You may remember the old saying that the more things change the more they remain the same. Given the hundreds of thousands of hotel operations throughout the United States, you can bet that whatever new ideas are reported on in the press really have been done before.

I have just returned from an all too brief trip to Vienna, Austria, where a very savvy hotel owner about one hundred years ago realized that his hotel was too small to accommodate the crowds of late night customers in search of an after theater light meal. His solution? Build dining facilities with expanded seating out on the sidewalks surrounding the property. He also started the idea of creating a signature dish which people could purchase and take home with them or give to friends who had invited them over for a party. The hotel? Does Sacher ring a bell? Google it and see a very well done website with a nice recap of its official corporate history.

My theme for this article concerns free standing facilities; food and beverage facilities that are outside the walls of the main hotel building. (Or, at least, architecturally, appearing to be separate from the hotel.) When proposing this ...