by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
If you’re the director of food & beverage or the executive chef at a fine hotel that caters to business travelers, conventioneers, tourists and locals alike, one thing that is perpetually on your “to do” list is keeping the restaurant’s menu fresh and exciting.
Many business travelers stay at the same hotel every time they’re in a particular city and the local cuisine is almost always part of an out-of-town vacation. Add to that the resident market that likes to have options when it comes to an evening out and having a top-notch bill of fare that always includes something new can be a challenge.
That’s especially true when you work in the only AAA Four-Diamond hotel Downtown, said Todd Rodemyer, director of food & beverage at the Omni Jacksonville Hotel.
“Aside from the room and service amenities, we want to give our guests the Four-Diamond experience across the board and that includes the option of staying in the hotel and eating in our restaurant,” said Rodemyer.
Juliette’s Bistro in the hotel’s lobby recently had a change in menu that debuted a new focus on local seafood. Rodemyer and Executive Chef Rick Eplawy created a selection of the freshest-possible ingredients presented in a way that allows the diner to essentially custom-design a fresh seafood entree with more than 100 unique combinations.
“There are seven or more choices of fresh fish each day plus four cooking methods and five different sauces,” said Eplawy. “And then you choose your side dishes. We wanted to create a situation where someone could dine here dozens of times and never have the same thing twice.”
The chef has his own “fishmonger” and the two talk on the phone each morning so Eplawy knows what will be available from dozens of commercial fishermen that meet the Omni’s standards. Each fish and pound of shrimp is hand-selected and delivered to the hotel each day, where it is prepared.
“We know we can have a steady supply of some items like tuna and Mahi-Mahi but ‘fresh catch’ is exactly what it says,” he said. “Having someone on the docks who knows what meets our standards is the key to consistently serving the highest-quality product.”
Rodemyer said the Omni’s menu will change at least twice a year because, “one thing about this business is people’s tastes change and thanks to things like the Food Network and even reality TV shows based on the restaurant business, their understanding of cuisine changes faster all the time.”
Last summer, Eplawy was on the Omni’s corporate team of food and beverage professionals that traveled to Argentina for a tour of the country’s most interesting food and wine destinations. He brought back the knowledge and expertise to help create a special new menu of South American-style barbecue that was offered at Omni Hotels nationwide.
This summer, Eplawy and 17 of his fellow Omni executive chefs and food and beverage executives will pack their bags for another international culinary excursion that will result in a new menu. This time they’re headed for France so perhaps this fall’s new menu will be full of fois gras and flambe. Perhaps not.
Eplawy said considering the popularity of the Omni Jacksonville’s fresh catch selections, “I’m going to lobby for seafood.”