GREENVILLE, S.C. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
Repositioning itself as an exclusive daytime dining and evening banquet venue, the historic Westin Poinsett Hotel here has forged a one-of-a-kind alliance with the popular Restaurant O, a neighboring steakhouse, to meet the dinner needs of the Westin’s upmarket lodgers. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
The Westin’s Jan. 1 relaunch of its formerly all-day Spoonbread restaurant as a daytime operation that converts into a banquet room in the evening is seen as one of the latest in a flurry of creative food-service remakes by hotels that operate in highly competitive restaurant markets. The change is expected to yield six times more foodservice revenue for the 200-room property, according to general manager Fabian Unterzaucher. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
“It makes sense to focus on what we do best, which is selling rooms and banquets,” said Unterzaucher, who joined the Westin two years ago after a stint at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Mass. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
In any case, he said, “guests are looking for a nonhotel dining option in the evening, so the idea of either closing a struggling restaurant or having someone else operate it isn’t really new.” —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
Instead, the Westin markets the neighboring Restaurant O to hotel guests as a locally acclaimed dining option and has an arrangement with the restaurant to charge lodgers’ restaurant tabs to their hotel bills. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
In a somewhat similar shift in Chicago that underscored the challenges facing hotels that must compete with more magnetic off-premises dining alternatives, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel there also recently converted its struggling, dinner-only Dining Room—a member of the Nation’s Restaurant News Fine Dining Hall of Fame—into a private-event venue. The hotel simultaneously moved the Dining Room’s popular weekend brunch and afternoon tea functions to its traditional all-day restaurant, The Cafe, whose dinner menu was enhanced to compensate for the closure of the Dining Room. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
Hotel outsources dinner to steakhouse, boosting business for both —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
The 82-year-old Poinsett Hotel will continue serving breakfast and lunch in its 1,100-square-foot Spoonbread restaurant. At night, however, the Spoonbread space functions as a reception room for 25- to 50-person gatherings, a profitable niche in the banquet market. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
“We can make the same money in five days from special events that it was taking us 30 days to make with the restaurant,” Unterzaucher said. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
Even though some of Spoonbread’s back-of-the-house staff members have retained evening shifts to handle room service, the conversion essentially has cut the hotel’s dinner kitchen labor in half. The restaurant’s manager, meanwhile, has become a day shift employee, focusing on upgraded breakfast and lunch service. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
“We’ve basically reassigned our people to different shifts and different areas of the hotel in this transition,” Unterzaucher said. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
Of course, another big winner from the hotel’s strategic conversion is Restaurant O, a 90-seat eatery in an adjacent building. Without leaving the Westin, hotel guests can now enter Restaurant O, which is one of three concepts run by the Court Square Restaurant Group, founded by Carl Sobocinski. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
According to Unterzaucher, the restaurant is one of several bustling, independent operations drawing visitors to the city’s emerging downtown. But Restaurant O is now the hotel’s exclusive dinner referral destination. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
“Having the city’s only Four Diamond hotel choose us as its dinner partner is a real reward—a real statement about the level of quality we’ve been trying to provide here for the past three and a half years,” Sobocinski said. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
“Based on reports from [the online reservation service] Open Table, we were already pulling about 15 percent of our traffic from the Westin, and so far we’ve seen that number rise to nearly 25 percent,” Sobocinski added, noting that Restaurant O’s 600-covers-per-week service average before the change had filled about half of its seating capacity. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
“We can only hope the relationship overwhelms our ability to seat everyone,” Sobocinski said. “We’re capable of doing 260 covers [nightly].” —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
Sobocinski said he’s glad the hotel agreed to let Restaurant O maintain its Sunday-closing tradition by offering guests a limited Sunday menu in its lobby lounge. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
The Poinsett is one of 300 properties in the portfolio of Arlington, Va.-based Interstate Hotels and Resorts. Opened in 1925, the Poinsett underwent a $20 million renovation seven years ago. —Restaurants seeking to tap lucrative forms of market expansion that carry virtually no investment costs might want to get to know their hotel neighbors better while studying an unusual teaming of two operators in this South Carolina city.
