Have Food, Will Travel
If there is anyone that understands the pandemic-era plight of the tourism and attractions industries, it’s restaurant operators. From the first seconds of city lockdowns, these professionals faced the prospect of closure and immediately began to think on how to keep going. Restaurants amazed us with their ability to pivot to new offerings and keep food a part of our separated lives, all while trying to rewrite the playbook on hospitality.
What is clear about takeout is that it can never replace the hospitable experience of dining inside your favorite food joint. Whether fine dining or fast casual, gathering at the table and experiencing well-made food fresh from the kitchen was dearly missed. In this period of rethinking attractions for the future, what can destinations learn about delivering food and beverage experiences at the highest levels?
Our expert interview lineup is comprised of:
Executive Chef Gerard Craft, James Beard-Award winning owner of Niche Food Group, mastermind behind some of St. Louis’s most loved dishes, and newly appointed “flavor officer” of the future St. Louis City Soccer Club stadium (Go City!).
Master Sommelier Emily Wines, Vice President of Wine & Beverage Experience, Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants, and Chair of the Board of Directors for Court of Master Sommeliers. Emily serves as the liaison between Cooper’s Hawk and the brand’s 450,000+ Wine Club members to create unique experiences through education, immersive events, collaborative partnerships, and curated lifestyle adventures.
Brian Roash, Owner of Terror Tacos, a vegan taco joint in St. Louis that mixes Brian’s love for vegan food, Mexican cuisine, and horror movies. Terror Tacos opened during the COVID shutdowns. Full Disclosure: Brian is also an Art Director for PGAV Destinations, and he clearly loves a good themed project.
What is hospitality to you?
Brian: For me, hospitality has always been about bringing people together.
Gerard: Hospitality to me is taking care of people, making them feel welcomed.
Emily: For me, hospitality is all about making people feel at home, welcome, and well taken care of. It is the personal touches that are at the level you would provide if you had family over to your own home.
What do you look for in your restaurant teams?
Gerard: Empathy and ambition.
Emily: In the tasting rooms, we look for people who are instinctually hospitality driven, who are curious and interested in learning, and in turn, are excited to share what they know with guests.
Brian: Our small taco joint goes big on creating a theme. Because of this, we look for people who can help build the brand, create consistency, and hopefully put their own creative mark on the experience.
When it comes to attractions, like stadiums or theme parks/zoos/museums, what are the biggest opportunities you see in food and beverage offerings?
Emily: Most of these places automatically serve the same kinds of food, nothing memorable, but safe offerings that the majority will be just fine with. But to offer something that is in keeping with the rest of the story being woven throughout the attraction, the story becomes that much more rich. The MoMA in San Francisco, for example, has a restaurant in it that curates the greatest dishes from the greatest restaurants around the world and showcases them like a museum show.
Gerard: In stadiums, I feel like food and drink offerings are a way to bring other people—people not so into sports maybe—into the stadium and into games, and get involved on game day by attracting them with other things like food.
Brian: Having more dedicated, stand-alone vegan options. Vegan food at most destinations is usually an afterthought. Can we not get more creative with vegan options than just veggie burgers, fries, or cracker jacks? This is an almost completely untapped market.
What could attractions do to engage with local food tourism and community?
Gerard: I think that we are going to create a food offering that will reflect the diverse audience of soccer fans and to use the stadium as a dining guide to the rest of St. Louis. We hope that people will get a taste of food from different cultures and neighborhoods throughout St. Louis, giving them a reason to explore the many different neighborhoods on non-game days.
Emily: I think it is important to understand what the deep food culture is in any place. Sometimes, only the locals know that there is a specific pie that you always order for the holidays at a local shop, or that everyone eats a specific kind of fish in the summer because it is part of the local tradition to go fishing for it. Incorporating this deeper local food-lore into tourism is key to giving guests a deeper feeling for a place. Supporting local vendors, farmers, and producers is another way to better connect with the community.
But how do you avoid cultural appropriation or missteps in authenticity in food service?
Emily: Authenticity is important; it is a disservice to the cuisine to dumb it down or change it for the audience. Also, having respect for the cultures that inform the food—a Mexican restaurant with pictures of banditos on the wall plays into a stereotype that doesn’t respect the breadth of the culture.
Brian: If you are not into plant-based food but are the head chef of a restaurant located at these various destinations, then usually the plant-based options are typical and boring. Bring people into the menu planning that care and understand this market.
What’s the one thing you want attractions operators to know?
Gerard: Take a cue from restaurants and try to make stadiums a more welcoming, hospitality focused place to get food and beverage.
Brian: That every guest is looking for their own personal experience, and it’s not always the one you would want them to have.
Emily: Start by looking holistically at your concept and location. Consider how food and beverage can reinforce the story you are telling at the location, and how it can tie into the community that surrounds it. Make food and beverage one of the reasons to come to the attraction, rather than an amenity within it!
Reinvention is more fun with friends. Got a topic you want to see on Destinology?
Email us at destinology@pgav.com or start a conversation on Facebook, Twitter on LinkedIn.
Tap the buttons below.