CHICAGO Like the athletes who train for years to shine on the biggest stage in sports, foodservice operators in Chicago are giving their all to bring home the gold as the Windy City makes its case to the International Olympic Committee to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Visitor marketing company Concierge Preferred has taken the lead in mobilizing the restaurant community on behalf of Chicago by hosting several events to drum up support, said president Tim O’Malley. By coordinating a dine-around event for the IOC and international press this past spring and a hospitality industry rally set for Sept. 3, Concierge Preferred has tried to strengthen Chicago’s case as a modern, world-class dining destination capable of entertaining the world.
“We’re on the radar already, because the world is talking about us,” O’Malley said. “If we’re chosen, the spotlight is going to be shining brightly on Chicago for the next seven years, and five to 10 years after that.”
Chicago is one of four candidate cities to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, along with Tokyo; Madrid, Spain; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The IOC will announce the winning city Oct. 2 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Chicago restaurateurs should back the bid because the city, and thus its restaurants and hotels, stand to gain much from increased tourism, exposure and investment, O’Malley said.
“You can picture some of the images from Olympics past, certainly Atlanta and [Sydney] Australia, or [Barcelona] Spain in 1992,” he said. “[Spain is] going for the 2016 Games again, and they went for the Games in 2012. It costs about $30 million to $40 million to go after a bid, so it must be good for them.”
The organization in charge of Chicago’s candidacy, Chicago 2016, encourages the city’s businesses to support the Olympics by posting “back the bid” signage in their stores. Some restaurateurs are going a little further.
Billy Dec, chief executive and founder of Rockit Ranch Productions, which operates three restaurants and a nightclub in Chicago, also serves as the director of cultural relations for Chicago 2016. In addition to his official duties for Chicago 2016, Dec is flexing his marketing muscles by interviewing celebrities who have a relationship with Rockit Ranch about what makes Chicago an ideal city for hosting the Olympics.
Dec has released interviews with Jimmy Fallon, Michelle Williams, Sean Hayes and John Legend on his blog, “AChicago Thing.” Working to back the bid is an extension of what he does every day in his entertainment production company, he said, which is serving and entertaining Chicagoans.
“The idea is to support Chicago, because Chicago supports us,” Dec said.
Dec calls the Olympics the “greatest staged event in history,” and said the city would benefit not only from millions of tourists and 3.4 billion people watching the Olympics on TV, but also from the lasting effects after people see the best side of Chicago.
“Internationally, there are only a few things that are associated with Chicago across the board,” Dec said, “many of which are usually things like Oprah, Michael Jordan, hot dogs and pizza, or Al Capone. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but the Olympics is a nice opportunity to have a fair translation of what Chicago really is.”
And one of the things Chicagoans believe about their city is that it’s a first-class dining destination, said Caryn Struif, general manager of fine-dining restaurant Park Grill in Millennium Park. Struif said the Olympics potentially could draw millions of tourists to the city’s restaurants over the next seven years, bolstering the city’s reputation and economy.
“We have the ability to entertain people from all over the world with our talented culinary circuit,” Struif said. “As far as what we gain, now more than ever in this economic time, it’s nice to know that around the corner there might be countless jobs available to an industry hit the hardest.”
Park Grill opened its nearly 400 seats to the international press during Concierge Preferred’s dine-around event in April. During peak times, it also hangs a Chicago 2016 banner in the restaurant and allows servers to wear Chicago 2016 pins.
Park Grill also sells two specialty cocktails, the Tomato Basil Martini and The Flag, and donates a portion of the proceeds to the cause. The Flag is built to look like the Chicago municipal flag: a blue layer of Stoli Blueberi and blue curacao alternating with a layer of white grape juice and Skyy vodka, with fresh raspberries for the four red stars on the flag.
Operators pointed to Chicago’s notoriously congested traffic as a possible concern with hosting the Olympics, but most seemed to think the Games would lead to valuable investments in Chicago’s infrastructure and transportation.
“Yeah, that’s a concern,” Struif said, “but think of McCormick Place and all the conventions that come to town, when we have an additional 200,000 people. People who live in the city don’t necessarily know when there are 200,000 extra people, but the hotels and restaurants sure see it.”
Contact Mark Brandau at [email protected].