Today, Pepsi announces its plans to launch Kola House, the first experimental kola bar, restaurant, lounge and event space to open in the U.S. market. This first-of-its-kind hospitality venture is set to open its doors in spring 2016, with its flagship location in New York City's Meatpacking District.
Kinseth Hospitality Companies is pleased to announce the Grand Opening of the Twelve 01 Kitchen and Tap. At a ribbon cutting ceremony, that took place on November 4, General Manager Dave Davis, Director of Sales Stacy Strother, and Owner Bruce Kinseth, of Kinseth Hospitality Companies, shared a few words of excitement about the revitalization of the restaurant and hotel complex located at the intersection of I-80 and 1st Avenue in Coralville, Iowa. Davis also revealed plans to make some major upgrades to the hotel side of the complex announcing that the Holiday Inn will be converted to an all new Radisson Hotel near the first of the new year.Over three hundred guests attended the event and were able to enjoy live music, drink pairings and menu sampling, as well as partake in tours of the newly renovated space.The new restaurant's concept was created and will be managed by Kinseth Hospitality Companies, which is located in North Liberty. Executive Vice President, Bruce Kinseth began plans for the Twelve01 about a year ago, and was looking to update the former River City Beefstro that resided in the building for many years. "We wanted to bring in new ideas and transform the space that could serve the Iowa City/Coralville area, in a new modern and innovative way" says Kinseth. Twelve01 Kitchen and Tap focus on local brews, premium wine selections, and fresh food. Visitors will find all Iowa craft beers from breweries around the state that will be rotated seasonally. Currently, their taps feature selections from Backpocket, Sutliff, Millstream, Kalona, Lion Bridge, Exile, Peacetree and Confluence.An extensive wine list invites the choosiest of enthusiasts to try something new—whether by bottle or a variety of sampling glasses. Wines are displayed on an impressive wine wall that is centered in the middle of the restaurant for viewing. Their drink selections extend into their fresh, innovative and unique menu items. Specialties include a variety of fresh, house-made items, including hand-made USDA Choice Angus burgers with fresh-cut French fries, sandwiches, steaks, and classic Iowa comforts such as "Herky's Mac and Cheese" and Steak Deburgo. "We're excited for guests to enjoy the guacamole made table-side," added Kinseth. "For those looking for something made fresh on-the-spot—this is it." Starting this month the restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch, happy hour, and dinner! Kinseth Hospitality Companies is dedicated to the local community and manages four local hotels including the Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites, Holiday Inn Express & Suites, and Super 8, all of which are located in Coralville. For more information about the restaurant visit www.twelve01kitchenandtap.comAbout Kinseth HospitalityKinseth Hospitality is a leading hotel management, development and ownership company. Kinseth has a proven track record of developing and operating award-winning hotels, restaurants and meeting facilities. Kinseth Hospitality is based in North Liberty, Iowa, and currently operates over 65 hotels and 6 branded restaurants in 13 states. For more information regarding KHC please contact our Corporate Sales and Marketing Team at 319-626-5600 or visit www.kinseth.com.
The Hotel at Kirkwood Center recently hired Christopher Oetker as pastry chef. Originally from Grundy Center, Iowa, Oetker attended Kirkwood Community College from 2001 to 2003. He went on to graduate from The French Pastry School in Chicago in 2004. Prior to joining The Hotel, Oetker made cakes out of his home and was the owner and operator of Christopher Ryan Confections at NewBo City Market. He created specialty wedding cakes including gluten-free, vegan and other pastry options.
The Hotel at Kirkwood Center is pleased to announce Michael Kelley as Chef de cuisine. For Chef Kelley, food was a passion long before it became a career. More than two decades ago, Kelley decided that when he retired from the U.S. Army he would pursue his interest in cooking. After 20 years of service, Kelley entered the Kirkwood Hospitality Arts program.
Wine professionals and consumers alike will gain an insight into the inner workings of the wine business in a new hands-on course, Beverage Management: Sales, Service, and Buying Strategies for Hospitality Professionals. Offered this spring by the NYU School of Professional Studies Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism, the course provides the foundational skills and knowledge necessary to successfully run a wine program. This 10-week program, developed with American Sommelier, a leading educational organization for wine-industry professionals and consumers, will introduce students to core concepts related to service, financials, inventory, communication, and suppliers. Students will learn how to perform basic table service; decant wine; use a variety of sommelier tools including an Ah-so and Durand; develop a wine list from start to finish; price products appropriately and understand wine program budgeting; and negotiate supplier relationships effectively. The course will run on Tuesdays, March 3 to May 5, from 6:20 p.m. to 8:50 p.m. at the School's Midtown Center, 11 West 42nd St. The new course is taught by Andrew Bell, president and cofounder of New York-based American Sommelier. Bell opened a wine shop in Paris in 1992, started his Paris-based education toward becoming a Sommelier, and then joined the two-star Michelin team at Restaurant Guy Savoy. His passion for wine led him to start American Sommelier, where he helped to produce the "Best Sommelier in America" competition. He created the curriculum for the blind tasting course in 2004 as well as reorganized the classes to be more user-friendly. He has trained thousands of sommeliers in the United States.Beverage Management: Sales, Service, and Buying Strategies for Hospitality Professionals is part of a new Certificate in Restaurant Entrepreneurship to be launched in Summer 2015 by the School's Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism. Other courses will include Global Trends in Food, Beverage, and Restaurants; Restaurant Budgeting and Cost Controls; and Restaurant Layout Design."As beverage programs serve both to drive guest satisfaction and a dining operation's bottom line, we are delighted to add this course to our upcoming Restaurant Entrepreneurship Certificate and to work with the leading organization in wine education, American Sommelier, to craft an exceptional learning opportunity for our students," said Donna Quadri-Felitti, clinical associate professor and academic chair of the School's hospitality and tourism programs. She added, "This new course and others in the Certificate address the legal and financial acumen fundamental to success as well as remaining relevant to consumer trends."For more information, visit sps.nyu.edu/tisch/noncredit, [email protected], or call 212-998-9100.
Daniel Dennis, chef de cuisine at The Class Act Restaurant, Cedar Rapids, was named Superior Chef and earned overall second place honors at the Taste of Elegance Pork competition in Des Moines earlier this week.
The University of New Hampshire Hospitality Management Program will host its first Nassikas Lecture Series on service standards April 10, 2015, 1:30 p.m. at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. The lecture will kick off with keynote speaker William Nassikas, president and chief operating officer of Westroc Hospitality, followed by a panel discussion with individuals who will share their expertise on the importance of service standards. They include Morreen Bayles, founder of Restaurant Concepts; Elizabeth Mullins, vice president and area general manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C.; and Bob Dunigan, senior vice president, shared services at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Individuals can register for the free event at https://paulcollege.unh.edu/Hospitality-Management-Nassikas.
Mandarin Oriental, New York is delighted to welcome Three-Star Michelin Basque Spanish Chef Eneko Atxa to Restaurant Asiate for an exclusive, three-night Eneko Axta at Restaurant Asiate culinary pop-up showcasing his creative cuisine in New York City for the first time from February 18 to 20, 2015.
January is National Soup Month, celebrating a dish that is as old as cooking itself. Chefs from restaurants at Benchmark Resorts & Hotels® and Personal Luxury Resorts & Hotels® provide striking new takes on this iconic comfort food. Their recipes from around the country rely on local ingredients combined in fresh, flavorful and healthy ways. With virtually every culture in history having its own versions of this culinary classic -- from delicate bisques to hearty stews - today craft beers add unique flavors to soups made of local cheeses, and Florida Stone Crabs, trout fresh from mountain streams, Atlantic clams, spiny lobsters, California sunchokes, Tennessee salsify, as well as Southwestern corn compose soups in Benchmark kitchens across America, making National Soup Month a celebration indeed.
Originally from Ben Ahmed, Morocco, Mourad El Haoud is a 2002 graduate of the Institute of Tourism and Hotels Technology in Morocco. In 2003, Mourad moved to the United States where he refined his customer service and hospitality skills while working at Walt Disney World. A valued team member since The Hotel's opening in 2010, Mourad says he takes pride in the hospitality and professionalism The Hotel provides to each and every guest.
In a move to harness the passion of a generation of food and drink entrepreneurs, Marriott International is launching CANVAS. The first-of-its-kind hotel industry program is a global incubator that will help hungry entrepreneurs realize their vision for amazing food and drink concepts in the company's hotels. The program builds on Marriott's entrepreneurial heritage dating back to 1927 when the company's founder J. Willard Marriott opened a nine seat A&W root beer stand in Washington, DC.
When Pam and Roger Hanson of Wichita, KS, were looking for a unique experience that included fun and great food, they packed up the car and came straight to Cedar Rapids. "Friends of ours live in Swisher, Iowa. On a recent visit to Wichita, they raved about a Staycation they had done earlier," Pam said. "We have eaten at The Hotel at Kirkwood Center when visiting them, but never had the opportunity to stay in one of the lovely rooms.
Alain Ducasse, one of the world's most decorated chefs, will be inducted into the Hospitality Industry Hall of Honor this year at the University of Houston's Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. The Hall of Honor, which is housed at Hilton College, was created in 1995 to recognize industry leaders who have made extraordinary contributions to American and international business and society.
Marriott Hotels begins feeding travelers' hunger for healthy food on the road whenever they want it – 24/7. Marriott Hotels, the flagship brand of Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR), today launched its first traveler-inspired innovation – a healthy vending machine, featuring handcrafted salads, sandwiches and snacks made fresh everyday using local ingredients. The working prototype debuts in the lobby of the Chicago Marriott O'Hare, offering travelers healthy food options available all day and night during their journey. The innovation was inspired by Anjana Kallarackal, a 21-year old college student, who answered the call to join Marriott Hotels in co-creating the future of travel as part of its Travel Brilliantly campaign.
EVEN™ Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group's (IHG) newest brand, created to meet the needs of wellness-minded travelers, today introduces the Cork & Kale™ food and beverage platform focused on simple, natural and good ingredients. The F&B platform is based on the EVEN brand's commitment to offering guests a variety of healthy and great tasting menu options that elevate their hotel experience while helping them maintain their routine on the road. The Cork & Kale platform is a consistent F&B offering, which will be available at all EVEN Hotels properties, the first of which are set to open before the end of June 2014 in Norwalk, Connecticut, and Rockville, Maryland.
The Westin New York Grand Central has launched a weekly interactive series of complimentary culinary and wellness experiences for hotel guests and neighboring New Yorkers alike. After recently celebrating its first year as a Westin, the hotel is now expanding awareness about its best and most distinct amenities, with hosted events each Wednesday from 4:30pm to 5:30pm in the lobby of the hotel.
Future strategies for restaurant system operation and ownership and new approaches for brand management were highlighted in two recent Cornell hospitality roundtables, as detailed in recently released proceedings. Key topics in the Branding Roundtable included maintaining a brand's points of difference, while the roundtable on Emerging Trends in Restaurant Ownership and Management addressed new ownership structures. Both roundtables dug into the implications of social media for brand management. The proceedings are available at no charge from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) at the School of Hotel Administration, which organizes the roundtables.Cornell Roundtable Focuses on Concepts for Powerful BrandingBrand management has become a steadily growing challenge given demanding customers, intensifying competition, and the increasing influence of social media. Participants at the recent Brand Management Roundtable discussed ideas to help focus and distinguish brands, including identifying and maintaining points of difference and applying "sticky ideas." The roundtable proceedings are now available at no charge from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research."Our roundtable participants discussed many promising branding concepts," said Cornell Professor Chekitan Dev, who chaired the roundtable. "Some of the most effective ideas are relatively simple, but the key insight is for these ideas to be 'sticky,' so that customers remember the brand. We also discussed innovating brand attributes across industry boundaries, safeguarding brand reputation, and configuring the proper relationship between the parent brand and its portfolio extensions." Recurring themes at the roundtable were the use of an overarching brand element, such as a brand mantra or loyalty program, to spur creativity and innovation, maintain brand edge, manage brand architecture, and provide a unifying principle for brands' portfolios to bond customers to the parent brand.Cornell Roundtable Examines Future of Restaurant IndustryThe U.S. restaurant industry is experiencing a remarkable volume of change, although the changes are not readily apparent. Those changes were the topic of the recent Emerging Trends in Restaurant Ownership and Management Roundtable, held at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. The roundtable's proceedings are now available at no charge from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research. "Our discussions were organized around some of the macro changes that are taking place in the restaurant industry, including the increasing role of private equity ownership and social media management," said Ben Lawrence, an assistant professor at Cornell who chaired the roundtable. "In the midst of the many changes, we saw two important themes emerge—one around the idea of creating and maintaining a community-oriented brand and the second about the tension between growth and the maintenance of brand values and corporate culture."In addition to the role of private equity in restaurant ownership and social media, roundtable participants examined changes in facilities and design, human resource management, and the complexities surrounding restaurant chain growth.
As HYATT house®continues to expand across the country, the brand is rolling out the welcome mat even further to extended stay guests with the debut of the Very Important Resident (VIR) program. Providing guests staying 30 or more nights with a personal touch, the program offers a variety of new services to help guests keep their routines rolling on the road. In an effort to make the transition from home to hotel even easier, VIRs will enjoy unique benefits, including complimentary food and laundry credits and the option to arrive with a refrigerator fully stocked with groceries of their choice.
Marcus® Hotels & Resorts, a division of The Marcus Corporation (NYSE: MCS), today announced it has reintroduced its Miller Time Pub & Grill concept, creating a comfortable, neighborhood social spot while paying homage to its beer-inspired roots. The new concept is about the perfect pairing of beer and food. To enhance the dining experience, the restaurant, in partnership with world-class brewer MillerCoors, offers more than 25 draft options and over 50 brands of beers in a variety of growlers, yards or flights. Changes to service include staffed certified cicerones (beer experts) who are trained and tested on their beer knowledge, and available to help guests find perfect beer pairings for every menu selection.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and STR have joined forces to create the first Food & Beverage STAR Benchmark Report. Created by the AH&LA Food & Beverage Council to develop a standard language or metric that quantifies hotel F&B revenues, the report eventually will enable hoteliers to benchmark against properties within their brand, their competitive set, and allow for universal training.