”
Once a relationship has been established, it would be ideal to expand it if it makes sense, Moser says. “All of the chefs we’re doing business with we have good relationships with, and if a concept fit nicely in another city, we’d like to do business again, because the templates are already there—we know each other and how we work.”
But he cautions that Denihan is not necessarily looking to take New York (where most of their properties are and a handful of their chef partners are) elsewhere, and says it would be crazy for the company to open a hotel in New Orleans or San Francisco and to not be talking with great local chefs in those cities about opening a restaurant at a Denihan property.
“While we want our existing chefs to be part of the discussion, we look at who’s [in a market] that’s neat, who’s not [in a market] who wants to be, and, most important, will customers who go to a particular restaurant stay in a particular property—are they people with similar tastes?” Moser notes.
A few years ago, when Samuelsson was preparing to open C-House at the Affinia Chicago, HOTELS asked him whether he envisioned outposts at other Affinia properties in the future. He was noncommittal, but left the door open.
Events Promote Relationships
Already this season (in May and June), Denihan has held two events at its Affinia properties—one customer-facing (in Chicago) and one industry-facing (in New York), to promote the company’s tie-in with famous food personalities and raise awareness of its brands.
The first was a BBQ bootcamp and grilling demonstration with David Burke and Marcus Samuelsson at C-View, the Affinia Chicago’s outdoor rooftop lounge. For US$75, guests were invited to the demonstration along with a casual cocktail reception and a surf-and-turf tasting. The event sold out.
A few weeks later, Denihan co-CEOs Patrick Denihan and Brooke Barrett hosted a cocktails and cuisine tasting for the hospitality industry’s top developers, lenders and industry influencers at the new Affinia Shelburne property in New York City. More than 200 industry executives attended, and the event allowed Denihan to show what its brands can bring to the table.
Moser says no more events are scheduled for this year, but notes that the BBQ bootcamp was well-received by both customers and media, and suggests that the company is likely to do similar customer-facing F&B events in its various Affinia properties moving forward. He cites learning-driven experiences around cocktails and/or wine as possibilities.
“We’d like to do something that’s a great story for press but also great for our customers. These days I can’t afford to do a lot that won’t have traction with customers,” Moser says.
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