Hotel food & beverage
A better operating model for hotel food and beverage
Why do hotel restaurants underperform? Review each outlet’s purpose, contribution, shared costs and role in the guest stay.
Who we advise · Hotels & Resorts
Hotel food and beverage consulting that starts with the property.
Hotel food and beverage consulting defines what each outlet contributes to a property and what it takes to operate it well. Leviathan advises hotel owners and leadership teams on programming, operator choices and performance across restaurants, bars, banquets and in-room dining.
Let’s chat.
Sister Ship · Photography by Matt Kissadeh · Credits
Who this is for
Boutique and lifestyle hotels · Resorts · Hotel restaurants and bars · Banquets · In-room dining
We advise hotel teams in South Florida, drawing on concepts developed, launched and advised across North America.
Planning
Give every outlet a purpose.
Decide which outlets the property needs and who they should serve. Compare self-operation and outside operators with an understanding of the service obligations, shared resources and deal terms.
Start with Concept & Positioning to define the guest, the occasion and each outlet’s role.
Explore planning services
- Hotel food and beverage programming
- Which outlets a property needs and the job each one does.
- Operator, chef and brand partners
- Help choosing a partner and setting up the relationship.
- Design team oversight
- An operator in design meetings, keeping each decision tied to how the space will run.
- Kitchen, bar and floor plan review
- Plans checked for flow, capacity and labor before anything is built.
- Value engineering review
- Where cost can come out without hurting service, and where a saving now costs more later.
- OS&E and FF&E guidance
- What to buy, what to skip and who to buy it from.
- Operator selection and deal structure
- Compare self-operation, a lease, a management agreement or a license with operating assumptions and counsel in view.
- Menu and beverage direction across the property
- Direction for the restaurant, bar and breakfast, with in-room dining, banquets and pool service planned around shared production.
Opening
Bring the outlets into the hotel’s opening plan.
Coordinate outlet readiness with the wider hotel opening. Align leadership, training and service plans so breakfast, restaurants, bars and other outlets are ready to welcome guests.
Our Pre-Opening advice helps leadership review readiness across the property.
Explore opening services
- Compliance readiness
- A walk-through against the health code before the inspector arrives.
- Readiness review
- Staffing, training, inventory and permits checked before the date is announced.
- Soft opening plan
- Friends-and-family services designed to surface problems while the room is forgiving.
- Opening marketing review
- Demand paced to what the team can serve well.
- Opening week counsel
- A senior advisor beside your managers for services and debriefs.
- Executive and general manager search
- Sourcing, screening and interviews through to an accepted offer.
- Opening leadership team
- The managers and chefs a new venue needs in place before it hires anyone else.
- Compensation benchmarking
- What the role pays in your market, and how to structure the offer.
Operating
Judge the outlet and the guest experience together.
Review each outlet’s contribution and its role in the stay. Separate shared costs from outlet performance, then adjust the menu, service hours and leadership routines against actual demand.
Use Ongoing Advisory & Profit to examine outlet contribution alongside hotel service obligations.
Explore operating services
- Leadership coaching
- For owners, general managers and chefs.
- Private dining and events strategy
- Pricing, packages and the sales process.
- Reputation and review strategy
- How to read, answer and learn from reviews.
- Guest feedback and service recovery
- A system for catching problems before they become reviews.
- Events playbook
- How private events are sold, planned and run.
- Outlet-level P&L review
- Review each outlet on its own economics, including the hotel services and shared costs it carries.
- Banquets and events profitability
- Review event pricing, production and labor against the contribution each event leaves.
- Brand standards review
- Reconcile the property promise with the food, service and operating resources needed to deliver it.
Selected experience
Brands and venues from Daniel Levine's operating career and Leviathan's client work.
- Life House Hotels
- Faraway Hotels
- The Wheatleigh Hotel
- The Maidstone Hotel
- The Manchester Hotel
- Wildflower
- Sister Ship
- Terras
- Layla
- Pretty Swell
- Pelican Club
- Ophelia's
- Granddam
- Lost Palm
- Hotel St. Michel
- Zucca
- Weekender Hotels
- The Garden Hotel & Resort
- The Greenhouse
Recognition
Concepts Daniel founded or led.
Related insights
Questions worth working through.
Financial performance
Build a useful restaurant financial model
How should a restaurant financial model work? Connect guest demand, menu contribution and labor schedules to break-even and cash needs.
Development & openings
How to define your restaurant concept
How do you turn a restaurant idea into a clear concept? Define the guest occasion, service promise and operating choices before designing the space.
Common questions
Before you get in touch.
What does hotel food and beverage consulting cover?
Hotel food and beverage consulting examines what each outlet contributes to the property and what it takes to operate it well. Leviathan reviews programming, operator choices and performance across restaurants, bars and other services. The starting point is the guest demand and property strategy, so outlet decisions support the wider hotel experience.
Can you help us choose between self-operation and an outside operator?
Yes. We compare the operating implications of self-operation, a lease, a management agreement or a license. The review considers control, service obligations and how the outlet fits the property. We help owners assess prospective operators and the commercial assumptions behind a proposal, with legal terms reviewed alongside their attorney.
How do you review an underperforming hotel restaurant?
We begin with the outlet’s role, demand and financial reporting. Shared hotel costs can obscure what a restaurant contributes, so the review distinguishes outlet performance from property obligations. We then examine the menu, service hours and operating routines with the leadership team to identify changes that can be evaluated against actual guest use.
Do you advise on banquets and in-room dining?
Yes. We consider banquets, in-room dining and other food and beverage services as part of the property’s overall program. Each has different demand patterns and service obligations. We review the menu direction, resource requirements and contribution of those services so owners can judge them in the context of the guest experience and the wider operation.
Start a conversation
What should food and beverage contribute to your hotel?
Tell us about the property, its outlets and the decision facing your ownership or leadership team.
Let’s chat.