The project team traveled all over the world, researching and negotiating, until we finally came up with a plan to renovate one of the towers of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. It had taken us about five years from the time the project team formed to reach this point. This first venture was not a stand-alone hotel. Instead, we transformed 181 of the 2,000 rooms in the Caesars Palace tower into the Nobu Hotel. Of course, it housed a Nobu restaurant, too, the concept for which was created by a team led by corporate chef Thomas Buckley and myself. Hotel management was handled by Caesars Palace, which kept our risk in that area relatively small. Still, the scale of a hotel is different from that of a restaurant. I felt energized and excited, just like when we were launching the first Nobu while I was still running Matsuhisa in Los Angeles.
REFLECTING NOBU CONCEPTS IN HOTEL SERVICE
Although we used the staff and know-how of Caesars Palace for hotel management, the service concept for Nobu Hotel was designed by Nobu Hospitality, a company we established to direct our expansion into the hotel business. Meir, De Niro, and I each played a key role in the company’s management, and Meir, in particular, was very involved in negotiating a broad range of issues with Caesars Palace.
The structure was similar to our approach with Nobu restaurants, in which we provided the concept and the expertise while the local owner actually ran the business. The interior design was entrusted to the Rockwell Group, which had already designed many Nobu restaurants, including Nobu New York.
We began by taking particular care in choosing the bedding because most people spend the majority of their time at a hotel sleeping. Based on our experiences traveling around the world, Meir and I advised on what kind of beds, pillows, and sheets provide the best night’s sleep. The comfort of the bed and bedding was not our only focus of concern. Meir and I had both experienced the inconvenience of needing an extension cord in order to plug in our smartphones and laptops by the bedside. The layout of electrical outlets was thus another important consideration.
The design concept was Japanese-style, and we therefore replaced slippers with zori sandals woven from toweling, and bathrobes with light, cotton kimonos known as yukata. I wanted to put a Japanese Washlet, the most advanced toilet in the world, in every room, but in the end, due to budget considerations, we limited these to the suites only.
Speaking of Washlets, a TOTO sales rep came and installed one in Matsuhisa Los Angeles just when we were first becoming popular. I’m sure he thought it would be great publicity because many of our regulars were celebrities. People who used the toilet would come back to their seats and say, “Nobu, great!” We were always running out of the TOTO business cards we left in the washroom, which shows how much our guests loved that toilet. Like Japanese cuisine, the Washlet is a fine example of Japanese artisanship and attention to detail.
We made the sinks at the hotel quite deep. Sometimes I like to wash a few things by hand when traveling, and it’s much easier to do that in a deeper sink. I wanted to install a Japanese bath in every room, too. The Japanese bath is a deep soaking tub that overflows when you settle into it. The floor of the bathroom has a drain, and you wash yourself outside the bath before getting in. Once again, however, the budget wouldn’t allow it. Instead, I settled for placing a wooden stool in each shower room. In the West, people stand up to take a shower, but Japanese are used to sitting down to wash, so we decided to introduce that approach. Although we had to give up on installing Japanese baths in Las Vegas, this is a dream I hope to realize in the future as we continue to create more hotels.
WELCOMING OUR GUESTS WITH JAPANESE TEA AND SEMBEI CRACKERS
The person mainly responsible for deciding hotel operations and detailed furnishings was Gigi Vega, vice president of Caesars Palace and general manager of Nobu Hotel. With twenty-four years of hotel management experience, she is an expert in service. She listened intently to what I had to say and worked extremely hard to make sure that the Nobu Style permeated the hotel. Even when choosing such little details as the soap and shampoo, for example, she asked me what kind of scent I liked. “I really only care about how food smells,” I said, “although I prefer everything to be simple.” She then had soap and shampoo samples made with different blends of ingredients that fit her image of “simple” and personally tried them out, finally choosing a delicate scent called “rosemary and white tea.”
In each room, guests arrive to find Japanese tea and a Nobu original teapot to welcome them. This is a custom I picked up from Japanese inns, which always provide tea and sweets in the room. At Nobu Hotel, instead of sweets, we offer Japanese rice crackers called sembei. I happen to love sembei, perhaps because Sugito, the town where I was born and raised, is famous for its Soka sembei. I decided to serve these packaged in an original Nobu wrapper. Made from rice and basted with soy sauce, they are very crunchy and flavorful.
To serve these Soka sembei at the hotel, however, I needed to import them. I contacted several sembei manufacturers in Sugito, but none of them believed me when I said I wanted them for a hotel in Las Vegas. When I asked them to send a sample, they refused, thinking it was some kind of scam. I didn’t know what to do. A junior high school classmate, however, happened to know the third-generation owner of a sembei shop called Hayashiya. It makes me quite happy to think that by creating Nobu Hotel, I can now give something back to my hometown.
For many Japanese, I think that sembei is the taste of home. Yet even though it is so representative of Japan, this snack is not well known elsewhere. That is another reason I chose it as a way to welcome our guests: I wanted to introduce it to the world. It would be fun if sembei became so popular that it inspired someone in America to try making something similar.
The minibar in each room contains Hokusetsu sake and Matsuhisa’s original wine. When staff usher guests into their room, they explain that these are Chef Nobu’s choice.
Welcome tea service with Japanese tea and sembei crackers.
Shower room.
Deep sink in the washroom.
TWENTY-FOUR-HOUR NOBU ROOM SERVICE
Breakfast, as a rule, is served in the room. The guest orders from a room service menu that includes such traditional Japanese fare as yudofu (lightly boiled tofu) and grilled fish. But limiting the menu to conventional Japanese dishes would be boring, so I decided to come up with something that anyone anywhere can eat yet is still very Japanese. The result was the Scrambled Egg Donburi. No matter where you go in the world, hotels always serve eggs for breakfast. In Japan, they also always serve grilled fish and nori seaweed. My breakfast bowl combines all of these ingredients in one dish. I lay toasted nori on rice and then add a layer of flaked grilled salmon. I top all of this with scrambled eggs and a sprinkling of ikura (salmon roe). Because this is a hotel, we also offer Western-style dishes, but we add a Japanese touch even to these. Our green tea waffles, for example, are extremely popular.
Room service is offered twenty-four hours a day. The chefs work in three shifts of eight hours each in the kitchen. None of us at Nobu had experienced this shift pattern before. But I saw it as an opportunity for our chefs to expand their potential. At first, our corporate chef, Thomas Buckley, and our executive sushi chef, Takahiro Otomo, faced many challenges, such as coordinating operations with the executive chef responsible for overseeing all of the many restaurants within Caesars Palace. But I kept encouraging them. It’s up to each individual to grab the opportunity, I told them. Great achievers are people who can learn from any situation and make that knowledge their own. That’s what it means to have a “hungry spirit.”
ONE MANAGER’S COURAGEOUS DECISION
We reassigned many of those employed at Nobu Las Vegas in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to the restaurant in Nobu Hotel. Chef Otomo was promoted from second sushi chef at Nobu Las Vegas to Nobu Hotel’s executive sushi chef, while Annie Kim, who had worked for many years as the Nobu Las Vegas general manager, became general manager of the new restaurant. The Nobu at Nobu Hotel, however, was very different from
any other Nobu restaurant. Not only did it seat 374 guests, but it also offered breakfast and room service. Coordinating service to the hotel rooms added on a large-scale operation that we had never had to deal with before. When it first opened, the restaurant was booked so full that some of the guests staying at the hotel were unable to eat there. Realizing that the scale of this new stage was a little too large for her to handle, Annie asked the chief operating officer, Fumihiro Tahara, better known as Hiro, to demote her. When Hiro consulted me about her request, I recognized this as a courageous decision on her part and, wanting to support that, agreed to accept it. Her decision wasn’t made from a concern for appearances or for what others would think, but rather from an understanding of what was best for the restaurant and also for herself.
I promoted Bryan Shinohara, who had been working under her, to the position of general manager, and moved Annie to second-in-command. For Bryan, the promotion was a priceless opportunity, and he worked to take full advantage of it. Annie, who had asked to be demoted, took charge of operations within the restaurant, and has been doing a great job. I think that this incident further broadened her perspective. Now, it is as if we have two very capable managers. An organization in which everyone does their best makes it possible to assign staff flexibly like this so that everyone can grow.
If we try something new but find that the challenge is beyond our ability, it’s okay to take time out to build up our skills and then try again. If we keep on trying, we will definitely learn to do it. People like Annie, who recognize their lack of ability and take the time to develop it, who strive to make the impossible possible, will always grow and develop. On the other hand, people who throw in the towel as soon as something doesn’t work out can never accomplish anything. Life won’t always be smooth sailing, so when adversity strikes, just tell yourself that you’ve returned to your starting point.
I entered the world of cooking at the age of seventeen. I spent the first three years at the bottom of the heap, washing dishes, making deliveries, cleaning tables, and pouring tea. I believe that I have become what I am today because of this experience. If I had skipped that stage, I might have become one of those owners who doesn’t understand the feelings of their staff. Nor would I have developed the ability to supervise every part of the operation.
Often, we only become aware of the value of such experiences much later. There are countless examples of people for whom an experience at the time was nothing but agony, yet who now look back on it with gratitude. No experience is ever wasted.
When climbing from one level to the next, we might, in our haste, be tempted to skip a step instead of taking them one at a time. But if we miss that step, we may never have another opportunity to gain that experience. Even if it slows us down, taking each step one at a time helps us to truly grasp the value of everything we need to reach where we are going. Personally, I don’t think racing up the stairs is always the best way to get somewhere.
No matter how big the organization, people who are chosen as leaders share certain qualities in common. I am not talking about ability or achievements. Rather, it is a bit like choosing who will be the class rep in elementary school. What counts is whether or not that person is someone others want to follow. It is when timing, character, and passion coincide that a person emerges as a leader. When someone is not chosen, this doesn’t mean that his or her capacity isn’t recognized. It just means that at that particular time, there is something else that person should be doing.
A RESTAURANT WHERE YOUNG EMPLOYEES THRIVE FEELS GREAT
In Nobu restaurants today, there are many stages at which our employees can shine. I personally think we’ve built a great system that allows people to step up their careers by identifying their next goal and working toward it. And I think this is the result of carefully fostering the development of each individual restaurant.
For me, the ideal restaurant is one where junior employees are eagerly learning and progressing, not one where I can boss people around. Young people who are working hard and developing quickly will listen intently to every little piece of advice. This makes me want to teach them more, and they, in turn, develop even further. If there is even one employee like this in a restaurant, all the rest will be swept along, until everyone is advancing their skills and feeling great about it.
If you want happy staff, the key is good communication, not money. When someone listens empathetically, it makes us feel good. Such a relationship of trust inspires us to strive even harder. It’s impossible to build a true organization with a management approach that relies on money as the sole incentive for staff improvement. Although money helps us to make a living, it can never make us happy.
PIONEERING NEW THINGS IS ALWAYS MET WITH CRITICISM
Our first hotel opened in Las Vegas. But it did not have to be there. We might have been just as successful if we had opened one in New York. It is not the location that matters, but how hard we strive to make sure that later we are glad that we started it where we did.
Many people have criticized me for venturing into the hotel business. Some have warned me not to assume that my success with restaurants will translate over. I see this as a kind of baptism, one that can’t be avoided when attempting something new. I guess that no chef before me has tried their hand at the hotel business. But I have been through this process many times before.
The Japanese sake, Hokusetsu, which is loved by Nobu guests the world over, is a good example. When I started serving it, no one believed that this sake, which was little known in Japan, would one day be enjoyed worldwide. Recently, we have begun serving it in wineglasses. This actually started in 2008 at the Matsuhisa restaurant in Greece when we were doing a Sake Dinner promotion. Traditionally, sake is served in a ceramic flask called a tokkuri. People tip the sake into little cups, or ochoko, usually pouring for each other. I felt, however, that if we wanted to make sake better known to the rest of the world, we needed to upgrade its image. Pouring chilled sake into a wineglass not only makes it classier, but it also allows our guests to enjoy the bouquet, just as they would for wine. In addition, it makes it more accessible to women, allowing them to drink it with elegance and to experience its flavor. If this style spreads internationally, we will have contributed to the dissemination of Japanese sake. I see no reason not to try something a little different when it has such great potential.
Our custom-made chirori is another example. In Japan, these small metal kettles were traditionally used to heat sake at the hearth. Again, in the beginning, no one believed that these would be used by Nobu restaurants throughout the world. Originally, we used bamboo vessels to serve sake. These were imported from northeastern Japan, but due to the impact of the earthquake and tsunami in 2011, we could no longer obtain them. Although that was very sad, I was determined to turn misfortune into opportunity. I therefore arranged for artisans in the Tsubamesanjo region, which is famous for its metalworking technology, to make an original chirori for use at Nobu restaurants.
With De Niro at the opening of Nobu Hotel in Las Vegas. (Photo by Erik Kabik)
We are very fortunate to have many discerning guests who understand the difference in the quality of what we offer. Nobu can now serve as a vehicle to naturally introduce superior products to the world without the need for advertising. We simply incorporate these things as part of Nobu service. I think that this is one of the great attractions of the Nobu brand.
DEVELOPING ORIGINAL TABLEWARE TO CONVEY JAPANESE CONCEPTS
At Nobu, we have been making our own original tableware since 2003. Before that, we ordered all our dishes from a commercial provider. A manufacturer, however, proposed that I develop my own brand. This idea caught my interest. When Matsuhisa was still the only restaurant I ran, I once designed dishes with a morning glory motif. It was a set of five plates, beginning with a morning glory in the bud. As the meal progressed, the morning glory gradually unfurled until by the fifth and last plate, it was in full bloom.
My first design for
Nobu was a plate that would not be marred by fingerprints. No matter how clean a plate is, it is bound to acquire a fingerprint or two along the way when we place food on it and carry it to the table. I had always hated the thought of that fingerprint marring the plate while our guests tried to enjoy their meal. I therefore hit upon the idea of giving the edge of the plate a matte finish so that it would not show any fingerprints. I also came up with designs for a series of dishes with pine, bamboo, and plum motifs, as well as a clock plate design and a simple oval-shaped plate.
Unlike conventional Western-style plates, these designs all incorporated the concept of shomen, the Japanese word for “front.” The fact that there is meaning even in the direction in which a dish is placed is the quintessence of Japanese cuisine, and I wanted to express this in the design. The clock motif was a convenient way of demonstrating the concept of a “front” to people who don’t know Japanese culture. Just saying “six o’clock” helps them to understand.
I came up with many more designs after that, including a plate just for Black Cod with Miso and an extremely simple yet functional sushi plate with an indentation for soy sauce. Almost all Nobu tableware is white. I think of plates as a canvas to which the chef can freely add color. Plates with gorgeous designs may overpower the food, and that would be a waste.
All the Nobu restaurants use the tableware I designed, which means that you can eat the same cuisine from the same plates anywhere in the world. This makes it easier to maintain the consistency of the Nobu brand.
A THANK-YOU LETTER FROM A CRUISE PASSENGER
Nobu Page 12