“The answer is yes. What is the question?” This mantra is fundamental to LXR’s approach to driving special events profits. And it’s not just a clever pitch. ”We thrive on clients who are hard to please,” says Doug Zeif, VP of Food & Beverage for LXR Luxury Resorts & Hotels.

LXR properties are embraced and enhanced by their chefs, restaurateurs, and design partners. These extraordinary destinations, each with a unique spirit, provide the canvas upon which meeting planners and convention staff convene to create an “experience” for convention guests.

Creating an “experience“ is the objective, and although it may be an industrywide trend, some do it better. How does LXR do it? Through the senses. But engaging the senses through sight, sound, taste, scent, and touch requires letting go of preconceived notions—and removing boundaries.

Fearlessness defines LXR. And in the food & beverage arena, Doug Zeif is the architect of this philosophy.

Zeif claims his greatest strength may be that he was not a hotel man before coming to LXR. “I know how to make money in restaurants and F&B operations. So, my perspective on what is needed, and, most importantly, what is not needed, differs from that of the standard industry-raised F&B leader,” Zeif says.

Most recently, he was a consultant to many of the world’s largest restaurant and foodservice operators. Prior to his consulting career, he was second in command at the Cheesecake Factory and responsible for overseeing development of the product line as well as the concept’s national expansion, which helped take the company public in 1992.

Since joining LXR two years ago, Zeif has repositioned the F&B offerings at all LXR properties, and under his direction, the company has more than doubled its profit from F&B operations—even while undergoing extensive renovations.

A New York City native, the “business got into my blood,” he says, “while working as a grill cook and server during high school and college.” Zeif traveled extensively in Europe and the United States, developing his hospitality business skills as well as a great love of food and wine.

He sees himself as a “student of the game,” a “digger who studies food, eating trends, pop culture, and who loves to know what’s next.” And he studies others successes and failures. A strategic visionary and developer of concepts and people, his three-tiered approach to business is: people, product— and profit.

“Unlike some hotels owned and run by management companies, we own our assets. So we must make a profit,” Zeif says.

He firmly believes that [in hotels] the profit lies in banquet & catering [not in owning restaurants]. Currently, LXR is 55/45, skewed toward banquet and catering. “My goal is to be at 70 to 80 percent.”

PRODUCT & PEOPLE
The biggest change in the last year and a half at LXR, Zeif says, is that “we have elevated the culinary quality to the pinnacle of what drives our business.

“I have always tried to stay ahead of the curve with regard to product use,” says Zeif. “For example, my independent restaurants were using Chilean and Argentinean wines in the late 70s and early 80s. It comes from ‘digging—and sniffing.’

“I select our culinary stars and try to stay out of their way. I don’t want them to reinvent themselves ... and I prefer chefs from luxury environments. It’s easier to cook down than up. And a good chef understands the business model,” Zeif says.

And how does he plan to grow the banquet and catering business to 70 to 80 percent—and make more money doing it? “I approach everything as a win-win. During a site visit we listen first to what the customers want. Then, we show them what they can have for just a little bit more money.

“We usually have two site visits going on at the same time, about 70 people, and we pull out all the stops ... maybe a luncheon at the golf course, an action station set up in one of our public areas. Sometimes we kill two birds with one stone and invite them to an event we’re throwing.

“People love interactive experiences ... show, flair, personalization. Anything interactive makes more money. Coffee is another profit center. You can easily do espresso and flavored coffees for 500 people. Regular coffee goes for $72 a gallon; espresso sells for $5 a cup.

“Mostly, they want to not only ‘know’ but ‘feel’ they are in good hands. They want to know you will make them feel good. And it works. We only lose about 1 percent of potential business, and that is usually a size issue ... or a hurricane,” Zeif says.

CROWN JEWEL
Nancy Sergio is director of conference & catering services at the legendary Boca Raton Resort & Club, currently considered the crown jewel of the LXR collection. Having been at the property for 28 years, she has a thorough perspective on banquet and catering trends.

Sergio has also been through renovations before, including the construction of the Mizner Center, a 128,000- square-foot conference and convention center built about seven years ago. The original property, built in 1926 by Addison Mizner, combines classical and eclectic motifs. Considered dark and Medieval by today’s standards, a major renovation is underway. Traces of its Old World ambience remain, but it’s much lighter and hipper—to reflect LXR’s signature style.

Boca Raton Resort & Club does about 600 meetings annually, assigned about a year out. “We have one of the most effective means of upselling a meeting,” she says. “We use one person in a unique position, a catering & convention service manager, who liaisons between group sales and convention services.

“This position has existed for five years,” says Sergio. “Not widely used in the industry, I traded a convention manager for it.

“Previously, there wasn't anyone who could step in early enough to take care of the lady 18 months down the road. Someone has to get to the client to tell them about—and sell—the services we offer.

“We own and operate AV and decor companies ... we offer a children’s program. Someone has to get in early to organize this. People get frustrated when they don’t get called back. So, we chase the client, rather than the client chasing us,” Sergio says.

In the past, using the American Plan, the week typically consisted of opening night at the pool, a beach party, a restaurant evening, and a final-night gala. “Some version of a shrimp cocktail and prime rib entrée were always served at the gala. Gradually, over the years, banquet and catering started exceeding the restaurant experience,” Sergio says.

Sergio concurs that the interactive trend combining food & beverage, decor, and entertainment is huge. “Any time you can involve attendees, it’s more successful. The cocktail and after parties are what people really enjoy. But upselling can be done at any given point. If a customer wants a plated event, that’s what we need to do,” Sergio says.

She relates a story about a customer who had been coming there for 20 years. At the last site visit, he looked at the standard printed menu and saw the price was quite different from the customized menus he had been using. This time, he went for the former, and after the second day of tastings said, “now I understand.”

Differences include extra staffing (up 20 to 25 percent for customized menus), more elaborate presentation (the biggest thing), and food prep. “But there is nothing wrong with the printed menu, says Sergio, “and 50 percent use [the printed menu], and 50 percent use custom.”

What makes customization more appealing is people don’t have time to read all of the verbiage or do the planning. As the demand for quality and attention to detail has grown, the time available has decreased,” Sergio says. “We can accomplish so much more in less time.

“Most clients want to negotiate, and we work with them to get the best perceived value. A customer may think they’ll save by eliminating, for example, the seafood salad. We explain that it just causes the attendee to eat more of something else. And we discourage them from eliminating a coffee break. But the dinner menu is where they try to cut maybe 10 percent, not breakfast or lunch, which are lower-ticket items.

“For the beverage menu, we offer ‘premium’ and ‘deluxe.’ They almost always go for the lower ‘premium,’ believing people can’t tell the difference in wine after the second glass and that it’s more impressive to spend the extra money on food than a $75 bottle of wine,” Sergio says.

“Receptions are very important, and longer ones are often used now in place of a sit-down dinner. If you invite people from 7P.M. to 10P.M., they expect to be fed, and you can’t offer just six canapes. If they are invited from 7P.M. to 7:45P.M., they expect to go somewhere else to eat. The longer reception is an excellent upselling opportunity, especially with an interactive element.

“There will always be sit-down dinners, for awards presentations at least. But people are more selfish about their time—half leave before the last night—so the sitdown is sometimes moved to the middle of the week,” Sergio says.

More than anything now, people are looking for the element of surprise, something different. A lucrative two-day meeting for 40 was recently held at their bar, Luna, from 8A.M. to noon. A bartender was there to make Bloody Marys and other drinks, and breakfast was served. The cost: $5,000 a day for the room alone, and that did not include food & beverage and the bartender. ”We would have made money, but not nearly as much, in a standard meeting room,” Sergio says.

Gale Martin, director of meeting services & catering at the Buena Vista Palace, where she has been for 23 years, is extremely enthusiastic about a new social space being created on the 27th floor of the property, which in LXR style, is undergoing a $40 million renovation. “It will be named something to do with ’22’”, says Martin, and will offer 9,000-square-feet of additional meeting space to the property—meeting space that overlooks Walt Disney World.

Planners are focusing more on the opening night reception,” says Martin.” That sets the tone and quality of the entire convention, so it can’t be ‘standard.’” She recalls the popular “Harleys & Handbags” reception, where the guys get tattoos, a sports bar is set up, and the ladies create their own handbags. Another good example is the Caribbeanthemed Captain Jack Sparrow party.

“And what’s old is new again,” says Martin. “Ice sculptures are popular again ... lighting can be wireless and much easier to create special effects with. The ceiling is an easy upsell, with scaffolding, for example.

“You don’t just give them what they want, but lay out an additional three or four things that will get them excited,” Martin says.

The most important thing: “Clients will expand their budgets if they have the opportunity to see, smell, and taste it,” Martin says.

NO TEMPLATES
Shai Zelering, area director of food & beverage for the Ft. Lauderdale collection also was not a hotel man before Doug hired him. His experience was with Price Waterhouse, an independent group of restaurants, and offsite catering. “Doug Zeif saw my production at the South Beach Food & Wine Festival and hired me,” Zelering says.

“The biggest difference [with hotels] is that, because of their natural structure, catering managers tend to work in templates. We are about customizing, breaking out of boundaries.” Guests, he says, don’t always know what they want. “So we have a conversation to help them envision what they want, show them that, and then take it up a notch,” says Zelering. “And we give them choices. LXR does that very well.”

One group came in with an Asian theme in mind. Typically, that would mean a sushi bar, sake bar, and Asian decor. Instead, “we gave them a Chinese à la carte menu, Japanese drummers, geishas, and an Asian fire juggler. And we offered sake martinis and an extensive green tea selection. Many might have stopped with the food. But LXR incorporates sound, smell, and feel into their banquet and catering productions.”

Zelering says getting a customer to go for your concepts is a function of three things: how they like your idea, how it ties to their visit, and how much more it will cost.

“And usually,” he says, “they increase their budget 25 to 30 percent.”

NO LIMITS
There’s not a location LXR won’t consider for holding an event—a swimming pool, parking lot, marina dock, garden, or rooftop,” says Zelering. “Because of my offsite catering background, I’m comfortable with that.”

He believes hotel limitations are a mindset. There are no logistical or mechanical limitations. “It’s much easier to produce an event with water and electricity ... hotels offer real peace of mind,” says Zelering. “The appeal of offsite catering is the desire to use exotic locations, but hotels are working on that, such as the tropical gardens at Bahia Mar Beach Resort and the ocean and city views from Pier 66.

“In a hotel you never have to see a generator, tent, or floor. Rather than spend $25,000 to $30,000 on a tent, customers can spend half that on entertainment. My life becomes easier,” Zelering says.

And one of the major banquet and catering trends driving up prices, he says, is rising beverage expectations. Full bar set-ups are rare. But hosts want a martini, whether it’s for 600 or 2,000 people.

The vodka bar is popular. Offering 10 flavors, such as pear, mandarin, or peach mixed with vodka, it’s expensive, costing $30 to $45 per person for one to three hours.

Mojito Bars, where you make your own with 10 Cane Rum mixed with kiwi, berries, or watermelon, are popular for the 5P.M. break. And bartenders give instructions.

Typically, hotels charge $15 to $20 per person for a bar. With these specialty bars, you basically double the charge. “But the value is there.basically double the charge. “But the value is there. It’s not just about money,” Zelering says.

Politically incorrect, creative, lacking constraints or boundaries, and very focused on excellence is how most LXR stars describe themselves. Relaxed luxury is what they create. “And what used to be measured by the number of servers or glasses on a table is now defined by the experience you share,” says Shai Zelering. “Multiple elements are involved in making an event an ‘experience.’ It involves more than just being absorbed. People are buying a vibe.”

After working in the restaurant business for so many years, Doug Zeif says his goal was to get into the hotel industry. “They have to be the smartest people in the world,” he says. “They must be experts at marketing, sales, rooms ... food & beverage. I occasionally get calls for CEO jobs at restaurant companies. But never again.”

MEET THE CHEFS

Chef Jeffrey Vigilla
Jeffrey Vigilla, area executive chef, based at Naples Grande Resort & Club, Naples, came to LXR from Ritz-Carlton, where he was for 15 years. Born in Hawaii, he grew up on a farm with seven siblings, several of whom are in the hospitality industry.

“At Ritz-Carlton, I found myself drifting away ... I needed to be where I can better express my personal philosophy, which has to do with ‘crossing the line.’ LXR is all about that.

“In a hotel, we must reach out ...that’s what I teach my managers. I say, ‘if you meet someone in the lobby, buy them a drink or an appetizer. It breaks the paradigm.’ I tell the hostess to step out from the back of the podium. I encourage servers to offer a cup of coffee or dessert to the single diner.

“That philosophy spills into the banquet and catering arena, where my mission is to offer restaurantquality food and very personal service. And you need eye candy everywhere in the room ...

“I’m not a fan of wrinkled tablecloths and glasses wrapped in napkins or huge platters stuffed with food that stays until it is empty. And I’m not a fan of straight-lined buffets.

“Today’s banquet room might be filled with action stations and different types of grills such as the Evo grill for Mongolian barbeque, hibachi, Big John for mesquite. Sometimes I use one type, sometimes all—for steak, leg of lamb, cowboy chops, suckling pig, etc. With banquets, you must be versatile ... and understand authenticity. My Asian banquets mix several Asian cultures, including Balinese and South Korean. I also do a lot of tapas, Spanish, seafood, and Asian fusion. Home cooking or ‘retro’ food is big too.

“Upselling is about relationships. And I look at the chef’s table as an opportunity. I have a glass of wine, ask questions, offer advice ... I’m not afraid to say ‘I can’t do that.’

“[To upsell] I might suggest a dessert buffet such as an all-strawberry or all-citrus. Instead of $6–$10 for a plated dessert, we charge $25 for the buffet. Instead of passed hors d’oeuvres for $3–$5, I suggest an action station for $12–$15.

“As for sit-down dinners, we live in a world where people like combos. I try to stay away from combos on a plate and add a course. Instead of an extra $5 for something on a plate, we can add a lobster course for $15.

“I don’t want to overkill or push too hard. But the beginning and end are good places to upsell.

good places to upsell. “The LXR philosophy is that F&B is not an amenity, but a focal point ... and there is no box to think out of,” says Chef Vigilla—MRC


Chef Peter Gamble
Peter Gamble, executive chef at the Buena Vista Palace and area chef for Central Florida, has been at the Palace for 13 years. Before that he was executive chef at the New York Hilton and Adolphus in Dallas. A CIA graduate, he has also worked as a chef at casinos and at age 12 worked for a caterer to earn extra spending money.

“You must be born with the instinct ...”

“Since Doug Zeif came to LXR, food & beverage has become the company’s main focus, with an emphasis on quality and presentation. Plus, you have the freedom to be creative,” says Chef Peter. “He wants us to sell it—and charge for it.

“For buffets, the food does the talking, with everything on small plates, fresh, and clean. For example, the old-style cheese platter was half gone by the time guests got to the buffet. Today’s biggest platter is probably 15 to 18 inches, and a runner keeps it constantly fresh. Guests love it.

“Progressive dining and action stations are big, especially for the (important) first night. I might suggest a Foam Bar offering short ribs and blue cheese; lobster with basil; or dessert foams, including strawberries and lemon meringue. Panini Press and Martini Madness stations are popular. The most expensive is the chilled Seafood station with shrimp, crab, stone crab, clams, and mussels. Carving stations might include elk with wild rice pancakes. Everyone is very interested in food and wants something unique, such as the elk or buffalo tenderloins.

“And everyone wants to meet the chef. Twenty years ago, you might meet a client once or twice a year. Now, I meet with Gale Martin (director of meeting services & catering) two months out and get in on the conference call. It’s easier to upsell because people won’t argue with the chef.

“It's my responsibility to overexceed,” says Chef Gamble.—MRC

Visit www.hfbexecutive.com for more LXR banquet and catering images and excerpts from their banquet guide.