McMenamins

This is the first installment in a series of blogs about our new Zeus Café at the Crystal Hotel, opening on May 3 in downtown Portland. Here, we address the "guest experience."

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We're just days away from flinging open the Crystal Hotel doors and letting the party out into the streets of Portland! Because a party it is, as evidenced by the sneak-peek preview bashes happening this week. Zeus Café has been bubbling over with happy guests sampling food, wine, cocktails and ales while a team of efficient servers tend to their every need.  

It's a fact: Zeus Café is a new paradigm for the McMenamin brothers. It's different than your favorite neighborhood pub, where you grab a pint and a basket of tots.

While you'll still experience the same welcoming, comfortable McMenamins vibe, Zeus Café is a different animal at the hands of managers Hal Finkelstein (formerly of Wildwood - yes, that Wildwood) and Franco D'Amico (formerly of El Gaucho - yes, that El Gaucho). They are a dynamic duo, to be sure, and are putting a strong emphasis on what they call the "guest experience."

So just what is the Zeus Café "guest experience"? You'll be attentively taken care of and appreciated - whether you're there for a coffee and a pastry at 7 a.m. before work or a glass of wine and some housemade chips after a concert at 1 a.m. Not only has Zeus Café hired from the best and brightest within the McMenamins properties, but there is also a contingent of wait staff from "the outside" - professional food industry "lifers," if you will, with a dedication and loyalty to the guest experience.

Stop by Zeus Café for breakfast, lunch, dinner and happy hour, beginning at 7 a.m. on May 3. We look forward to turning you into a Zeus Café regular.

Tomorrow, read the next installment about what you can expect from our Zeus Café menus...

About the author: Kerry Beeaker has been part of our crack McMenamins marketing staff since 2005.