Major events bring huge pop-up F&B opportunities
A Major event is a large-scale activity, with strong public interest and media coverage. Most importantly, these events create a sense of fun and vibrancy, providing the visitors with a leisure and social opportunity beyond the everyday experience. Usually they are internationally marketed events of limited duration held infrequently and mostly during a weekend. They raise the profile, image or awareness of a city and attract or have the potential to attract, both international as well as the out-of-town visitors, in large numbers.
Such events are often sports-oriented, with a worldwide reputation, and defined structure of competition, for example: Formula One Grand Prix. When The Miami F1 Grand Prix race was held in May this year, there was a galaxy of events – mostly to do with dining, (and nothing to do with Formula One racing), that sprung up that race weekend.
It was a kind of smorgasbord of food venues that catered to every person’s wallet: be it affordable food and drinks at more than a dozen restaurants that pitched tent overnight or luxury experiences that stretched the boundaries of indulgences, both on land and water.
The SLS Bricket Hotel held a dinner which included wine and cocktail pairings, costing US$299 per person. It had Italian Chef Dario Cecchini who operates ‘Carna by Dario Cecchini’ at the Baha Mar in the Bahamas make an appearance during the dinner for a grilling demonstration.
Beach lovers who liked to wet their toes whilst dining under the open skies were able to do so, when ‘Carbone’, a major food group, set up a beachside supper club pop-up that weekend. Called Carbone Beach, the nightly dinner was limited to 200 people where only American Express cardholders could make reservations.
For those who did not want to tread water and yet dine and dance above it, the ‘My Yacht Group’ hosted a dinner aboard the 185-foot research vessel, ‘Gene Chaser’. The dinner though came at a purse wrenching US$ 12,000 per person price tag. Overseeing by Todd English, the American celebrity chef, restaurateur, author, and television personality, the dinner featured a dish specially created for the evening called ‘Liquid Gold’ – which comprised of crystal champagne, gold leaf infused French butter sauce, golden osetra caviar and truffled Alaskan king crab. The event also included champagne and live entertainment, with a night club experience for dancing, that popped-up at the helipad after10 p.m.
Though the dinner and dance party was limited to just 80 guests - it raked in a near million dollars.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
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