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Hotels cut fine dining Photo by Jim Craven The Rogue Regency Inn in Medford is one of the last large hotels in the Rogue Valley area that offers fine dining -- dinners above the coffee shop level. Two Medford inns have closed unprofitable dining rooms By DAVID PRESZLER The days of fine dining at Southern Oregon's major hotels appear to be dwindling. Within the past two years, two of the area's three large hotels that featured in-house restaurants have dropped fine dining service. The DoubleTree Hotel in Medford was the latest to do so, dropping regular dinner service through its Misty's Grill as of March 1. DoubleTree general manager Todd Thoreson said the restaurant just didn't do enough regular dinner business to justify keeping it open. "We've seen declining demand in that restaurant for many years," he said. "Frankly, we just haven't had the demand." The DoubleTree's other restaurant, the Coffee Garden, still offers family dining from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The hotel still offers lunch and Sunday brunch at Misty's and does private parties in the dining room. Combined with the closure in late 1997 of the restaurant at Windmill's Ashland Hills Inn, the DoubleTree's decision leaves just one major hotel still offering fine dining for dinner: The Rogue Regency Inn in Medford. Rogue Regency manager Bruce Hoevet said the hotel has no plans to close its restaurant. "We do generate a profit on ours, as small as it may be," Hoevet said. "It's very important, we feel, for the guests to have that amenity." While the Regency promotes its service as fine dining, Thoreson points out that the DoubleTree and the Regency both feature a single restaurant with a wide range of items -- so the operations aren't that different. He says the presence of former McCully House chef William Prahl helps the Regency get that fine-dining feel. Such distinctions aside, Hoevet, Thoreson and Windmill's Ashland Hills Inn president Jean Cauvin agree that running a high-quality, in-house restaurant is increasingly challenging. "It's becoming extremely difficult to attract customers in the hotel facility because people want to go out and try something exciting," Cauvin says. "What's the first thing you do when you go to a hotel? You go to the front desk and ask where the `in' place to eat is and that's where you go. On a stay of three or four days, you may use the in-house facility three or four times. It's become a way of life." Cauvin said his decision in November 1997 to end the Ashland Hills Inn tradition of fine dining was driven by a desire to make the hotel like the other five he owns -- none of which has a restaurant. But strong competition from Ashland's other restaurants and low sales volume played key roles. Cauvin said while people may be willing to spend $25-$27 for an entree at an independent restaurant, many were unwilling to do so in a hotel restaurant. And, with only a few busy months during Ashland's tourist season, there wasn't the volume to keep it going. Steady volume was also the big problem at the DoubleTree's restaurant, Thoreson said. "We've simply reduced operations to fit demand," he said. "We're not viewing it as a negative. We really don't see that we've closed anything down other than a restaurant that wasn't being used." Sit-down restaurant chains, especially in Medford, are also a factor, Thoreson said. Hoevet agreed. "It's changed a little bit with places like Outback Steakhouse, Marie Callender's, Chevy's and Applebee's," he said. "There's only so much of the pie out there. But we're holding our own." Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA