Grand Bohemian announces opening date
Suzan Doidge will have a new answer on Oct. 23. Mountain Brook residents often call the chamber of commerce to ask where to host a bar mitzvah, tea or wedding reception, and in the past there hasn’t been a good venue in the city for more than 30 people. That was before the opening of the $35 million Grand Bohemian Hotel, though.
“It’s a game changer,” said Doidge, the chamber director.
The chamber itself plans to hold its annual luncheon at the Grand Bohemian in January as well as the Fashions for the Foundation event for the Mountain Brook City Schools Foundation in November.
Plus, Doidge said, hotel guests will patronize other Mountain Brook businesses.
“It’s a really great opportunity for us to bring more people into the community,” Doidge said. “They are going to enjoy Grand Bohemian and shop at Lane Parke and enjoy our trails. It will foster business that we might not otherwise see. We haven’t had a resource like this in the past.”
The Kessler vision
Inspired by the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, Richard Kessler’s Grand Bohemian boutique hotel collection celebrates arts and culture at locations in Orlando, Savannah, St. Augustine, Asheville, Taos and Beaver Creek, Colorado.
“People say they have never spent the night in a museum, but that they feel like they just did that [when they have stayed in our hotels],” Kessler said.
A Charleston location opened this summer and was the first to offer the wine blending experience also available in the Mountain Brook location.
The interior design of the Mountain Brook hotel will feature whimsical botanicals inspired by neighbors Birmingham Zoo and Birmingham Botanical Gardens, as well as elements inspired by the state’s auto industry and nearby Barber Motorsports Park.
Ground broke for the Grand Bohemian Mountain Brook in January 2014. It is situated in front of Lane Parke apartments in Mountain Brook Village and will be adjacent to the new Lane Parke retail phase that broke ground last month.
Kessler has partnered with Evson Inc. and Daniel Corporation on the project. Thomas Hoffmann was hired earlier this year to manage the hotel.
“Their innovative ideas really appealed to me,” Hoffmann said. “Every hotel is different.”
Culinary offerings
For chef Kirk Gilbert, dining at the new Grand Bohemian Hotel will be more than just a restaurant. It’s a collection of varied culinary experiences on the hotel’s third floor.
You can attend a cooking class, which will be taught by a local chef the hotel is in the process of hiring, that will teach you how to source local food and highlight what you can do with it. You can taste a sampling of 32 bottled wines that are housed in a Vintec, which removes oxygen from the wine so it’s like the bottle was never opened, “almost like a keg system for wine.”
You can let a sommelier lead you through a wine blending experience and have your preferred blend bottled, an offering exclusive to the Grand Bohemian’s Mountain Brook and newly opened Charleston locations.
You can select a signature cocktail to sip on the rooftop patio or in the billiards room, or partake in either a family-style meal or order off a menu in a private dining event for up to 40 people.
In total, the third floor dining areas, including the dining room itself, seat more than 200 people who can order from menus Gilbert has crafted.
“My philosophy is that the ingredients should speak for the food,” he said. “I don’t like to do anything overly complex.”
The restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch. The menu will be eclectic, supporting regional food but not bound by specific types. It will not be all Southern but will feature Southern elements.
“You don’t want it to be so specialized,” he said. “You want to create an experience where you can stop by for breakfast, a quick snack at the bar or dinner. I want to create a broad enough offering that you could come by two to three times a week and experience something different.”
Gilbert plans to use game from Alabama farmers, create a cheese sampler from the Southeast region, add a Grand Bohemian crab cake and offer a signature Grand Bohemian charcuterie plate that features regional artisanal items.
Steakhouse-style entrees will be served with sides a la carte while seafood items will come as a complete entree with accompaniments.
“It will balance adventurous and familiar, regional and local,” Gilbert said, noting it will be grounded in Alabama and the Southeast. “There is great local food with the agriculture and seafood. There are rich opportunities to highlight what local farmers and fishermen are doing.”
There’s no doubt Gilbert’s background both in the Southeast and in hotels will inform his menu. He served as executive chef at the Inn at Palmetto Bluff from 2009-11. During his time there, he met Birmingham chefs Chris Hastings and Frank Stitt, who attended the Music to Your Mouth event for chefs the inn hosted, and was invited to make a dinner for the James Beard House in New York City.
Prior to that he served as executive chef at the Ballantyne Hotel in Charlotte; executive sous chef at the Cloister at Sea Island’s Beach Club and Bitter End Yacht Club in the British Virgin Islands; and various roles for three Ritz Carlton properties for seven years.
Most recently, he developed new menu items for the Cheesecake Factory in Los Angeles, but the Grand Bohemian drew him back to his hotel roots and the South, where his wife’s family lives and his two daughters live in Pensacola with their mom.
“I’m a hotel guy to my core,” Gilbert said, noting how he enjoys overseeing a plated event for 350 people and developing teams. This is also his fourth hotel to open.
Plus, just two weeks into the job, he said he is enjoying Birmingham and Mountain Brook — which he said reminded him of Napa Valley when he first arrived.
For more information, visit grandbohemianmountainbrook.com.