BAR: EDGE BAR
The Edge Bar in the upcoming Four Seasons Hotel, 1111 14th St., is all mood lighting, marble and windows — big ones that look out on 14th Street with a patio that will hold about 24 people. The bar itself can hold a dozen imbibers. Another 140 can sit at a communal high-table. A handsome glass wine cellar leads you into the dining room, which seats 140. Edge is a steakhouse with the usual fare — plus some add-ons, such as Wagyu carpaccio with shaved wasabi. The bar has its own menu, highlighted by Kobe burgers, and Rocky Mountain Sushi made of raw game meats with raw fish. The GM calls the bar area “über chic,” but there’s no dress code here or anywhere in the hotel.
GRILLED: THIERRY KENNEL
Thierry Kennel, 44, is the silver-haired, dapper general manager at the Four Seasons, which opens at noon Tuesday. He was raised traveling the world as the son of a European shoe company executive. Born in France, he and his family wandered through Algiers, Congo, Ivory Coast, Libya, Kenya, Canada and Paris. In the ’80s he went to Switzerland for hotel school, graduating in ’87 with a job offer in his back pocket from the Four Seasons in Houston. He’s worked for the company ever since, in Boston; the Maldives; the Caribbean island of Nevis; Jakarta, Indonesia; Vancouver, British Columbia; and most recently in St. Louis. Denver is the third hotel he has opened as general manager. Married with twin boys, living in Centennial, he orders a vodka tonic and starts talking like an innkeeper.
BH: What was your first job in Houston?
Kennel: I was overnight steward.
BH: Bottom of the totem pole?
Kennel: Below the bottom. I was in charge of polishing silverware, polishing glasses and washing dishes and pots and pans, to get the kitchen ready for the next day. It humbled me, and it grounded me. It made me realize that we park cars and clean rooms and wash dishes. That is the crux of our business.
BH: So all hotels are alike? Any hotel is like a Motel 6?
Kennel: Well, we all have to clean the room and change the sheets — and then we become the Four Seasons. It’s then about the products we use, the TVs in your room, the technology we have and the services we offer that are just not available in other hotels: 24-hour room service, 24-hour gym, overnight shoeshine, we’ll press and clean clothes overnight for you. And first and foremost, we are most proud of the intuitive service, to really understand the customer.
BH: What is opening day like?
Kennel: See the color of my hair? There is nothing like opening a hotel. You build a team, everyone is excited, everyone is on a big high, everything is new, nothing is broken, everything is the best of the best, no scratches on the furniture. It’s like buying a new car. You get in and you close the door and you smell the leather. It’s a thrill.
BH: Haven’t you had some kinks when you’ve opened a hotel?
Kennel: Occasionally. But nothing dramatic.
BH: You were a hotel brat. What is it that children like about great hotels? Like Eloise?
Kennel: It’s about the attention you get at that age from people you don’t know. For the first time in your life, someone outside your family is interested in you. It happens when you go to a hotel as a child and you stay for an extended time and you get to know the general manager and people start to call you by your name and they take you to the back of the house. They take you to the kitchen and you make your own pizza. You make cookies and slowly you start to feel special. That’s what happened to me at the Africana Sea Lodge in Mambasa, Kenya.
BH: Will Denver embrace this hotel?
Kennel: We are a brand new product in town, we’re ultra modern and I think our service is second to none. I think people will enjoy coming to see us here.
BH: Do you tell people “no” a lot?
Kennel: We don’t say “no.” We have some very influential people in the world stay in our hotels. Movie stars, rock stars, politicians, business people. We’ve had people who request us to change out rooms, completely. We’ll go up and take three or four rooms and turn them into a luxury suite, we take down walls and doors. They stay for a month or so and then we change it back to the original state.
BH: What’s the strangest thing a guest requested?
Kennel: When I was in the Maldives, there was a guest who wanted quail eggs and Diet 7Up. Now we didn’t have that in the Maldives. So he chartered a plane, and I went on the plane to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and got quail eggs and Diet 7Up for him and flew back on the plane with those two items. He had it for dinner.
BH: Are you scared of bedbugs?
Kennel: Not at all. Yes, it’s an epidemic in America, but we are very good at how we handle our cleanliness and hygiene.
BH: Is pornography available on the TVs in the rooms?
Kennel: We have standard cable and On Demand. Everything is available from Disney movies to regular shows to whatever you’d like.
BH: What do you fear?
Kennel: Heights.
BH: What trait don’t you like in yourself?
Kennel: I am not the best listener.
BH: What’s your current state of mind?
Kennel: Pumped. I am on top of the world.
BH: Are you good at names?
Kennel: I am very good at names. As a GM, I am expected to know all our employees’ names. I will probably have that down in a few weeks.
BH: But they’re wearing name tags.
Kennel: It’s one thing to look at someone in the eye and call them by name, but if you look at someone’s name tag first they see that.
BH: What do you dislike about your appearance?
Kennel: I have a big nose.
BH: Who or what is the greatest love in your life?
Kennel: Family, family, family.
BH: What talent do you wish you had?
Kennel: I have always wanted to be a Formula 1 racer.
BH: What would you change about yourself?
Kennel: When I was young, I was selfish. I think I have matured and become more humble in life and to be appreciative and to help others. In my 20s, it was all about me.
BH: What’s your greatest achievement?
Kennel: My marriage. Rock solid for 20 years.
BH: Where would you most like to live?
Kennel: We have always said that one day we’ll live in the South of France. For six months, and then we’ll live where the boys are for the other six months.
BH: What’s your most treasured possession?
Kennel: My grandfather gave me a pen when I graduated for high school that I still use today. I have a lion’s tooth from Kenya.
BH: You never lost these things? A pen? A tooth? What does that say about you?
Kennel: Well, I am not a hoarder. But I keep things.
BH: What are your favorite things to do?
Kennel: Motorcycles, basketball, scuba, golf.
BH: What’s your most marked characteristic?
Kennel: I think I’m funny. Not, “Why did the chicken cross the road” funny. Just on-spot funny.
BH: Books?
Kennel: “The Art of Woo.”
BH: Can travel teach you humility?
Kennel: Absolutely. Perhaps it teaches you the meaning of life. But what do I know? I’m just a pillow fluffer.
BH: Favorite hotel?
Kennel: The Four Seasons in Chang Mai, George V in Paris, The Cipriani in Venice.
BH: Are you a good sleeper?
Kennel: I am a phenomenal sleeper, eight or nine hours a night. Early to bed, then up at 6:30 and off to the races.
BH: Movies?
Kennel: We go to a lot of movies with the boys, lots of action movies. We just saw the . . . umm . . . the . . . ummm . . . what’s the name? ummmm . . . “The Expendables.”
BH: Do you have a good memory?
Kennel: I thought I did.
BH: What’s overrated?
Kennel: It’s hard to be in the luxury business and call something underrated.
BH: What’s misunderstood?
Kennel: That you have to spend a lot of money to have a good time. You need to be around people who know how to have a memorable time.
Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Bill Husted: 303-954-1486 or bhusted@denverpost.com.
