Hilton dining gets facelift as old and fussy gives way to young and casual

Put away the suit jacket and full-course dinner expectations at some Hilton Worldwide hotels as the chain is giving owners, operators and guests new casual dining options.

The new culinary venues, to be rolled out at Hilton, DoubleTree and Embassy Suite hotels is designed to take advantage of a trend finding guests spending less time in fine-dining establishments and opting instead for “quick and convenient items,” Hilton says.

Each of the three hotel brands get their own new dining concept. Made Market was created for DoubleTree, Herb n’ Kitchen for Hilton Hotels & Resorts, and Brickstones Grill for Embassy Suites.

You’ll see the change in January 2013, for instance, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Tulsa Downtown, where its 7 West Café will be giving way to a Made Market restaurant. Hilton describes “all-day” Made Market restaurants as combining “the ease of a market with the allure of a brick oven gastro pub.”

The self-service Herb n’ Kitchen concept for Hilton hotels features “options from a live-action station to made-to-order or pre-made salads and sandwiches or the bar and barista zone, depending on location,” Hilton says. The design is geared to ease the transition from lunch to dinner for the restaurant staff, Hilton adds.

Meanwhile, Embassy Suites hotels can optionally opening  Blackstones Grills next year. The American menu will feature “brick oven pizza, open pit grill and rotisserie,” Hilton says, adding that the design incorporates an open kitchen, “and organic surfaces with quarried stone and reclaimed wood.”

Hilton says it developed the three new restaurant concepts based on surveys of 22,000 guests, owners and operators.

Beth Scott, Hilton Worldwide’s vice president of food and beverage concepts, says Hilton “learned that the way people eat at home is translating into the way they eat on the road. As a result, we decided to reinvent the hotel dining model to better serve the needs, wants and lifestyle of our customers.”