or a guest at a typical hotel pool, particularly one located in a resort area, the day’s agenda might go tan, swim, snooze, drink, eat, repeat. Hotels are accommodating the eating portion of relaxation mode with specially designed pool menus.

Cheeca Lodge and Spa in Islamorada, Florida, has two pools—one Olympic lap pool and an enormous family pool—as well as three football fields worth of beach front.

The important thing to consider when devising a pool menu, says T. J. Solan, Cheeca’s director of restaurants, is “ease of delivery and production. We don’t want to be sending steaks and soups and other stuff out poolside, so the kitchen tends to simplify.” With pools, it is possible to get a “tremendous hit” in orders. A restaurant has fixed seating, which means orders are more anticipated and the kitchen is accustomed to the ebb and flow. “In contrast,” says Solan, “with pools, you can potentially get inundated by orders, so they have to keep the menus more streamlined. Our menu is fast, snacky in its design, and it works really well.”

With all that outdoor terrain to cover and with landmarks like chaise lounges and towels constantly being rearranged, it can be a challenge to deliver orders. At Cheeca Lodge, reaching a guest at the far end of the beach can entail close to a 10-minute walk.

Therefore, Cheeca Lodge gravitates towards foods that hold and travel well. Some of their most popular items are blackened mahi or chicken breast paninis, made fresh to order. The sandwiches are accompanied by “island slaw,” made with julienned mango and papaya. “It’s very popular. Guests absolutely love it,” says Solan. Conch fritters and crabcakes also evoke the lodge’s Key West location. Burgers and other kids’ items are popular.

“Kids are almost inevitably always going to be eating out at the pool or the beach,” points out Solan. Adults gravitate to the chicken, shrimp, or steak caesar salad. Cheeca Lodge does well with thin crust pizza, and Solan just ordered a Wood Stone pizza oven, which will give the property the ability to cook a pizza in two-and-a-half minutes. “It’s the crème de la crème of pizza ovens. It gives you all of the qualities you get from an actual wood burning oven without the wood.”

The menu at the lap pool, located right next to the spa, emphasizes leaner, healthier selections like salads and smoothies.

Needless to say, cold drinks sell like hot cakes. Lastly, says Solan, everything is served in plastic to accommodate the outdoor environment.

Brian Hunnings, food & beverage director with the Hotel Hana-Maui, in Hana, Hawaii, says the resort has two pools plus the beach area a 10-minute drive via shuttle from the hotel. There is no cooking facility near the pools or the beach, so the challenge is keeping food warm in well-insulated hot boxes. Guests can pick any item from the menu of the Ka’uiki restaurant such as a kalua-style (ground roasted) pork sandwich served on Hawaiian sweet bread with roasted garlic aioli, caramelized onions, and spicy mango. Snack items like chips and cookies, fresh fruit, and ice cream are available at the pool and beach, and the hotel also does specialty picnic lunches.

The top sellers ordered at the pool, says Hunnings, are burgers made with Kobe beef and fresh grilled fish such as ahi or ono “that literally came out of the ocean that morning. People rave about our fish.”

The Delano Hotel, a 238-room oceanfront Art Deco property redesigned by Phillipe Starck and located in Miami’s South Beach, is famed for its show-stopping 30-by-150-foot “water salon.” The swimming pool, which graduates from one inch to five feet, has been described as an adult wading pool. An infinity edge, piped-in underwater music, and hedge of palm trees complete the scene.

Stephan Becht, executive chef of the Delano’s Blue Door restaurant, is responsible for the design of the pool menus. The most popular items are finger foods like wings, shrimp cocktail, and pita bread and hummus. Because of the heat, a lot of popular dishes are cold like fruit cup salad or tropical fruit fondue using white chocolate yogurt or cottage cheese as a dipping medium. Another refreshing item on a hot day is frozen grape salad.

The pool menu is far more casual than the Delano’s other dining venues and is designed with three main parts: starters and salads, wraps, and sandwiches. Lobster spring rolls, homemade chicken quesadillas, hamburgers, chicken fingers, crab salad, ceviche, and pizzas are the most-ordered items. Grilled cheese sandwiches are always on the menu. “If you don’t have grilled cheese sandwich on the menu, people ask for it,” Becht says.

Lunch items are served between 11 and 5 at the pool. After 5, the menu transitions to a Brazilian grill theme.

The Delano typically serves 400 to 600 people a day at the pool, so the volume is high for the small size of the pool’s kitchen, which also supplies the beachfront.

“Devising a menu for poolside entails accommodating a very different atmosphere. It is a high-paced environment … we get a lot of food orders at one time. It’s a challenge for us in the kitchen,” Becht says.

Beth Rogers is a frequent contributor to HOTEL F&B.