Dear guest,
Greetings from the motherland of modern hospitality – Switzerland.
I always feel extra inspired when I’m here, not least because this is where I got my hospitality education.
This week's Lobby is about legacy, and what happens when hospitality is inherited, borrowed, or reborn. A restaurateur's son, an AI company, and a 93-year-old Finnish sanatorium walk into a bar…
Welcome to The Lobby, a roundup of what’s happening in hospitality, served with a point of view.
In this letter: a hospitality legend’s son is opening a restaurant, AI goes corporate wellness, and a new era of hospitality diplomacy.
Keith McNally's 22-year-old son is opening his first restaurant. George McNally is the son of the man behind NYC restaurant institutions such as Balthazar, Pastis, and Minetta Tavern. He is now opening Faux in Tribeca this summer, which is a French-inspired restaurant slash nightclub. I read his father’s biography I Regret Almost Everything, which I found excellent (although gruesome in some ways), where he details the wins and woes of creating legendary NYC F&B destinations and living the life of an all-around hospitality legend.
I’m truly excited to experience George’s vision in person and see how the next generation of hospitality fares. Read more.
Midjourney is opening a spa and I ironically think there’s nothing that could attest more to the power of hospitality. In case you missed it, Midjourney is an AI company best known for image generation, and they are now pivoting into wellness, or more precisely, bathing.
Midjourney Medical (which is what this branch will be called) will build a spa in San Francisco's Union Square that will include hot tubs, saunas, cold plunges, and… full-body ultrasonic scanners hidden inside the pools! (yes that’s the catch). The process is the following: you step onto a golden platform, descend into warm water, whereafter 500,000 tiny transducers map your entire body in 60 seconds.
The scan is in one way a side effect of the guest’s spa visit, but at the same time, the company’s incentive into going into wellness business in the first place. Their ambition is to have 50,000 scanners worldwide and a billion scans per month by 2031 (very apocalyptic if you ask me). Bryan Johnson, lover of AI and the self-proclaimed king of living forever was at the launch event.
Ms. Kylie Jenner wearing the Meta glasses To me, Midjourney is using hospitality as their Trojan horse for data collection, which in many ways reflects the Meta glasses conversation going on right now.
At the same time, all of this goes to show how much potential there is in hospitality and wellness that other industries are very eager to harness. S.P.A. had some excellent things to say about it here.
Hospitality diplomacy is so back!!! And my evidence is that the legendary Finnish architect Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium is becoming Finland’s answer to Camp David (the US President's retreat for international diplomacy). The Norwegian design firm Snøhetta has unveiled a masterplan to transform the Paimio Sanatorium, which is Alvar and Aino Aalto's 1933 functionalist masterpiece (originally a tuberculosis treatment centre).
It shall become a luxury wellness resort and diplomatic retreat, where the prior patient rooms are hotel suites that feature Aalto-designed ceramic basins and all. And if you know Aalto, you know that everything has a function.
Case in point is the Paimio chair that has a place for your arms to ameliorate correct breathing (see below).
It almost goes without saying that there are saunas (with direct forest access), and it’s conceptualized to become the background for healing diplomacy.
The property is awaiting its UNESCO World Heritage designation decision, and they are also on a lookout for premium hotel operators (calling the tPH network!).
Why I love this project, and why I think it’s the perfect lovechild of wellness and hospitality, is that the building was designed to heal people through architecture and natural light, fresh air, and closeness to nature.
I’m near-certain that coolcations in the Nordics will be the hit of next summer following the extreme heatwaves in Europe this time around, so seeing these heritage-oozing projects come to life feels like perfect timing. See you all in Finland next summer! Read more about the project here.
The beautiful, functional Paimio Sanatorium.
What I’m reading, watching, or listening to; hospitality-related or not. Consider it a peek into what’s influencing my thinking.
I’m deep in summer mode, and I hope you, dear guest, are too.
I’ve been doing crossword puzzles and letting my mind float elsewhere than hospitality. Which is obviously happening in a hospitality setting. The irony!
Still, I think you must read this conversation between Sierra Blake, MPS, LADC and I about wellness and hospitality, regarding the well-being in hospitality report that I edited. I think you’ll love it if you are interested/believe in/understand the connection between employee wellbeing and guest experience in hospitality.
A hotel that has been on my radar.
In a couple of months I’m heading to Southern California, which is the promised land of healing vortexes and wellness hospitality (which also means that great and never-seen-before tPH reportage is coming up).
One of the properties on my radar is Estancia La Jolla, which is a ranch-esque stay (it’s a former equestrian estate) in the already anti-inflammatory setting of the seaside community.
I’m ready to soak up the healing waters of La Jolla. But first, Lago di Como and the rest of the summer in Finland.
That’s all for this edition of The Lobby. I’m so happy you’re here and hope you’re enjoying your summer as much as I am!
As always, my messages are open, so if you’d ever feel like chatting hospitality, wellness, philosophy, or the world, you know where to find me.
🔑 Emma
Love seeing these generational legacy transitions. I just interviewed Ian Swain II on taking over his dad’s company
If I think back at what I was doing at 22, I feel extremely behind.
Also "Midjourney Medical" feels like a cartoon show from the creators of Rick and Morty where they experiment on Bryan Johnson