Disney's world of resorts sports custom foodservice

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 23, 1992 by Ron Ruggless

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - The same imagination and creativity that go into, say, an animated film like "Beauty and the Beast" apply to foodservice at Walt Disney World's hotels and resorts, Florida's own Fantasy Island of 14 properties with more than 11,500 rooms.

The resort foodservice spans more than 100 operations, from the award-winning fine-dining restaurant Victoria & Albert's to lakeside quick-snack kiosks. Per-person checks can range from a few dollars at the inventively themed food court at the Dixie Landings Resort to more than $80 at a premier restaurant in the Grand Floridian Resort.

In between are convention facilities that can accommodate as many as 3,600 people, dinner shows such as the 327-seat Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue with three seatings nightly and hotel "character breakfast" buffets, where children can be turned on and 'tooned in to Mickey, Minnie and their animated cohorts.

"In a small geographic area, we have hotels with different guests with different needs and with different desires," says Scott Lillie, Disney World's director of resort foodservice. "We have tailored the foodservice to those individual hotels." And they are individual, indeed. The accommodations range from the rustic campgrounds at Disney World's Fort Wilderness Resort, with its backwoods, lower-priced Crockett's Tavern, to the suites of the Grand Floridian Resort, where celebrities dine in posh luxury.

To appeal to the varied guests at each of the properties, Lillie says, Disney World taps into what he calls "food energy."

"Every one of our restaurants that we are developing has got to have some segment that creates food energy," he says. "It's above and beyond what the physical layout of the facility is. It's an icon of some sort, whether it's a display kitchen or whether it's a bakery that's on stage or whether it's a huge meat locker. So when we're developing each one of our restaurants, we try to keep that in mind: What is the icon? What is the |food energy' portion of this restaurant?"

Like the Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center and Disney-MGM Studios theme parks they serve, the resorts have their themes and missions carefully drawn.

"Our hotels span a very large spectrum, and most of our hotels are a thousand-plus rooms, from the Grand Floridian, which was a recent recipient of the Robb Report's Outstanding Hotel in the country last year, to a moderately priced property that does an $89 room rate," Lillie says.

"We build the hotels with a definitive theme for both the rooms and the environment they are in - whether it is a Dixie Landings, Port Orleans, Grand Floridian or Polynesian," Lillie says, explaining that restaurant concepts are tailored to the hotels through a process in which Disney officials evaluate "the [guest] market segment that's going to be in the hotel, and we say , |OK, this is the restaurant that's going to hit that market segment."

Emphasizing service, innovative food efficiency, Disney resort foodservice is a big world after all.

|You never get a second chance'

"We believe you never get a second chance to wow a guest," says Barry Jacobson, food and beverage manager at the Grand Floridian Beach Resort.

The premium hotel takes the philosophy of pampering and coddling guests to heart, with the resort's executive chef, Robert Notre, summing it up in three words: "Service, service, service."

For example, when a cancer patient recently visited the property with his family, the hotel staff went to great lengths to accommodate his special macrobiotic diet.

"The family called ahead to make sure we could prepare the macrobiotic meals," Notre says, "but we took it a step further. We called his doctor, talked with the family and did some research. The family brought some special rices and grains, but we went out to find other foods that would fit into his diet."

Information in hand, the staff was well-prepared for the special diet.

"We didn't want to make it an ordeal," Notre adds. "So, when the family wanted to dine, they would call the concierge and tell them which restaurant they were planning to go to. We'd have the special macrobiotic meal ready for the guest, and the rest of the family could order off the menu."

The staff - or "cast members," as they are called at Disney - are expected to perform such feats.

"It is the training and nurturing of those hourly cast members that is paramount to us," Lillie says. "We spend most of our time making sure those hourly cast members are trained and empowered, that they are able to deliver to our guests."

To keep the level of service consistent, Lillie says, "we routinely videotape all the training classes we do for the staff so that when the third generation of employees comes in, we are able to convey that same meaning of what the hotel is to them."

When Middle Americans venture to the Disney theme parks, they expect to see the world. The resort division anticipates showing them new worlds, too.

"We try to create in each one of these environments an entrepreneurial hotel," Lillie says. "When you're all in this same area with the same company directing you, it can be very easy to be cookie cutters and all be the same.