Summing It Up
• Mixed Grills offer a more casual, family-friendly dining option. • Staggering reservation times can help manage overflow and kitchen back-up. • Incorporating modern technology, such as plasma TVs, into a Mixed Grill design can generate new excitement and business. |
As memberships skew to families with younger children, clubs are converting men’s-only grills into gathering places that are more inviting and comfortable for all.
In the beginning, there were Men’s Grills and Main Grills. Then, as changes in the law led to changes in attitudes, the status of women in clubs was elevated, and memberships—and use of club facilities—began to skew toward families with younger children.
This quickly carried over into changes in the look and nature of clubs’ food and beverage formats, too. Men’s Grills became less the norm, and Mixed Grills gained in popularity. By including kids’ activities or creating broader menus that are pleasing to all ages, more clubs have been converting traditional, men’s-only grills into rooms that can serve as central family gathering places and be more in step with changing times and emerging club cultures.
Designing or renovating a mixed grill so it will appeal to both genders—and sometimes kids as well—is no easy task, however. But many properties are finding unique and creative ways to re-mix their grill offerings for their now mixed memberships.
In some cases, as at Manasquan River Golf Club in Brielle, N.J., this now calls for “graying the line” between men’s-only and mixed formats. Manasquan, a private club founded in 1922, has a Men’s Grill annexed to its downstairs men’s locker room. Being so close to an area where men may want to come out for a beer in their skivvies, the grill is still a traditional, no-gals-or-kids enclave during the day. Come 6:00 PM, though, all members—including children—are welcome to dine there.
The grill, which seats 72, switched to a nightly, co-ed schedule before current General Manager and Chief Operating Officer Michael Zusack joined the club in 2001. Renovations made in the mid-1990s, Zusack says, not only included making the downstairs grill more multi-purpose, but also shifted the emphasis from old-time gaming uses to food and beverage options that better mirrored how the club membership now wanted to make use of the space.
“There used to be a shuffleboard table in [what is now the grill room],” he reports. “We took the card tables out and replaced them with more casual dining tables.”
Casual Comfort
While many clubs like Manasquan River—which also has an upstairs casual Member’s Grill—still have formal dining areas, grills are proving to be a popular way to respond to members’ desires for a more laid-back dining option.
“If you wear a jacket and tie to work, you typically want a more casual dinner at the end of the day—no jacket and tie required,” says Zusack.
Manasquan River now requires members to wear a jacket and tie in its formal dining room on Saturdays only. Casual wear, meanwhile, is acceptable in all of the club’s grills all day, every day. But the distinction ends with how the rooms, and the people in them, look—not in the menus.
“We are a club that serves everything everywhere,” Zusack says. “If you sit in the formal dining room, you can still order a hamburger. And in the men’s grill, you can still order the rack of lamb. [You select where you eat based on] where you feel comfortable, and what you want to wear.”
Many newer clubs, such as Charter Oaks Country Club in Hudson, Mass., now ask members to wear basic club gear in the grill.
“There isn’t a dress code in the grill,” says Liam Reardon, Director of Club Operations at Charter Oaks, which was built in 2000. “It’s casual—just the general club dress code of a collared shirt, tucked in, no hats, [etc.].”
Multi-Purpose Look
Appearance now also plays a bigger part in how a grill room is perceived and used—as does functionality, which is why Manasquan River’s grill kept its green walls and plaid carpeting, but changed other decor upon becoming an all-admission spot.
“We used to have tablecloths in the men’s grill. Now we have wooden-top tables with leather logos,” says Zusack. “They’re much easier to clean than linen tablecloths.”
The tables are easy on the day-to-night transition as well: Male club members can still play cards on the tables during the day, and the staff is then able to quickly convert them into dining stations in the evening.
Balancing the needs—and tastes—of club members that span the age spectrum can be tricky. Reardon describes the grill at Charter Oaks—which features a large hexagonal bar in the center of the room, and a 45-foot-high, domed ceiling—as “very neutral, comfortable, and casual.”
Children are not allowed in Charter Oaks’ formal dining room. However, the club’s grill is kid-friendly. To please the picky appetites, the club offers a variety of kids’ meals, such as mac and cheese, as well as chicken fingers and fries—or fruit, should Mom request it.
Also, to allow for kids’ often-restless nature, the club serves children their food during the salad portion of their parents’ meals.
“The grill room also has a game area and couch with cards and coloring books for kids who get antsy,” says Reardon. “When the kids are done eating they can go play.”
Other clubs feel that, if they offer activities and programs for children outside of the grill, the room should look and feel more neutral, to accommodate, and not exclude, any age.
When the grill at Cedar Hill Country Club in Livingston, N.J., which seats more than 100, was renovated three years ago, the makeover included new wallpaper, tables and chairs. But nothing specific was added for kids—although they’re now welcome to dine there.
“We do a lot of family stuff at the club,” says Bob Mueller, Cedar Hill’s General Manager. “[In the grill], we’ve never had any problems with kids running around. It’s more of a relaxed environment, open to anyone.”
Out-of-Bounds for Outsiders
As grill rooms have evolved into a convenient, casual dining option open to all members, many clubs are making it a point not to allow private events to be held in them. Manasquan River reserves its formal dining room for some private events, but its grills are off-limits—even if one, located adjacent to the dining room, is close to the action.
“There are no parties in the men’s grill, ever,” says Zusack. “In our upstairs mixed grill, we have a portable partition that separates our main dining room from the grill.”
Charter Oaks uses its formal dining room and 300-capacity ballroom, as well as its clubhouse’s living room, which can seat up to 70 people, for business dinners and other private events. But club members can always count on the grill to be open—and to be theirs alone.
“We never close the grill for functions,” Reardon says. “Some clubs that don’t have any other options have to, but we have so many other different areas where we can easily accommodate [outside] events.”
Smart Scheduling
Club members may love the more easygoing eating atmosphere of today’s grills, but they won’t ever embrace a long wait. To prevent overcrowding issues and back-ups in the kitchen as mixed grills continue to become more popular, Zusack suggests staggering reservation times.
“Everyone wants to come at 7:00 PM,” he says. “So we’ll take 50 people each half hour. This has worked well. We accept walk-ins, but they may have to wait.”
Clubs can also benefit by offering a lounge near the grill, to make waiting more agreeable. It’s helped to control traffic at Cedar Hill, according to Mueller. “Most people go into our bar before dinner to have a drink and hors d’oeuvres,” he says.
Having an abundance of hungry guests is never a bad thing, as long as you figure out good ways to keep everyone occupied. The growing popularity of mixed grills is proving to be a huge new opportunity for clubs looking to try—and fill—new club-wide events. Manasquan River, for example, now uses its grill’s outdoor patio to host festive “TGIF” events on Fridays—featuring a large bar, guitar player and tapas menu—that have proved to be especially popular with the club’s younger members.
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