Four Seasons’ Philipp Blaser on Why Hotel Bars Are the New Cool
You may not know his name, but Philipp Blaser is the man behind a bar or restaurant at which you’ve probably spent quite a bit of time. As Global Senior Vice President of Food & Beverage for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Blaser is in charge of over 600 bars and restaurants across 130 hotel properties scattered around the planet.
What does the head of one of the world’s most luxurious brands think about the state of the “hotel bar” as we know it? Blaser and I met in person in New Orleans at Tales of the Cocktail – where Virtu from Four Seasons Tokyo and BKK Social Club from Four Seasons Bangkok were pouring their favorite drinks as part of a guest bartender showcase. (Wagyu-washed rye whiskey, anyone?) We later spoke a second time from Blaser’s base in Miami, from which this interview has been drawn.
Drinkhacker: So to continue our discussion from New Orleans, we were talking about how hotel bars have this reputation for not being the cool place to hang out, which is something you’ve been working to change.
Blaser: So it ties into our restaurant and bar strategy. We did a full reset in terms of what Four Seasons is doing for restaurants and bars about six years ago, and we aligned around a vision that our restaurants and bars are the heartbeat of the hotel and the gateway to the Four Seasons experience. With that vision, obviously we developed goals and philosophies and areas we needed to get better with, and one of the things was really to have more relevant restaurants and bars in the communities we operate in.
If you look at our guest mix (taking out the hotels that are in secluded locations where it’s a captive market), in urban locations or locations where there’s community around, we’re at approximately 70% local guests for our bars versus 30% in-house guests. Really we want to become iconic bars that just so happen to be in hotels and not “hotel bars.”
Drinkhacker: Some of the most famous bars in the world are in hotels. The Long Bar at Raffles. The American Bar at the Savoy. The New York Bar at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. These bars have a lot of staying power. Why is that?
Blaser: There’s a romantic component to hotel bars. There’s a bit of glamor involved. It’s not your run-of-the-mill sports bar or dive bar. It’s can be an elegant experience without a three-star Michelin price tag. You get the service, you get high quality spirits, you get the creative, end-product itself. And it’s usually quite entertaining just people watching or if there’s an entertainment program. I think it’s a medley of everything.
Drinkhacker: You said you did a global reset six years ago. What did that include?
Blaser: Something we spend a lot of time on is that we are not going to take what works in New York and try to plug it into new cities. We take a very strategic approach before we go into market. We do extensive market research, speak with local opinion leaders in terms of the food and beverage scene, learn what resonates, work with our ownership groups, find the gaps in the market, and then put something together. Then we hire and align with the right talent on the concept and then allow them the freedom to do it.
Drinkhacker: What are some of the bars in your stable that you’re most excited about?
Blaser: Well, it’s very difficult. It’s like picking a favorite child.
Drinkhacker: I have to put you on the spot then.
Blaser: Look, we’ve had a really exciting last couple of years where we’ve been able to sort of stretch the envelope a little bit. If you think about BKK Social, which you experienced – we did an Argentinian social club in Bangkok, Thailand. I mean, that’s kind of out there. Argo in Hong Kong was the future of drinking. It was based around Greek mythology and the Argonauts searching for the golden fleece. What do you bring into a market like Hong Kong, which has seen nearly everything already? Virtu in Tokyo revolves around the nine virtues of Buddha, and it’s our interpretation of those virtues into cocktails.
Drinkhacker: We talked a little about making use of unused space in hotels for bars and restaurants. Tell me a little bit more about what that looks like.
Blaser: For us, we’re always exploring because the one thing we have in hotels is space. There are underutilized or idle spaces that we are always looking at activating, maybe with a pop-up restaurant or a pop-up bar. How do we create more intrigue around attracting guests to our hotel? And even if you’re a regular local guest, how do we create something that draws you back in? We did an Indian dining pop-up in our Whistler property in the pre-function space of the ballroom. In Hampshire, we built basically Swiss chalet huts around an outdoor space and had fondue. We did something similar in Minnesota as well, where the pool and outdoor space were not being used during wintertime. We converted a suite in Chicago into a speakeasy called the Mile High Club.
Drinkhacker: One last question. What’s your favorite cocktail?
Blaser: For me, it’s definitely a Negroni. Or an Americano, depending on how strong I want it.
Sorry but Ian Schrager, Brian McNally made hotel bars cool a long time ago. Even before Randy Gerber with his Whisky Bar at Paramount.