The Business of Breakfast
It’s All about Flow
by Kris Beck | Published in May 2007 Focus on Event Sites
Experts say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. What’s the key to building breakfast into your event without outsourcing or overspending? Choose a hotel with breakfast built into the stay — there are over 4,000 hotels that offer this. Additionally, as the planner, you want to make sure the “breakfast flow” is presented in an effortless way, so your attendees can navigate easily and get exactly what they want in that most critical of meals — especially if they haven’t had their coffee yet!
Choice, Convenience and Control
It’s all about choice, convenience and control, all flowing together for complete guest satisfaction. Serve the favorites, offer choices and design the breakfast area to be easily navigated.
With so many choices in breakfast foods, organization and presentation are crucial to planning a successful breakfast.
People tend to eat with their eyes, so presentation and layout is critical. The layout of food “stations,” or distinct areas in which each food group is positioned, also helps with the flow and efficiency of the meal process, limiting waiting time at each serving station.
Additionally, consolidating the serving stations to contain several similar food categories can make the space more modern and refined. Creating this self-service breakfast area allows your guests to take charge of their own breakfast experience.
Breakfast Staples
Here are some of the staples necessary to pull off a meal for a large group of people:
Food Stations — The “station” system allows you to designate a distinct area for each food group. This layout allows guests to bypass the long lines that develop at standard buffets, and instead travel between stations freely, gathering favorite breakfast items with ease.
Straightforward Signage — Create simple icons that are easily associated with food groups to help guests quickly locate their favorite foods. Creating iconic imagery creates a sense of excitement and understanding, making guests feel comfortable and satisfied, so get creative and use symbolic colors and images to represent your company or client!
Visual Order — Often in restaurants and hotels, breakfast-goers are bombarded with visual clutter, which sends their senses into overload. Decorative items compete with signage for real estate, giving the illusion of an untidy breakfast area.
Through extensive flow analysis of breakfast, Embassy Suites Hotels has found that guests perceive the breakfast area as cleaner when there is less decorative or visual clutter. A modern aesthetic with linear surfaces creates a perception of an upscale environment and delivers a value proposition, bringing more enjoyment in the overall breakfast experience.
Buffet, Buffet, Buffet; Display, Display, Display — The very nature of a buffet is attractive to most attendees of events and meetings, allowing for the best quality and aesthetics through display organization. Predicting accurate quantities of food needed — to prevent overspending — is a relevant concern. One way to prevent overstocking food and overstuffing guests is to rotate smaller display pieces to keep the buffet looking full and fresh. Adding extra garnishes to the main breakfast items also helps preserve the quality of the food, while maintaining visual appeal.
When planning your next event, remember that any built-in amenity, such as breakfast, is going to save your company or your client money. Using a venue that already specializes in the business of breakfast will cut costs, increase creativity, create easier event flow and attendee satisfaction, and make for a happier client and a more successful you!
About the author: Kris Beck
Kris Beck is the director of brand operations support for Embassy Suites Hotels, a member of the Hilton family of hotels. Embassy Suites serves 90,000 people breakfast, brews 12,500 gallons of coffee and cracks 135,000 eggs every day.
Contact: Kristopher_Beck@hilton.com