The blueprint for iconic hotel F&B

Hotel F&B is having a moment.

The most memorable hotel restaurants aren’t winning because they offer another convenient place to eat. They’re winning because they give guests a reason to seek them out, talk about them, and come back.

Today’s travelers are looking for more than standardized menus and familiar hotel amenities. They want local stories, intentional design, and dining experiences that feel connected to the destination.

In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens sits down with Ami Alexander, Managing Partner at Barrel Aged Management, to explore how hotel F&B is evolving and what hospitality leaders can do to create concepts that drive guest connection and loyalty.

Tune in to discover why the future of hotel F&B starts long before opening day, how a strong concept can shape every guest touchpoint, and why turning F&B into a destination can give travelers another reason to choose your hotel.

Meet your hosts

Karen Stephens

As Chief Marketing Officer at Revinate, Karen is focused on driving long-term growth by building Revinate’s brand equity, product marketing, and customer acquisition strategies. Her deep connections with hospitality industry leaders play a key role in crafting strategic partnerships. Karen has more than 25 years of expertise in global hospitality technology and online distribution — including managing global accounts in travel and hospitality organizations such as Travelocity and lastminute.com

As the host of The Hotel Moment podcast, she interviews top players in the hospitality industry. Karen has been with Revinate for over 11 years, leading our global GTM teams. Her most recent transition was from Chief Revenue Officer, where she led the team in their highest booking quarter to date in Q4 2023.

Dylan Cole

Dylan began his career as a TV personality in South Korea. He then brought his love for travel and technology to Revinate where he played a vital part in establishing Revinate’s position in the US market, followed by the Asia Pacific region and now in Europe. Dylan is currently the Managing Director of Revinate Europe and is based in Amsterdam.

Watch the video

Transcript

[00:00:00] Ami Alexander: I think it’s really important that the narrative gets pulled all the way through — what resonates with guests is when they really feel like they’re experiencing something that’s authentic.

[00:00:10] Karen Stephens: Welcome to the Hotel Moment Podcast presented by Revinate. I’m Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer, joining you from sunny San Francisco, California.

[00:00:18] Dylan Cole: And I’m Dylan Cole, Managing Director of Revinate Europe, calling in from Amsterdam.

[00:00:23] Karen Stephens: This is the podcast where we explore how technology shapes every moment of the hotelier’s experience. And more importantly, how the right technology delivers real outcomes for hotel teams and guests alike.

[00:00:33] Dylan Cole: From revenue strategy and guest communication to operations and marketing, we sit down with the people transforming hospitality around the world.

[00:00:42] Karen Stephens: Depending on the conversation, sometimes it’ll just be me behind the mic.

[00:00:46] Dylan Cole: And sometimes it’ll be me, bringing a European perspective and stories from across the global hospitality industry.

[00:00:52] Karen Stephens: Whether you’re a hotelier, a tech enthusiast, or just curious about where hospitality is headed, you’re in the right place.

[00:00:58] Dylan Cole: Let’s get into it.

[00:01:01] Karen Stephens: Hello and welcome to the Hotel Moment Podcast. I’m your host, Karen Stephens, the Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate. And today we’re excited to have Ami Alexander, managing partner at Barrel Aged Management. With more than 20 years of experience across luxury hotels, restaurants, and lifestyle brands, Ami has helped develop and operate concepts for names like Hakkasan Group, Sydell Group, Montage, Pendry, and Virgin Hotels. Today, she joins us to discuss how hospitality has evolved and how hotels can better connect food, beverage, guest experience, and sustainable growth. So without further ado, Ami Alexander, welcome to the podcast.

[00:01:40] Ami Alexander: Thank you so much, Karen. Excited to be here.

[00:01:41] Karen Stephens: Well, it’s exciting to see you. I did a lot of research on your company before you jumped on the call. And wow, you’ve had some awesome experience across some of the most iconic brands here in the U.S. So I’m really curious, and you’ve spent about 20 years in hospitality working across restaurants, nightlife, lifestyle. So looking back, what originally drew you into hospitality, and when did you realize that this was the industry for you?

[00:02:04] Ami Alexander: I think like most people, I was a customer and loved the experience. So, as a young kid, I would go to restaurants with my parents and always loved it and loved the theatrics of it all and the adventure piece. And then, of course, when I started to travel at an older age, just really loving the immersion into different cultures and different experiences, and always had a love for the finer things in life. So love a great hotel room, love a, you know, perfectly cooked steak. So I fell in love with it. I really thought I was gonna be more on the hotel marketing side of things, and that’s really where I started, and then quickly fell in love with operations and the idea that you could just be the orchestrator of someone’s experience. And so that’s really how I started. Out of college, I joined Hakkasan Group, and I moved down to Miami Beach and was working at the Fontainebleau Hotel here. And if you’ve ever been at a Las Vegas or big resort hotel with multiple restaurants and multiple pools and beach and nightlife, I mean, it just doesn’t stop. The energy is so good. And even when you’re not the guest, you can’t help but feel it. And so I’ve always really enjoyed my work. I found it a lot of fun, love leading teams, and just providing great experiences for guests.

[00:03:12] Karen Stephens: You hit it on the head. I mean, this industry is so fun, and I think you mentioned Fontainebleau is a longtime customer of Revinate. And we actually had our users conference there, NAVIGATE. We had that there in, I wanna say, 2024. Man, was that fun? So just with the nightclub and, as you—I mean, what a venue and to be in Miami. So, I mean, is that really fair? And I understand you’re based in Miami now?

[00:03:37] Ami Alexander: Yeah, this is my third time being back here. I mean, talk about a city that’s just rich with hospitality and there’s a lot going on, but I was here and then stayed with Hakkasan Group, which was the restaurant I was running at the Fontainebleau back in 2010. Was with them for eight years. So I was in the Middle East and Europe opening restaurants and then eventually came back to the U.S. to sort of head the development here. We opened multiple restaurants and then, of course, expanded into nightlife in Las Vegas. I was with them for quite some time, and what a shift going from being in a hotel environment to a restaurant group. I really enjoyed it. In a lot of ways, a restaurant group is much more resourced and, I think, a little bit more competitive, a little bit more brand-forward, narrative-forward. Especially whereas hotels sort of back then—we’re talking fifteen years ago—were really focused more on kind of that resort offering, like, “We need to have the American continental menus.” So it was a little bit less creative. I loved working for a concept that was, like, really concept-led and committed. But I ultimately missed hotels and so left Hakkasan and started working with Sydell Group, who’s sort of the mastermind behind The NoMad hotels and The Line and the Freehand, and that was so much fun because it was really one of the first lifestyle hotel companies where every project was different. Every project was really all about complete immersion into the local community, offering hotel guests something that felt really unique to that city. And so I went from kind of like copy-pasting this one concept, Hakkasan, all around the world, to completely a blank canvas of every hotel and just, “Let’s make something that feels really different and authentic and true to the city.” And I think that that’s really representative of what’s happened generally in the hotel space, but we were really kind of leading the charge there. And so then I found my way back into hotels, and then eventually found my way back to Miami.

[00:05:22] Karen Stephens: You really hit it on the head. It’s been a very transformative period for hotels. And I think it is interesting that you have your experience in, as you said, a restaurant group that’s kind of doing the same concept over and over, and now it’s evolved to where hospitality encompasses the food and beverage. It’s all about the guest experience, the through line from one to another. So what are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in guest expectations throughout that journey?

[00:05:49] Ami Alexander: Well, I think when you look at kind of the older generation and how they would travel, you would have these sort of brands—like think the Westins and the Marriotts of the world—and it was all about brand consistency. Like the napkin is folded the same way, and you get the green leaf soap on the bathtub in the Westin at every single Westin. And it was all about brand consistency. The traveler that was traveling 20, 30 years ago really wanted to know what they were expecting. They wanted to walk in and feel like they knew what they were getting with that brand. I think that’s shifted a lot. I think the younger traveler today has much more of an eye for design, for aesthetic, for narrative. They want to feel like you don’t just have a coffee shop that’s called Rise, but you want something that maybe it’s a coffee shop and the coffee beans are roasted locally in that city. And there’s a real story there, and the guy who owns the shop is from there, and his mother grew coffee in Nigeria, and like you just want there to be a little bit more depth. I think that’s what creates loyalty—is not feeling like you’re stepping into something that’s so commercial, but actually really authentic and different. So you may have these hotel brands now, like The EDITION is a great example. Not every EDITION is the same. They really want to be responsive to the community they’re in, the sense of place. A welcome amenity is not just a fruit bowl; it’s local fruit from the Santa Monica farmers market that the chef went and got that morning. And there’s just way more of a draw and, I think, an emotional connection when you feel like there’s more intentionality behind something. And today’s traveler is absolutely looking for that. And I would say the other big difference is twenty years ago you were either traveling for business or for pleasure. And it was one or the other. And now everything is blended. We all work every day, but we all kind of want to do our own thing every day. We’re focused on our health plan and our wellness plan, and we want to have great meals. And we may be between meetings or meeting a friend for a drink. So there’s just a little bit more blending of that lifestyle. And so you value this kind of idea that even if you are traveling for work, you’re getting more out of it and sort of feeling like you’re connecting with the place you are in.

[00:07:58] Karen Stephens: Right. It’s all about the experience inside and outside the hotel and bringing it in. And it is such a cool creative shift. So you mentioned you spent most of your career—the beginning of your career—kind of in operations for large companies. And now you’re a managing partner at Barrel Aged Management. So what has it been like making that transition from operator to business owner?

[00:08:20] Ami Alexander: Yeah, every day is a different day. I think working for a brand and working for a company is sort of like you know the mission, right? Because it’s laid out for you: We’ve got three hotels to open in three years and we need to have these concepts developed, and at the same time we’re operating this sort of—let’s call it ten hotels—and we need to just constantly be benchmarking those hotels. Is revenue going up, and are we maintaining profitability, and are the guest scores great, and are the employee scores great? And you kind of look at your KPIs and make sure that the business is healthy and working and growing. But I would say as an entrepreneur, it’s a little bit different. One thing that I realized hotel food and beverage departments were missing was they were just very under-resourced. A lot of times you have a restaurant division within a hotel, and maybe you have a corporate director or vice president, and maybe you have somebody overseeing culinary or beverage, but a lot of times that’s it. And when you’re overseeing 10, 15, 20 hotels, you get a sense that you’re asset managing more than really driving the experience and driving really creative things, which is what we just talked about that guests are looking for. So I think what’s been really fun about owning my own company and really getting to choose our projects is we go where we feel like we can be really impactful. So when we talk to a developer or an owner or a restaurant group or a hotel group that’s looking for assistance, a lot of times it’s because they’re under-resourced themselves. And so we get to come in and say, “Here’s how we would resource this project or resource your portfolio. We’ll bring on a chef for this region. We’ll bring on somebody in beverage for these three hotels because these three hotels really need it.” And we just get to be a lot more nimble. We can bring people in easier. I think when you’re in-house and you’re fighting to add a position, it’s difficult. You’re looking at changing the company org chart and adding salaries and longevity and budget season and all of this. Whereas I think a lot of times what we do is we can come in and we can be really impactful really quick. And it’s sort of like you can turn the light switches on and turn them off. If we need somebody in the culinary space for three months, and then we hand over the recipes and we do the training and we bring the right people on, then we can turn that off and that additional expense goes away. So I’ve really kind of built my dream food and beverage department myself. And so the people that we work with are excited by that and wanting to use those resources. And we work with people in the branding and collateral space and people in the design and construction space, and we get to pull kind of all of the different elements and parts of what makes a restaurant a restaurant and work with them as needed on a project basis.

[00:10:51] Karen Stephens: I think that’s so interesting because traditionally food and beverage has always been one of the most memorable parts of the stay, but it has often sat outside of commercial strategy. As you said, you might have somebody who’s running that function, but they’re really an asset manager. So they’re looking at dollars and cents. So if I’m hearing you, if I’m understanding kind of the value proposition your company brings, it is bringing in that creative layer, that creative insight, and that bespoke experience. Is it fair to say like a fixed budget or a way to go, “This is what the project is going to cost,” and then you can move in and out within that? Is that the idea?

[00:11:25] Ami Alexander: Absolutely. I’ll give you a great example. So a lot of times a hotel developer will be developing a space. They’re usually not an operator. At some point in the phase of the project, they’re gonna select a hotel operating company. Potentially they might also select a restaurant operating company if they don’t want it to be the same group. But they’re developing the project without all of those people to start because it’s years and years. And so a lot of times we’ll get brought in three, four, five years before a project simply because they want to understand the underwriting for restaurant spaces. And by the way, we also work with membership club spaces, hotel retail, so we expand outside of that. But we can come in and say, “Here’s how you should underwrite this, here’s what you should expect from a market revenue study, here are the concepts that I would probably put in there,” which is really important because that developer needs to sign off plans for kitchens, sign off plans for bars. And if you don’t really know what the concept is going to be—and I’ve been there as a hotel operator coming into a project that’s already been built, and the concept we want to do, we now have to kind of back into the kitchen, back into the bar. It’s not really the equipment we’d want. It’s not how we would do it if we were involved day one. So we get to come in really early on and make a lot of those decisions, which is only going to make everyone’s life easier. And a lot of times that’s it for that phase. And then maybe we get brought on later when the hotel is closer to opening and they need to select a restaurant operator or they need somebody to operate it themselves. We do act as sort of a white-label food and beverage department for hotel companies. So we can come in, and if you don’t have the resources to have a VP, a director, a culinary director, and you really just need a good chef and a good manager, but you don’t know how to oversee them, that’s a big part of what we do also.

[00:13:03] Karen Stephens: Wow, that’s really interesting. And I mean, obviously we talked a little bit about your experience coming in, but you’ve done this for some of the best brands here in the United States and abroad. So I just think it’s really valuable because you don’t know yet what you want the concept to be, but you need to be prepared for it, right? So I think that is so interesting. So can you tell me, are there any projects that you can talk about publicly that you’re excited about so our audience can get a feel for what’s coming?

[00:13:29] Ami Alexander: I love this question. Well, there’s a couple of restaurant projects we’re involved in right now in Miami, which is great. It’s our backyard in our hometown and there’s a lot of homegrown talent here. And so we are getting to bring in people who maybe have not been in the spotlight—they’ve been the number two to a very well-known chef or a number two to a very well-known mixologist. And we’re building platforms around them, which is exciting. So I’m thrilled about that. I think Miami—there’s been a lot of growth here, but there’s even more coming, and I think more international global brands will be here and more cuisines will be represented here. You see a lot of great Latin food, great Italian food, a lot of steakhouses, but there’s still actually a lot of cuisines that aren’t represented. We’re working with a West African group that’s opening a concept in New York City, which is also really fun. The idea is to bring like the spirit of West Africa, not just in food, but cocktails and nightlife, to this space, which I think is going to be really fun. If you go to Europe, right now a lot of the great restaurants that people are going to are African cuisine, and we haven’t seen as much of that here in the States. So that’s something that is certainly, I think, you’ll start seeing. And those are it. I would say we also have a lot of interesting hotel projects that are happening sort of on the coast—the East Coast—that are not major cities. So think Myrtle Beach, think Northern Florida, even though the East Coast of Florida. There’s a lot of islands sort of out there that have been beloved by Florida travelers for a long time, but don’t necessarily have lifestyle or luxury hotel offerings. So we’ve been involved in sort of these like new beach town kind of markets that are looking to bring, I think, a more elevated experience to the guests.

[00:15:09] Karen Stephens: Wow, that’s so cool. I mean, I know when you’re working behind the scenes you can’t really let the total cat out of the bag, but that’s fun. Those are good teasers for everybody to kind of keep their eyes open and see what happens. So one of Barrel Aged Management’s core philosophies is creating that authentic space built around connection and community. So, how important is a brand story when developing a successful hospitality concept?

[00:15:32] Ami Alexander: I would say it’s everything. It’s your start, middle, and end. What is your North Star? What are you committed to? I say this all the time, and a little bit in the hotel space this is where you can get some tension, because you really want to commit to a concept, but then I think there’s still kind of that old way of thinking like, “Well, a hotel guest needs to be able to have a great Caesar salad or a great burger.” And so a lot of times you kind of get put in this position of like, “Well, we’re opening a Japanese restaurant, but we need to have an American breakfast offering, and we need to have…” if there’s only one restaurant, for instance. And so we have to be really creative. And I think you don’t want to say that you’re one thing and then not be that thing. Like, you really have to commit. And if you’re gonna be a Japanese restaurant, like you shouldn’t have plates that are from the U.S. You should lean into like the local craft and artisanship that is coming from that place. And I think it’s really important that the narrative gets pulled all the way through. Like, that’s what resonates with guests when they really feel like they’re experiencing something that’s authentic. And it can just be a great coffee shop. It doesn’t have to be this like over-the-top, different type of cuisine, but I think you have to say, like, what are the sort of foundational elements of the space from a service standpoint, a beverage standpoint, a food standpoint, music, ambiance? And then you gotta make sure that like that thread is there and that it’s really consistent.

[00:16:54] Karen Stephens: As companies scale hospitality across multiple markets and brands, what do the most successful concepts have in common? And you kind of answered some of it there, but if you think about something you’ve done in the past where it’s really nailed it across not only for the hotel and that particular local vibe, but brand consistency, can you give us some examples of what you’ve seen that’s really successful?

[00:17:16] Ami Alexander: Yeah, I think I love looking at COTE, for instance. They’ve done a great job. I was a huge fan in New York. When they started expanding, you always say, like, “How is this gonna go?” But I think, number one, you have to stay true to your brand. So you cannot compromise. And if your concept is high design and beautiful spaces, then you should not open a space that is not beautiful and works for the concept. This happens a lot where you’ll have an idea to bring in a certain restaurant group or operator or concept, but the space is really just like not gonna work. You don’t feel like the same level of—maybe it’s quality of FF&E or quality of finishes or level of sound system. But I think that’s the most important thing is it starts from the design and the build-out and making sure that you’re delivering something that is going to be exceptional for your brand and consistent. And then it’s all about local talent and hiring the right people and making sure that they understand the brand, they can talk about the menu, they can answer questions about the history of the space and what does it mean. And then I think the third thing is like you always kind of have to be relevant. So the food and beverage space is highly competitive, just like the lifestyle hotel space—there’s a lot going on. And the chefs and the operators that sort of stay on top and manage to do really well are the ones that are out there. They’re at the food and wine events, they’re doing pop-up collaborative dinners, they’re coming up with interesting things around key city events. They’re always being creative. And I think that’s really important is: How can you maybe step into your restaurant that you’ve owned for two years, three years, or your space and go, “What can we do differently this week?” or “What should we do that’s fun?” And I have a great example. I have a friend who is a chef at a membership club and was touring me the space, and he’s one of the most creative people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. And simple things—like he’s like, “Oh, this used to be the coat closet.” And he opened it, and it was like a custom candy station for members. And it was just like—I know that he just walked around one day and said, like, “What can we do?” And it’d be so easy to be in this space that’s ten years old and just leave it a coat closet. But I think some people that just are really—they love being creative. They love thinking about the guest experience. And the ones that can build empires and keep it going are the ones that are constantly evolving and trying to think of ways to do something fun and different for their guest.

[00:19:27] Karen Stephens: Well, I think that’s great advice for creatives and for any discipline for that matter. I think if you’re in product development, marketing, there’s so much that’s happening all the time. And the shifts, I mean, we kind of started talking about just the shift in hospitality over, call it, the last ten years, where we’ve seen lifestyle brands in this emergence. And I think you’re absolutely right: To keep that curiosity and stay relevant by getting out there is great advice.

[00:19:51] Ami Alexander: I would say also if you aren’t feeling that in your role, like if you’re not feeling creative and you’re not feeling like the idea of waking up and having to reimagine your space or think about all these new initiatives, you’re probably ready for a change. You’re probably ready to do something different. So I always encourage people, like if you’re dragging your feet and you’re not creative anymore, there’s a reason why.

[00:20:10] Karen Stephens: You’re not feeling it and it’s time to do something different. I love that. That is the best piece of advice I’ve heard in a long time. So I have one more question for you. So just on a personal level, after the time you’ve spent, now you’re a business owner, what are you most excited about in the industry? What’s coming up as we kind of come into the back half of this year and beyond?

[00:20:29] Ami Alexander: Well, there’s clearly a lot happening in the AI space. I think restaurants have fallen behind a little bit in how we do reporting and how we look at the competitive sort of analysis of a city. And I think AI is helping us catch up to that. We’re developing some ourselves that allow for just easier market studies, easier menu comparisons. And so I’m excited to see kind of how that lands. And I think at the end of the day, it’s a deeply human business. I don’t think that the people side of it is going anywhere from sort of a front-of-house culinary perspective, but there’s a lot that’s going to make operators’ lives easier. And we certainly want to leverage that and get that into people’s hands because it’s no secret that in the hospitality industry and the restaurant industry there’s a lot of burnout and there’s a lot of people that have left. It’s long hours, it’s working weekends, it’s a lot of sacrifice. And so the way that I see AI and how it can better the lives of operators and managers is: How do we get some of that administrative stuff off their plates so that we can get kind of this newer, younger generation excited about working in restaurants again? Because it’s certainly something that needs to happen.

[00:21:34] Karen Stephens: Fantastic. Ami, it’s been a real pleasure. Thank you so much for joining me today.

[00:21:37] Ami Alexander: Thank you for having me.

[00:21:43] Karen Stephens: Thank you for joining us on this episode of Hotel Moment by Revinate. Our community of hoteliers is growing every week and each guest we speak to is tackling industry challenges with the innovation and flexibility that our industry demands. If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. And if you’re listening on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe for more content. For more information, head to revinate.com/hotelmomentpodcast. Until next time, keep innovating.

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