Brand new heavies

Chris Brown is a man with a mission. Or at least a mission statement. Hanging on the wall behind his desk is a framed illustration of his goal. It reads: "Radical restaurants".

Brown, Forte Hotels' managing director for restaurants and catering, was appointed by Granada last December to shake up the reputation of hotel dining with the UK's biggest hotel operator. Almost a year on, Brown's plans for radical restaurants are becoming realities.

The first and most high-profile deal, announced in August, was Forte's seven-hotel joint venture with Marco Pierre White (Caterer, 23 October, page 34). This project will introduce fine dining of the highest quality under the MPW brand name at seven of Forte's best-known properties.

But Brown's planned restaurant revolution goes much deeper than even the White deal.

Forte has agreed to franchise two well-known high-street brands as part of its strategy to turn hotel dining on its head. In a deal with City Centre Restaurants, Forte will open a Garfunkels restaurant franchise at the Brentwood Posthouse at the end of this month. Garfunkels will replace the existing Traders outlet, increasing the covers from 100 to 150, and will be the main hotel restaurant, serving everything from breakfast, through lunch and afternoon tea, to dinner. The unit will also have a separate high-street entrance.

Day-long service

James Naylor, chief executive of City Centre Restaurants, has high hopes of the deal and says he believes Garfunkels is one of the few branded restaurant concepts in the country that can provide day-long service for hotel guests. "If the Brentwood pilot proves successful we will be looking to open a number of restaurants with Granada," says Naylor. "Naturally, they would be looking for some exclusivity."

In another deal Forte is to open a Mongolian Barbeque franchise at the High Wycombe Posthouse at the beginning of this month. The 11th Mongolian Barbeque in the UK, the restaurant will open alongside the current restaurant, offering an alternative venue for evening meals. A national roll-out is possible if the pilot performs well.

Finally, Brown has also agreed to lease a restaurant at Le Méridien Gatwick to expanding restaurant group Oriental Restaurants. This 80-seat restaurant will serve Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Malaysian food from 1 November. Oriental is to pay a turnover-based rent to Forte.

Richard Miller, operations director at Oriental Restaurants, says the partnership could provide more opportunities for expansion, although it is not as yet an exclusive relationship. "They have some wonderful locations and we have a good formula," says Miller. "I think it will be a happy marriage, especially since finding good locations is getting harder in many areas."

Buying in value

Each deal Brown has orchestrated, including the Marco Pierre White joint venture, is characterised by one factor - Brown is buying in brand value.

"One of the key ways forward is to bring brands into the business, whether internal or external brands," says Brown. "Hotel companies have been left behind by the independent sector, which is focused and passionate." And brands, believes Brown, are the only way for hotels to recapture a reputation for dining.

While the restaurant industry has shown huge growth in the past two years and eating out is expected to continue to surge, traditional hotel dining has suffered. Once great and noteworthy eating places - for a long time the successful face of restaurants in this country - hotels have fallen from favour. Customers have forsaken starched white tablecloths, stern service and the maître d's lectern for casual dining in a relaxed atmosphere.

If hoteliers are to make food and beverage operations pay they have to think seriously about the product they are offering, says Brown.

"My goal is to get full restaurants," he says. "When Marco opened at the Oak Room, we were immediately fully booked for lunch and dinner. Other hotel operators are talking about changing the processes, but they're not addressing top-line sales. They won't succeed until they attract customers."

Another key ingredient Brown is searching for in his prospective partners is passion. "There is no greater man of passion than Marco," says Brown, but he has also found a passion for food among Forte's own staff.

Robin Sheppard, regional general manager of the Bath Spa hotel, who developed its Al Fresco brasserie concept, is such a man, says Brown, although he will not say whether Al Fresco is to be developed outside the Bath Spa.

"We are encouraging internal brand champions, but you can't expect every hotel operator to have a passion for successful brands," Brown explains. One internally developed brand set for roll-out is Café Express, a coffee lounge concept that has opened in three hotels - the Reading Posthouse, the Cumberland and Heathrow Forte Crest - since September.

The Café Express menu offers a newly developed range of light meals, such as chargrilled chicken breast, crispy bacon, pan-fried field mushrooms, dressed salad leaves and grilled potato farl (£6.25), seafood gnocchi served with garlic bread (£6.45) and tomato and basil soup with crusty bread (£2.15). Sandwiches, cakes and pastries are also served throughout the day, accompanied by a full range of coffees and teas.

Brown's strategy across the whole company is to get his product more in tune with modern restaurant trends. However, brands such as Mongolian Barbeque will not find their way into traditional Heritage or Méridien properties. There, the plan is to put the onus back on food.

Fewer barriers

Simply Good Food is an internally developed brand introduced at the Castle Hotel in Windsor. A £10 lunch offer of modern British dishes has resulted in a 100% improvement on covers. The same tactic has been tried at the Chaucer Hotel, Canterbury, where a less complex wine list and menu have been designed to reduce the number of barriers to people entering hotels to dine.

However, where there are strong locations in Forte's estate to capitalise on, brands or joint ventures with big-name chefs are becoming the modus operandi of the UK's largest hotelier. One such deal is the opening of Raymond Blanc's Le Petit Blanc restaurant at the Queen's Hotel in Cheltenham, finally confirmed after months of rumours. Having acquired the necessary planning permission, the project is due to open in February.

"This is a set of principles to achieve our goal of turning hotel dining rooms into busier, more attractive restaurants," says Brown. "Radical restaurants" is the target he has set himself, but Brown is all too aware that he still relies heavily on good chefs and good managers to achieve it. "This is not an overnight revolution," says Brown.