Covid rules force hotels to think outside the restaurant

With indoor dining restricted or highly limited in many markets, hotel restaurants have had to get creative with their use of space during the pandemic, bringing culinary experiences into guestrooms, outdoors and even to local homes. 

At the Oxford Hotel in Denver, guests can opt to enjoy a “steakcation” package, which comprises an overnight stay and a private dinner from the hotel’s Urban Farmer Steakhouse restaurant, served in a second guestroom. Rates for the package start at $129 a night, with guests required to spend a minimum of $200 with the Urban Farmer to reserve the guestroom dining area.

A meal-only version of the steakcation is also available, with diners able to reserve just the private dining guestroom with the minimum $200 food spend.

Depending on a diner’s comfort level, food can be delivered to the room without contact or guests can choose to have a server, who wears a mask throughout the experience. 

“We were trying to come up with ways to make sure guests feel safe, but still have a great time,” said Susan Wieser, corporate director of food and beverage operations for Urban Farmer Steakhouse parent group Sage Restaurant Concepts. “The low occupancy at the hotel gave us a little extra space to work with. Everyone’s doing takeout, but we wanted to do something that feels a little more like an experience.”

Ahead of the steakcation’s summer debut, guestroom furniture was replaced with dining sets and decorative elements in the rooms that would seat diners.

“It’s a true dining room, not a hotel bedroom that’s been thrown together to look like a dining room,” Wieser said. 

At the NoMad New York in Manhattan, where dining restrictions have been especially strict, the hotel’s food and beverage team had to pivot, then pivot again, with their NoMad Feast. 

Originally launched as a private guestroom dining experience, a suspension of all indoor dining activity in New York over the winter forced the NoMad to pause the program. Since then, NoMad Feast has been reborn as a guest-only room service option as well as a private dining experience for groups of two to 10 people that can be brought into the home, complete with private chef and server.

The NoMad Feast showcases NoMad’s signature Chicken Dinner concept, featuring a chicken main dish along with seasonal vegetables, oysters, caviar options and a maple tart with cider ice cream. Prices start at $195 per person, with add-on wine pairings ranging from $95 to $250 per person.

“It’s been very fun for us to create this menu, which is intended to give guests an intimate experience to nourish the soul,” said Michael Reilly, executive chef for the NoMad. “So far, it’s been a hit.”

The NoMad is also making its fare accessible to locals with a new NoMad at Home delivery program, which uses the delivery app Caviar. The restaurant’s to-go cocktails have also proven popular, with 10 options, each made to order and bottled.

And for diners still craving a traditional dining room feel, the property is serving dinner and weekend brunch on its rooftop, which, despite remaining open to the elements, has been weatherproofed with a white-tent cover and heaters.

“As it gets colder, we have seen increased demand for the rooftop,” said Reilly. “I think word is getting out about how warm, yet still open-air, the space is.”