While the stigma of hospital food as the opposite of haute cuisine is heading out the door, hospitals as places to go dine when no one is ill (and no one is working there) are still relatively rare. Some hospitals are determined to change that by introducing restaurants into hospitals. But if they build it, will anyone come?
At A Glance: Virtues
Location: Ann and David Brennan Critical Care Center, Akron City Hospital, Akron, Ohio
General Manager: Rick Hallett
Executive Chef: Frank Zifer
Capacity: 135 seats
Menu: Sandwiches, salads, pasta, pizza, grilled entrées
Hours of Operation: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Menu prices: $5.50 to $30
Check average: $11 to $13
Hospitals have made great strides in recent years toward dispelling the perception of hospital food as unappetizing and unappealing. But can a hospital actually convince the public to patronize a restaurant inside a hospital building?
Executives at Summa Health Systems believe they can. Summa, a three-hospital organization based in Akron, Ohio, recently opened Virtues, a 135-seat restaurant in the lobby of the Ann and David Brennan Critical Care Center of Akron City Hospital. After operating under the radar for a couple of months, the restaurant is ready for its close-up, hospital administrators say, and they’ve begun a marketing push to attract customers from beyond the doctors, nurses and hospital visitors to whom Virtues has played host thus far.
The campaign began at the end of August with a special media dinner, attended by about 40 newspaper, magazine and TV people from more than a dozen media outlets.
“We have really been concentrating on building our retail business,” explains Don Smith, director of food, nutrition and retail services for Akron City Hospital. “We had already put in some upscale elements to the foodservice program, such as an Einstein’s Bagels and a Starbucks. Our retail volume has gone from $1 million to $2 million since improving services. We didn’t see a ceiling to that, so we decided to go for the gusto.”
Virtues is divided into three areas. The main dining room features an open kitchen that includes a large brick oven. A smaller, more private area is located in the middle of the restaurant. Smith says this area, which features four flat-screen TVs, works well for parties or meetings. Lastly, there is a 12-seat private dining room for small, intimate meals.
The menu was designed by Tony Mohseninia, corporate executive chef for Summa. He says he wanted to provide both the hospital community and the community at large “another level of service, using the freshest ingredients and everything made to order.”
“Virtues provides guests with a very visual and enjoyable experience,” he adds, “from the architectural design to the beautiful food presentation mixed with the flavors of the menu.”
The menu, with prices ranging from $5.50 to $30, features a variety of salads, sandwiches, pizzas, pastas and grilled items. Among the signature items is Tony Mo’s Taste of Virtues, a $30 appetizer sampler that serves five to six people. Featured in the sampler are Tempura Calamari, House-made Crab Cakes, Asian Spring Roll, Italian Chicken Crustini, and Marinated and Grilled Beef Kabobs.
The most popular items have been the specialty thin-crust pizzas, such as roasted vegetable, Asian beef and Pizza di Mare (lemon and basil-marinated scallops and shrimp). Check averages are between $11 and $13. “A lot of our dinner business so far has been nurses working the late shifts,” notes Smith.
“There aren’t a lot of places in the area to eat, so we do a lot of carry-out business with nursing.”
Unique to Virtues is its dietitian, Audrey Tucker. Tucker works with the Virtues team to develop recipes that are healthful as well as tasty, and teaches restaurant servers about the nutritional content of menu items so they can inform customers. In addition, Tucker will meet with customers to discuss nutrition issues.
“Dietitians are not seen too often in this kind of setting,” says Mohseninia, in a bit of an understatement. “Her concern for customers’ well-being makes you feel better as a person. It makes you want to come back to the restaurant.”