Aiming to make the hotel bar a destination and snare some of the big dollars spent on cocktails, some of America's leading hoteliers are calling on renowned mixologists to upgrade quality and performance standards at the bar.
Among the companies and "name" barmen teaming up to revitalize cocktail culture in the lodging sector are Marriott International and Dale DeGroff; Hilton Hotel Corp. and Tony Abou-Ganim; and Fairmont Hotels and Ryan Magarian.
The cocktail gurus share an insistence on fresh juices and garnishes, premium liquors and painstaking mixing techniques like muddling, shaking and flaming garnishes.
They also hearken back to the day of craftsmanship at the bar. The creative cocktails that result strike a chord with today's guests, according to Rebecca Walden, senior director, beverage programs and development, for Los Angeles-based Hilton Hotels. "People are really looking for the fresh ingredients, the culinary approach and the crafted cocktail," she said.
This craftsmanship ethos promises to reverse what some see as a longstanding descent into mediocrity. "Cocktails were not invented with sour mixes," said Portland, Ore.-based cocktail consultant Ryan Magarian. "You realize it was just a shortcut to making faster drinks."
Hilton's new Travel-Taste-Toast cocktail promotion features 10 signature cocktails that emphasize Hilton's status as a global travel destination. Nine were created by prominent mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim. The 10th is the drink that won the Hilton-Doubletree Top Bar Chef competition, which Abou-Ganim judged. For example, the competition-winning Thai Mojito Tini, made by a bartender at the Doubletree Denver hotel, is a combination of light rum, coconut rum, orange liqueur and simple syrup, muddled with lemon and lime wedges, fresh Thai basil, Thai chili peppers, ginger and ruby red grapefruit, topped with lemon soda. Abou-Ganim's creation, The Road to Hana, mixes spiced and dark rums, triple sec, fresh lemon, pineapple and orange juices and orgeat syrup.
"Each of those recipes is a crafted cocktail with fresh ingredients and premium liquors," said Walden. "We tried to make it not too painful for our bartenders by limiting the number of epicurean ingredients."
At Washington-based Marriott International, more than 100 properties are involved in the BarArts mixology upgrade that kicked off in the spring. "People are staying longer in our bars and spending a little more money," noted Jay Coldren, Marriott's senior director of design and development.
Point man for Marriott's efforts is Dale DeGroff, former celebrity bartender of the famed Rainbow Room in New York City. DeGroff revised more than 250 Marriott cocktail recipes with fresh juices in place of commercial bar mixes and trained bar staff in his mixing methods.
"He reminded us what it is to have a great drink," said Coldren. "We've translated that into proper glassware, measured pouring, artifacts at the bar and cleaning up the backbar, really recreating the whole atmosphere of the bar."
DeGroff's influence has been felt in several ways. For one, he dispelled a notion that fresh-squeezed juices are too costly to use at the bar. "The fact is, fresh juices are about four cents cheaper per drink," said Coldren. "They're more intense in flavor, so you use less."
Another aim of the program is consistency. DeGroff switched the bartenders from cooking simple syrup on the range to simply shaking equal parts of sugar and cold water until it forms a syrup. There is no evaporation, so the result is a consistent sweetness. "Dale likes to take all the random elements out of a cocktail," Coldren said. "Not knowing the sweetness of your sour mix is one of them."
Another consistency killer is allowing bartenders to reinterpret standard recipes, a practice against which DeGroff preaches. "Our vision is that a great mojito is a great mojito, whether it's mixed at the Hollywood Renaissance or the Marriott Phuket," said Coldren.
Consultant Magarian, working in association with Kathy Casey Food Studios of Seattle, has conducted eight-day training programs for the bar staffs of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts properties for the hotelier's FAME, or Fairmont Artistic Mixology Experience, program. "We're not just creating a new drink; we're setting new standards for all Fairmont drinks," said Magarian.
Another Magarian project is a pilot program to train bar staff at the Sofitel Hotel Water Tower in Chicago. A few weeks after the training, bar checks and revenues are trending up at the hotel, reported Jean-Marc Jalbert, senior corporate director of food and beverage for the Sofitel Hotels & Resorts, part of the Paris-based Accor group. He said he may enlist Magarian to train staff at his other 10 U.S. properties. "We have some good bars, but we want to have great bars," said Jalbert.
