by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
It’s said that an army marches on its stomach. The same could be said for conventioneers, business travelers and tourists.
One person who knows all about that is Connie Paulikas, who is just completing her first week as the new Executive Assistant Manager, Food & Beverage at the Hyatt.
Paulikas has worked in the hotel industry since 1986, when she got her first job working at the front desk at the Hyatt Regency in Lincolnwood, Ill. When the property was to be converted to another brand, Paulikas was offered the chance to go to a different hotel and learn another aspect of the operation. She packed up and moved to the Hyatt Regency Downtown Chicago and reported to work in the food & beverage department.
“At that point, I didn’t know what a fish fork was. I learned everything on the job,” she recalled.
Her education about the art and science of wine also began in Chicago with the hotel’s master sommelier who, Paulikas said, “Told me to go to the grocery store and buy every kind of fruit and vegetable and become familiar with the flavor and aroma so I could identify each one in the wine.”
Between then and now, Paulikas has learned every aspect of everything guests eat and drink. She supervises purchasing, inventory and menus as well as how it is presented to guests in the restaurants, in their rooms or in the meeting rooms. For Paulikas, it’s a job where there is rarely if ever a dull moment.
“I absolutely thrive on it,” she said. “There’s nothing mundane about it and the best part is when we know we have exceeded a guest’s expectations.”
In addition to the hotel’s lobby restaurant, Paulikas is also responsible for two lounges, room service and catering.
“We have 966 rooms and 115,000 square feet of meeting space. We serve food and beverages somewhere in the hotel from 6 a.m. to midnight every day,” she said, then added in order to do all that close to a third of the hotel’s 600-person staff works in the food and beverage department.
While some decisions concerning what’s on the menu at each hotel are made on the corporate level, each food and beverage manager has discretion to create unique menus based on location and the preferences of the guests that patronize the hotel.
“Corporate has a set of directives but we get to do a lot of creation on our own,” said Paulikas. “Before I came to Jacksonville I was at the Hyatt Regency in Austin (Texas). The entire menu there was Tex-Mex. I’m looking forward to discovering what the guests of this property prefer and what ingredients are available locally.”
She said the biggest thing that has changed during her career in food and beverage is the evolution of people’s tastes and the influence of food and wine in their lives.
“When I got into the business, there was only Julia Child cooking on television,” she said. “There was no Emeril, much less a Food Network or reality TV shows based around a restaurant. Food and wine have evolved so much and I enjoy the challenge of keeping up with the industry.”