Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100069
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When it comes to food, the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center won't be a Mickey Mouse operation. But a touch of Disney is coming to Western Virginia, even if the Magic Kingdom people never locate a history theme park here.
The soon-to-open hotel has hired Roanoke native Wayne Knowles, a former executive chef at major Walt Disney Co. hotels in Florida. He will be Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center's culinary top dog.
"This guy could walk into any resort destination in the world and get a job," hotel General Manager Gary Walton bragged at a Roanoke Kiwanis Club luncheon on Wednesday.
Knowles, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., has worked for Disney for the past eight years, and also with the Hyatt hotel chain.
In Florida, he was executive chef at Disney World's Polynesian Village, Contemporary Hotel, Grand Floridian Hotel and Walt Disney World Resort, Walton said.
"He's a native of Roanoke, but he hasn't been home for a long time. He wanted to come back to the valley and be part of the team to run this hotel," Walton said.
The chef was hired two months ago. Since then, he's been working on team projects at other hotels around the country owned or managed by Doubletree Hotels Corp., the Phoenix company that will manage the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.
As executive chef of the hotel, set to reopen on April 3, Knowles will have authority over food preparation, the kitchen, banquets and dozens of food service workers the hotel will hire, Walton said.
Knowles also will devise the hotel's menus, with two important requirements:
"The chef has to have peanut soup and spoon bread on the menu," Walton told the Kiwanians, referring to two recipes the old hotel was famous for before it closed several years ago.
Walton also told the Kiwanis Club that:
The hotel sales staff has commitments for 60,000 room nights during the first six years of its operation, through 2001. That's about 15 percent ahead of expectations based on similar ventures Doubletree has launched in recent years, Walton said.
Most of those were new properties that had to establish themselves, Walton said.
"Having a hotel with a 113-year history opens a lot of doors. . .. With the Hotel Roanoke's rich history, a lot of people want to come back," he said.
A room night is a hotel industry measure of occupancy, each representing one paying guest staying one night. To have a 70 percent occupancy rate, generally a profitable operation, the 330-room hotel must have 505,890 room nights during its first six years of operation.
The hotel will have an outdoor pool and heated whirlpool on the Williamson Road side, as well as a small indoor fitness center. It will have weights and cardiovascular fitness equipment such as treadmills, stair-steppers and exercise bikes, Walton said.
An outdoor garden courtyard will replace the famed Crystal Ballroom, which has been torn down. The conference center's smaller ballroom will be named the Crystal Ballroom after the old one, Walton said. It will be able to accommodate gatherings up to 400 people, while the center's larger ballroom will have a capacity of 1,100.
The Shenandoah Ballroom and the Pocahontas Room, both fixtures in the original hotel, will be restored. The new hotel's bar will be where the Pine Room used to be, and it will be named the Pine Room Pub. Contractors also are laboring over restoration of the Regency Dining Room, and are attempting to preserve as much of the original room's ornate millwork as possible.
The walk-in rate for regular rooms probably will be $119 to $139. The corporate rate is likely to be $99 to $119. Walton emphasized that those figures are tentative and may change between now and the hotel's opening.
The Radisson Patrick Henry - the city's other major downtown hotel - charges $89 a night for a regular room, corporate or walk-in.
Walton said the projected rates are based on the level of service the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center will offer, as well as competitors' prices.
by CNB