Charlie Trotter: Hotel Magic

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Super Chef, Super Chef, how does your business grow? "I'm into hotel dining. I'm in a casino." Casino hotels -- or a big city establishments -- can work magic for a chef. Of the six chefs profiled in Super Chef, all have restaurants in hotels and one, Charlie Palmer, owns two hotels. Why? Luxury hotels and casinos have guarenteed guests who can pay top dollar for a big-name chef's creations. The deals are sweet since the build out of the restaurant is typically the hotel's responsibility. The chef can negotiate a consulting deal that doesn't require him to be on premise often or be responsible for losses. However, if you already have a restaurant in a big city, why open your second in a hotel in the same big city? Take the case of Charlie Trotter. Recently, he announced that his next deal is a dinner-only hotel restaurant, this one in Chicago's Elysian Hotel and Private Residences, slated to open in October 2008. He will add a more casual restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner and be responsible for the hotel's room service and banquets according to the press release. Charlie already has his eponymous restaurant in Chicago, opened in 1987, plus two Trotter's To Go and a resort restaurant at Palmilla resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. The resort is a luxurious place for Charlie to visit, and a reward for his chefs. Trotter also had a short-lived restaurant at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and he dropped plans to open in the Time Warner Building in New York. So why is Charlie's second fine dining restaurant in Chicago opening in a hotel? This is what Charlie said in a press release: Over the past two decades, I have had countless offers to partner with hoteliers all across America, but this is the first time I have felt a real meeting of minds. David [Pisor] is a true visionary, and I look forward to working with him and his team to deliver a guest experience unlike any other. That only tells us that the management sees eye-to-eye. The kind of guests Charlie wants are the kind of guests that will stay at the Elysian, and Charlie got a sweet enough deal that he opted in. The advantages for Charlie are that he need travel only 2.2 miles between both kitchens, he doesn't have to pay or negotiate travel and moving costs for chefs, and hotel restaurants typically do not cannibalize established clientele at other restaurants. That's rather magical in the restaurant business. Then again, many chefs open a restaurant in an hotel in order to gain entry into the chain's business. Todd English agreed to put an Olives in the Aspen in a St. Regis Hotel so that he would get the more plum prize of Olives in the W Hotel in New York. Maybe Charlie Trotter has more magic up his sleeve than a single, Fine Dining restaurant in a single hotel?... Previous articles: Todd English: Beau Rivage Todd English's Foodie Hotel Drew Nieporent: Of Landlords, Leases, and Lamentations Wolf Want Meat: Wolfgang Puck Steakhouse Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to superchefblog