Hip, Casual Efficiency Embassy Suites targets a new generation of travelers with its lobby restaurant concept by Scott Etkin
Who says efficiency can’t be fun? With an eye toward making careful use of lobby space, kitchen facilities and personnel, and fully aware of the popularity of the “fast casual” segment of the food service industry, Embassy Suites has introduced a new term to the vernacular: “hip casual.”
That’s how Hilton’s entry in the upscale suite hotel segment classifies Flying Spoons, a restaurant/café that will be rolled out in 40 to 50 Embassy Suites lobbies by 2010, starting with Jackson, Miss., in November. The offering is marketed as “part European-style café and part American coffeehouse.”
“The concept we created needed to be casual because it fit into the brand’s personality,” says Jim Holthouser, senior vice president of brand management for Embassy Suites Hotels. “Even though Embassy is positioned as an upscale hotel, it enjoys a very distinct personality. It’s not really formal; it’s a little bit warmer. The concept is very easy to use and it’s a very casual place. So this restaurant concept had to lend itself to the personality.”
Flying Spoons is part of the company’s new Design III prototype and can be retrofit into existing properties. With three design levels, it offers owners of all types of hotel properties, from urban to suburban to airport, flexibility in creating a space appropriate for their individual properties. The restaurant shares lobby and kitchen space with Embassy’s complimentary cooked-to-order breakfast and manager’s reception. That built-in efficiency means it will cost about 30 percent less to develop than a traditional atrium restaurant. It also means that fewer employees are required to run it.
“At the end of the day the impetus for this concept is, quite frankly, this is a development play,” says Holthouser. “It was about increasing further the efficiency of the Embassy Suites prototype because in this business you have to win with two customers: the end-user and the franchise owner.”
Industry consultant Michael Beam, managing director of HVS Food & Beverage Services, says the concept appears to be part of growing industry trends.
“Not having seen a Flying Spoons, it’s all drawing inferences, but it sounds like what they’re really doing is right in the mix of going with this trend of trying to give guests exactly what they want, exactly when they want it,” says Beam. “And of course, the other trend that they’re getting right into is they’re able to minimize labor as well. It sounds like this design is going to allow [Embassy] to—instead of running a traditional Embassy Suites dinner in the evening, which maybe could be staffed with three or four staff members—they’re able to run this concept with one or two.
“In highly competitive markets, it sounds like it puts them in a very good labor position,” Beam adds. “And again, it still gives guests an option and they’re [Embassy] still able to market themselves as a hotel company that offers hot meals all throughout the day.”
Refining the Concept The company introduced the Flying Spoons concept as “Marketplace” in 2006 and spent three years beta testing it in markets such as Ft. Worth, Texas, and Detroit. The restaurant targets younger travelers who prefer to lounge and socialize in public areas rather than retire straight to their rooms. Holthouser says the company tried to reflect in Flying Spoons characteristics among young travelers that its research had identified.
“What we found in our research is that people were eating, they were snacking at various times during the day,” he says. “Another thing we uncovered about Gen-X, Gen-Y: very, very social. They really relate to this idea of community, whether in person or online. We wanted to create another gathering place inside the hotel. Whether in person or part of a community electronically, we wanted to build that capability into the experience.
“‘[Flying Spoons] offers an experience that, while today’s baby boomer travelers will be comfortable there, it was really designed with Gen-Xers, Gen-Ys and Millennials in mind,” Holthouser says. “So the furnishings, the FF&Es (furniture, fixtures and equipment) have a contemporary look, there’s complimentary wireless in the restaurant, it’s perfect for social gatherings or whether you’d rather just type away on your PC. So that’s kind of where we came up with this idea of ‘hip casual.’”
But Flying Spoons is more than just a place for hotel guests to lounge, although they certainly can do that in the restaurant’s wingback chairs and ottomans. The restaurant also offers bar-height seating for the eat-and-run crowd, and tables and chairs for those who want a more traditional dining experience. Power ports allow guests to sit and check electronic devices. Warm grays, chocolate browns, orange and blue color the walls, reflecting the influence of fast casual establishments like Panera Bread and Starbucks and giving the space an at-home feel.
“Concepts like Panera Bread were certainly part of the inspiration for this,” Holthouser says. “This is going to be a smaller operation. It’s not nearly as comprehensive. Although the menu is high quality, it’s limited, and that’s all by design to keep the operation of this very simple. So you may have 15 items on the menu instead of 45. The square footage of this will be smaller than a typical Panera Bread standalone store. But it’s that kind of offering and operating model, if you will, that served as some of the inspiration for the concept.”
Beam compared Flying Spoons with Marriott’s Courtyard, which offers The Market to provide guests with 24-hour access to food, snacks and refreshments.
“It’s not that they’re similar in terms of the concept or the execution of them. They’re similar in the idea, which is to share and utilize kitchen equipment throughout the day so the investment becomes more meaningful,” Beam says. “They’re similar in that they’re both trying to figure out how to capture more revenue from guests by giving them opportunities to purchase what either wasn’t available before, like in the case of $5 coffee. Before, what you had with Courtyard and really all these hotels was people would eat whatever the breakfast offering was at the hotel, and then immediately they’d leave the hotel and go out and buy a $5 Starbucks coffee. And so now these concepts are allowing people to make that choice and leave that money in the hotel.”
What’s on the Menu? Like standalone fast casual restaurants, Flying Spoons offers hotel guests a variety of coffees, teas and espresso drinks. At the new lobby restaurant, sandwiches are offered all day and offer upscale twists appropriate for the restaurant’s market position, such as the eggplant pepper and cheese panini and the gouda tuna melt. After 6 p.m., Flying Spoons offers dinner items such as grilled salmon with artichokes and lobster enchiladas with roasted tomatoes. Dishes on the dinner menu are brought in from outside the hotel, simplifying operations of Flying Spoons.
“A lot of items on the menu don’t require sophisticated, high-dollar chefs to create. So what we were trying to do, again, as part of the efficiency and ease of operation, we thought we could do that for the owner and at the same time come up with a very attractive, tasty menu for guests.”
Beam says the concept’s efficiencies probably will appeal to many franchisees. On the other hand, others might not welcome the additional level of operational complexity that the new model presents.
“On par, it sounds like they’ve built a better mousetrap; but there’s always those who feel a better mousetrap means they have to change, and that can be a difficult process.” n
