A*List Dining
Author: Donna Peck
August 2006
Food + Beverage
Corporate high performers are becoming harder to dazzle.
That’s partly because incentive planners are so successful in staging wonderful events. After an all-out effort, an incentive planner is often challenged to conjure up ever more impressive rewards. Employees and clients expect to be impressed, and that requires considerable finesse.Dining incentives may be the most difficult experiences to tweak. If you want your individual and group incentives to be the hot topic around the office, keep in mind that unexpected drama gives people something to talk about. Something employees can’t do themselves is also an important element. For example, take clients to Rancho Santa Fe, north of San Diego, says Madelyn Marusa, Southern California chapter president of the Society of Incentive and Travel Executives (SITE). Then, “dine in a legendary hacienda with the best cocktail conversation: the eight Lamborghini sports cars in the garage.”
Another way to stir excitement into high-end dining incentives is with an infusion of star power. Hobnobbing with a famous horse trainer or grilling with Emeril appeals to executives who have “been there, done that.” Put Emeril or Wolfgang Puck in the kitchen and give guests one-on-one access. High-performers love to be around people who are the best at what they do. “You can avail yourself of celebrity chefs with some notice,” Marusa says.
Drama, privilege and prestige work synergistically in the following suggestions.
DINE IN A*LIST LOCATIONS
Start with an impressive space and it already feels like a reward, say corporate incentive planners. “The Midway is topping the charts for all venues,” says Marusa, referring to the USS Midway, San Diego’s Aircraft Carrier Museum, which can be reserved for after-hour events. It has two hangar bays, an enormous flight deck and 360-degree views of downtown and the bay.
For smaller-scale revelries, Palm Springs rolls out its stars’ homes as high-end rentals. A local real estate agency has procured the Jack Benny estate, several of Elvis’ homes and Bob Hope’s home. “Ownership has [changed] but the homes are somewhat kept in that Rat Pack period,” says Bob Carey, president of PRA Destination Management in Palm Springs, adding that these homes are easy to rent because they are generally empty except in winter. Rentals usually include high-end caterers, European table linens, china and crystal and spectacular poolside dining.
San Francisco’s architectural gems are astonishing from the sidewalk. But while others ogle from the outside, your clients walk through the front door of a fully restored 1895 Pacific Heights mansion to the formal dining room set for dinner. This tony Pacific Avenue residence is available through Mint Locations, which has 25 private homes available for $5,000 to $20,000 a day. “We have winery estates, oceanfront homes, and are only limited by capacity,” says Cindi Osborn, co-founder of Mint Locations. She recently added a Napa Valley castle to the collection and enumerates the add-ons: “helicopter arrival, $100 bottles of cabernet, a private chef 24/7, full run of the house, a nanny for the children, limousine service to tour select wineries and on-site concierge,” she says.
DINE WITH A*LIST PERSONALITIES
In the Santa Barbara wine country, your clients can dine with horse trainer Monty Roberts at his 150-acre ranch. Subject of the best-seller, The Man Who Listens to Horses, Roberts and his wife Pat have 300 thoroughbreds at Flag Is Up Farms. A local chef and local winemaker are called in, and dinner is served on the terrace of Roberts’ home, or in his library. After dinner, Roberts will demonstrate how he calms horses, a skill that even Queen Elizabeth has witnessed.
In San Francisco at One Market Restaurant, Mark Dommen’s kitchen is to dining what Broadway is to theater. Get box seats for the nightly theatrics by buying gift certificates for the chef’s table, a black-and-red booth built in the kitchen. Dommen trained at Alain Ducasse’s Louis XV in Monte Carlo. Your clients can don chef jackets and join Mark on the line, or Patti Dellamonica-Bauler in the pastry kitchen, where they can torch the creme brûlée and whisk crème anglais. Wine manager Steve Isso lets guests pick special wine from his 400-bottle collection, which is renowned for American pinot noir and Rhone varietals. “We put people right in the action,” says Michael Dellar, co-founder of the Lark Creek Restaurant Group. “It’s the perfect reward for your best people.”
No one surpasses Thomas Keller when it comes to culinary glamour, nor can they match his collection of awards and accolades. Arranging a dinner as an individual incentive at The French Laundry used to be impossible. The magic number that opens the door to the world’s finest dining experience is 877-334-6464. That’s the Relais & Châteaux number to call to order culinary gift certificates. Your client uses the same number to make reservations. Très simple. The gift certificates arrive with a Relais & Châteaux Directory in a gold-ribboned, engraved box.
DINE AND TAKE A*LIST TRANSPORT
After an eye-popping aerial tour of the San Juan Islands, Seattle Seaplanes flies guests to a world-class dining experience at Orcas Island’s Rosario Resort. The pilot stands by, as this is a private charter. Your clients have the plane at their disposal; on the way back they can fly around Seattle and over Bill Gates’ estate. Jim Chrysler, the owner, also flies guests to Victoria, B.C. and docks at the waterfront promenade. Victoria is a gourmet mecca where local bistros serve wild coho salmon from Juan de Fuca Strait and produce from Saanich Peninsula’s organic farms. Tell guests to stop by the Empress Hotel’s Bengal Lounge for a parting cocktail.
Vancouver’s West Coast Air also takes guests on float plane tours with a gourmet focus. They combine a scenic flight of the Southern Gulf Islands with wine tasting on Saturna Island, a hidden jewel that offers varietal wine tasting. The tour also includes a souvenir bottle of wine.
In Palm Springs, your clients head out under the blue sky on a high-desert romp in a Hummer. San Andreas fault runs through Metate Canyon Ranch, an exclusive 1,000-acre desert preserve, with the largest and most dramatic earthquake zone in the country. Guests ride along the fault line, then out into the uncharted wilderness to an elaborate picnic that may include slow-cooked barbecue ribs. Afterward, they ride through the desert canyons in the moonlight. “This evening creates life-long memories,” says PRA’s Carey, who arranges the tour.
If your employees or clients read Field & Stream and Gourmet, check them into Talon Lodge in Sitka, Alaska. This luxury fishing lodge is hosting nationally renowned chef Sam Choi in September and other chefs throughout the year. Don’t rule out women for these special 4-day, 3-night packages: anglers these days are just as likely to be women!
ADVICE
Inform the recipients or winners of gift certificates of important details. Seaplanes must be back by dusk, so this incentive is ideal during the long daylight hours of summer. The chef’s table at One Market Restaurant needs to be reserved ahead of time, especially on Friday and Saturday. Since the chef’s table was featured on a local TV show, “Eye on the Bay,” it has been heavily booked. Given the sporadic availability of estates and private homes, Cindi Osborn advises clients to be flexible as she can’t always promise the historic mansion nor the Napa Valley castle in Oakville.
You can add these suggestions to a gift/check program where employees can go online and
select their own lifestyle experience. If you don’t have a lifestyle program that awards winners,
create one: These beyond-the-ordinary experiences reward valuable employees. Even if the employee
is not a self-proclaimed “gourmand,” he or she will sound like one as news of the dining adventure
gets around the office.
RESOURCES FOR FOOD AND BEVERAGE
The French Laundry
frenchlaundry.com; relaischateaux.com/laundry
Mint Locations
mintlocations.com
Monty Roberts
montyroberts.com
(Terrie Thurston [DMC], 805-884-0600)
One Market Restaurant
onemarket.com
PRA Destination Management
(Madelyn Carey/Bob Marusa)
pra.org
San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum
midway.org
Seattle Seaplanes
seattleseaplanes.com
Talon Lodge
talonlodge.com
West Coast Air
westcoastair.com
