Even for the hospitality moguls and star chefs who regularly crisscross the country on the Spectacle Circuit, early May might feel unprecedented. It’s the intersection of Miami’s Formula 1 week and the Kentucky Derby, with high-profile food events at both. But this year, there’s a lot more than that happening around the United States.
On May 1-4, the Omni PGA Frisco Resort & Spa in North Texas will host the inaugural Savor festival with chefs including Kwame Onwuachi, Stephanie Izard, Shota Nakajima and Antonia Lofaso, a musical performance from Midland and a celebrity golf tournament featuring Dennis Quaid and Anthony Anderson. Elizabeth Blau, the restaurant development executive who launched the Wynn Las Vegas Revelry food festival last summer and just debuted the Women in Hospitality Leadership Conference at Wynn, will also be at Savor.
Blau and her husband, chef Kim Canteenwalla, opened Dallas steakhouse Crown Block in 2023. At Savor’s Masters of Taste Dinner on May 1, they’ll rep Crown Block and serve a crab cake. Then they’ll head to the Kentucky Derby on Friday morning because Blau purchased an auction package (when she attended last year’s Super Bowl) for the horse race.
For Blau, events like Savor are work, but she says they’re also restorative getaways for an industry that’s dealt with major setbacks like the pandemic and a labor crisis.
“It’s like we never catch a break,” Blau tells Observer. “So for the chefs and restaurateurs who are excelling and working extremely hard, these kinds of events are our icing on the cake. It’s mostly about the camaraderie. We get to get out of our restaurants and have fun with our colleagues and friends. We get to cook in an environment where you’re much more one-on-one with the consumers. We get to bring our sous chefs or wine directors or managers.”
And, obviously, these events are also tied directly to business opportunities. Blau and Wynn are planning to bring back Revelry in the late summer with new food and mixology programming, so she’s always on the search for talent. One of Blau’s business partners, Hunt Realty, is behind the massive Fields development, which is also in Frisco. That could potentially be where Blau expands in Texas.
Meanwhile, in Miami, Major Food Group will rev up the scene during Formula 1 week with the return of its over-the-top Carbone Beach supper club on the sand May 2-4, which will feature nightly dinner parties with musical performances, chilled seafood on ice sculptures, caviar hand rolls and classic Carbone dishes like spicy rigatoni. That’s the same week Grant Achatz starts his April 30-May 25 Alinea pop-up at Faena Miami Beach. And Massimo Bottura and Virgilio Martinez, who both have restaurants previously named No. 1 in the World’s 50 Best list, will cook together during the May 2 Once Upon a Kitchen Miami dinner in the Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club.
“There’s just so many great events, and many of them are once-in-a-lifetime,” Blau says. “They’re things that are so curated and bespoke.”
“People want to spend their money on high-quality experiences,” Major Food Group co-founder Jeff Zalaznick, whose $3,000-per-seat Carbone Beach F1 week experience has been attended by Jeff Bezos, Ken Griffin, Stephen Ross, Michael Rubin, Patrick Mahomes, LeBron James, Lindsey Vonn and many other A-listers, tells Observer. “The things they’re willing to spend more money on generally revolve around food and beverage. I think the reason that these high-end food experiences like Carbone Beach have been so well received is that they offer the sophisticated level of food and service that this clientele wants and couldn’t find before at giant parties with thousands of people.”
That’s why, for example, the Kentucky Derby has its May 1 Taste of Derby with chefs Marc Murphy, Aaron May and Damaris Phillips. And on May 3 at the Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria Resort in Maui, Nobu Matsuhisa will celebrate the grand opening of his latest Nobu restaurant. This new Nobu, which will feature panoramic ocean views and more than 13,000 square feet of indoor and al fresco dining spaces designed by Rockwell Group, is part of a $350 million revamp of a hotel that boasts Hawaii’s largest spa and a café/market that sells a selection of Erewhon products including a co-branded Aloha Sunshine fresh-pressed juice. Another Nobu will open at San Diego’s Hotel Del Coronado in May.
“There would be nothing without them,” Zalaznick says, crediting Nobu with planting the seed for high-end restaurants turning into top-tier global brands. “They started it. The importance of food and beverage and culture has grown exponentially. More and more people have become hyper-aware and more educated and interested in great food and great service, whether it’s someone young watching videos on TikTok or 40-year-old billionaires.”
As always at the upper echelon of hospitality, It’s about constantly evolving to keep things lively. On May 2, Tao Group Hospitality and Kygo will open their Palm Tree Beach Club in the former Wet Republic space at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Kygo will DJ at the new day club on May 3, and Steve Aoki will DJ on May 4. Aoki recently closed out Miami Music Week at E11even, the club where Diplo, Nelly, 50 Cent and Afrojack will perform May 1-4.
“I think there will be more than enough people to fill all of them,” Zalaznick says of all the major Spectacle Circuit events happening simultaneously in early May. “After Covid, people’s psychology changed. People want to use their money on experiences. If you put out something that’s incredible and fun, people are willing to pay for that.”
“I believe that it’s a competitive point of differentiation,” Blau agrees. ”People are really looking for an elevated experience.”
By the way, Blau isn’t done after the Kentucky Derby. On May 4, she’s flying to New York to receive the prestigious Augie award from the Culinary Institute of America. Weeks like this are the reward for a life of grinding on the Spectacle Circuit.
