Executive Orders, Washington, D.C., Convention Center

By Donna Boss, Contributing Editor -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 7/1/2004

Photos by Jon Muscalo and Donna Boss

Six months ago, the doors to one of the country's largest convention centers were opened in the nation's capital. Located two blocks from the downtown site of the former conference facility, the new Washington Convention Center features 2.3 million-square-feet of space, including more than 700,000-square-feet of exhibit areas in five halls, 125,000-square-feet of meeting rooms, 65 loading docks and a $4 million art collection. Adhering to the District of Columbia's building height restrictions, the center's tallest point is 110 feet above street level (the lobby's ceiling reaches up 90 feet), while the lowest point is located 36 below ground.

On any given day, as many as 20,000 conventioneers may attend events in the center. One of attendees' foodservice options is Executive Orders, a dining pavilion that is located 16 feet below street level and managed by Centerplate of Spartanburg, S.C., and National Business Services Enterprises of Washington, D.C. Although other foodservice options are available in the center, this is the only one featuring upscale quick-casual concepts.

Occupying 18,500-square-feet, the food hall measures 412 feet long, but is only 45 feet at its widest point. Lining both sides of the restaurant are a total of seven themed concepts, each with an open production area and adjacent seating spaces that are decorated with each concept's contemporary color scheme and motif. Along the north side of the restaurant are Subculture, a specialty coffee station and deli with menus written by Terrell Danley, executive chef at Sam & Harry's Group; Foggy Bottom Grill, a concept offering American fare, including burgers, prime rib, garlic fries, draft root beer and draft beer; Thoi, an Asian section offering menus developed by Thoi Nguyen, owner of Nam Viet and Pho 79; Bello Pronto, an Italian concept featuring dishes by Cesare Lanfranconia, managing partner and executive chef of the district's Tosca Ristorante and Bello Pronto Management; and Seafood, featuring products from Phillips (a casual seafood chain).

On the opposite side of the pavilion, separated from the north side by porcelain tile flooring with polished granite accents, are Dona Maria, a south-of-the-border concept offering Latin American cuisine; a Wolfgang Puck Express, featuring gourmet-style pizza, Chinois chicken salad, sandwiches and soups; and two designated beverage counters with soft drink and ice dispensers, and airpot brewers and racks for hot beverages.

"The space was designed so customers would feel as though they are walking from neighborhood to neighborhood as they pass the concepts," stated Jon Muscalo, vice president, Facilities, Design and Capital Purchasing for Centerplate. The food court's color scheme at one end is bright with assertive colors while the other displays a cooler palette. The multi-concept food hall's interior decoration was the conception of Kay Pangraze, principal, PK3 Design, Greenville, S.C. Muscalo proudly pointed out that he and Pangraze selected most of the décor items during a shopping spree at the Atlanta Merchandise Mart.

"In addition to placing seven concepts in the narrow space allotted for the restaurant," explained Muscalo, "our engineers, Bredson Associates, had to distribute utilities through the low ceiling, as well as install proper lighting while maintaining an overhead height that wouldn't take away from a comfortable dining experience for guests. In addition, we had to run the exhaust ducts down through the floor into the loading dock area of the facility - which is on the ground floor, 36 feet below street level - and then up to the roof, 110 feet above."

Finding sufficient storage space was also problematic. The only area available near the food concepts was a narrow service corridor on the south side of the pavilion. Each concept was allocated its own dry storage area and walk-in cooler. At least once a day, fresh food ingredients, bread and packaged and paper products are brought to these storage areas in concept-designated, locked security carts from the convention center's main commissaries, one of which is located within the building but six city blocks away from Executive Orders. Also in this back-of-the-house is a centralized utility and warewashing area equipped with a garbage disposal and utensil storage.

If all these challenges weren't sufficient, due to the narrow width and low ceiling of the back-of-the-house service corridor, a custom-designed remote chiller system had to be installed for the facility's seven walk-in coolers and eight ice machines in order to prevent heat buildup.

The most difficult feat performed in the front of the house was unquestionably figuring out how to position and install a 7,000-pound pizza oven required for the Wolfgang Puck Express operation (Centerplate is a Puck franchisee). "We had to bring the oven in early during the construction process," noted Muscalo. "Fifteen months before the restaurant opened, we had to take out windows and bring in a special forklift to hoist the oven up to the food hall level, 20 feet above the exhibit hall floor."

Positioned at the east end of the food hall, the Seafood concept's equipment includes a steam griddle, an infrared charbroiler, a fryer battery and dump station, a humidified hot food cabinet, a granite thermal shelf, a kettle-type soup warmer and a drop-in ice pan.

Today, each themed concept is self-contained and designed with E&S capable of supporting the types of cuisine served. "The menus are simple, yet use high-quality ingredients that are prepared fresh daily," said Muscalo. "Therefore, the equipment package had to be ample but not extravagant, and assure very efficient production as we may put through 2,500 people in one lunch period."

"Our objective was to bridge the gap between à la minute service and traditional quick-service operations," commented the project's foodservice consultant and space planner, John DePaola, principal, Foodservice Resources, Fredericksburg, Va. "We needed specific equipment to make that happen. We wanted to provide the quality of made-to-order food with a system designed to serve large numbers of customers."

Among the pieces of equipment installed at each station (where appropriate) are custom-designed sneeze guards (which DePaola called "minimalist"), hand and utility sinks, shelving, refrigerated display cases, undercounter and upright refrigerators (all of which can be transformed into freezers), fire suppression systems, pendant-style warming lights and POS terminals, which were installed at each station in order to expedite the speed of transactions and minimize the time customers must spend waiting in line. At each counter's front side are refrigerated display cases and ice bins for bottled beverages and granite hot plates with pendant heat lamps overhead.

At Subculture, one side consists of a specialty coffee station, while the other is a deli where sandwiches are made-to-order and packaged for refrigerated display. Salads are also offered here. In addition to the equipment mentioned above, this station has a frozen beverage dispenser, a double airpot brewer, an airpot rack, two 60-inch sandwich and salad prep tables that hold 12-inch by 20-inch hotel pans, two sheet pan racks, a conveyor toaster, a convection oven, a slicer and a humidified hot food cabinet. At the counter are refrigerated display cases and induction cookers/warmers used for merchandising soup. At Foggy Bottom Grill, a 72-inch steam griddle was installed along with a charbroiler, fryer battery and dump station, and a 60-inch sandwich and salad prep table that is used to produce this concept's American fare. "We selected the steam griddle because of the speed with which it can cook menu items, as well as its consistency," explained Muscalo. Also at this station is a granite thermal shelf and two-drawer food warmers, in addition to an exhaust hood designed to be functional, as well as attractive.

The adjacent Thoi station features appetizers such as California rolls and crispy spring rolls, salads, soups and main entrées, including chicken shrimp pad thai, kung pao and caramel pork with rice. This station was equipped with induction warmers, a humidified hot food cabinet, two noodle stations, a wok range, a griddle, a fryer and a steamer. Granite bases are used to radiate heat from below while pendant heat lamps keep food warm from above.

The next station, Bello Pronto, features Italian-style soups, salads, pasta dishes such as ravioli and penne with various Italian meats and cheeses, as well as panini sandwiches and desserts. Its equipment includes a convection oven, a gas six-burner cooktop with refrigerated drawers beneath, two pasta cookers, three panini grills, a humidified hot food cabinet, a heated granite shelf and a drop-in ice pan. The same granite bases and lights installed at Thoi are used here.

At the far end of the lineup is Seafood, a concept featuring products from Phillips' line of seafood products. Offered here are platters of crab cakes, coconut mahi mahi or crispy shrimp, all served with fries. Also available are house-made salads, soups and desserts. The menu items are cooked on a steam griddle, an infrared charbroiler, a fryer battery and dump station, and held in a humidified hot food cabinet, a granite thermal shelf, a kettle-type soup warmer, a drop-in ice pan, and sloped iced display counter dedicated to raw seafood entrées.

Key Equipment List
1. Warming lights 2. Sneeze guard 3. Heated granite shelf 4. Steam griddle 5. Refrigerated equipment stand 6. Infrared charbroiler 7. Exhaust ventilator 8. Undercounter refrigerator 9. Wall shelf 10. Sandwich & salad prep table 11. Dump station 12. Fryer battery	13. 2-section refrigerator 14. Fire suppression system 15. Hand sink 16. Shelving 17. Butcher-block counter 18. Drop-in utility sink 19. 2-drawer food warmer 20. POS terminal 21. Refrigerated display case 22. Soup cooker/warmer 23. Food warmer, drop-in	24. 1-section refrigerator 25. Steamer 26. Steam griddle 27. Wok range 28. Noodle station w/sink 29. Drop-in ice pan 30. Soup warmer, kettle-style 31. Ice display counter 32. Worktable 33. Humidified hot food cabinet 34. 3-section freezer 35. Induction warmers

On the opposite side of the pavilion, across from Subculture, is Dona Maria, which features Latin American-style menu items. Sandwiches, quesadillas, Latin salads and house specialties such as lime-grilled chicken burritos are made on a 60-inch sandwich and salad prep table, a quesadilla griddle and four-well hot food table, as well as equipment found at nearly all stations.

At Wolfgang Puck Express, in addition to the gas-fired brick oven used to bake gourmet-style pizzas, the concept is equipped with a pizza landing table and another prep table where sandwiches and salads are assembled, two refrigerated display cases, two maple top pizza holding tables and two custom maple-top soup counters.

Though the Washington Convention Center and Executive Orders are still in their infancy, they are receiving a full-scale endurance test as large groups come to meet and dine in the enormous space. So far, customer feedback has been extremely positive, according to Lyn Mayer, acting general manager for operations for Centerplate. "We believe this to be a unique food concept in a convention facility," concluded Muscalo. "It is very large, offers limited menus at seven diverse concepts, yet provides high-quality restaurant-style food." What better place to aim high and raise customers' expectations for convention center foodservice than in one of the world's grand seats of power, this nation's capital.