EVEN™ Hotels Announces Cork & Kale™ Wellness-Focused Food and Beverage Concept

EVEN™ Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group's (IHG) [LON: IHG; NYSE: IHG (ADRs)] newest brand, created to meet the needs of wellness-minded travelers, today introduces the Cork & Kale™ food and beverage platform focused on simple, natural and good ingredients. The F&B platform is based on the EVEN brand's commitment to offering guests a variety of healthy and great tasting menu options that elevate their hotel experience while helping them maintain their routine on the road. The Cork & Kale platform is a consistent F&B offering, which will be available at all EVEN Hotels properties, the first of which are set to open before the end of June 2014 in Norwalk, Connecticut, and Rockville, Maryland.

Vucurevich Simons Advisory Group (VSAG), developers of the American family farmer-inspired Founding Farmers restaurant and Farmers Restaurant Group, based in Washington D.C., and SPE® Certified culinary nutritional consultants collaborated with IHG to develop and provide nutritional analysis for a menu consisting of high-quality food and fresh ingredients, with many menu items meeting SPE's Sourcing / Preparing / Enhancing certification requirements. In helping to develop the custom offering, VSAG worked with IHG to design a new hotel F&B service model and planned, designed and built a working test kitchen used to validate all recipes, equipment and processes.

Designed to enhance the nutritional quality of meals without compromising taste, SPE Certified's scientifically-grounded criteria is vetted by chefs, culinary nutritionists and a scientific committee comprised of world-renowned nutrition and health experts. This ensures that each SPE Certified dish is healthy, sustainable and most of all, delicious. SPE's clients include some of the most notable names in the foodservice industry, including Celebrity Cruises, LYFE Kitchen, Organic Avenue, Michelin-starred Danji restaurant and theWit Chicago, among others.

"We created Cork & Kale based on the idea that whether guests are fueling up for a long day of meetings, hitting the gym, or just trying to relax with a great cocktail or delicious smoothie, they should have access to good-for-you choices made with simple and natural ingredients that also taste great," said Adam Glickman, head of EVEN™ Hotels. "Additionally, they should be able to expect those same healthy options – morning to night – at every one of our hotels. We designed our food and beverage offering to better meet the needs of wellness-minded travelers by consistently offering them tastes and products they are familiar with and trust in a slightly more elevated way than they might enjoy at home."

Cork & Kale is an upscale, fast casual food and beverage offering featuring freshly prepared food and pre-packaged grab-and-go items, as well as retail-style products. The Cork & Kale Market will feature various choices for guests including heart-healthy and low-fat options, paleo or vegetarian-friendly dishes, as well as sweet indulgences. Through the "Good to Go" service, guests can pre-order balanced meals before 9 p.m. each night and pick up their breakfast or lunch the next morning on their way out the door, providing them with fuel for their entire day. EVEN Hotels Eat Well (F&B-focused) team members will undergo a certification process to understand and communicate to guests information about the full EVEN Hotels menu, including nutritional content and health benefits each item offers, such as those that contain superfoods, are calming, or boost brain power, among others. Complete nutritional information will be available for all EVEN Hotels menu items.

With the understanding that wellness means something different to each traveler, EVEN Hotels properties will also offer a full, upscale Cork & Kale Bar experience daily featuring hand-crafted cocktails made with fresh herbs, natural mixers and organic spirits, as well as a selection of beer and wine, all designed to help guests maintain their balance while traveling.

"The collaboration with IHG, at each step of the food and beverage program development for EVEN Hotels, was one of the most successful we've ever experienced," said Dan Simons, Principal of Vucurevich Simons Advisory Group. "As a company that also recognizes the importance of healthy lifestyles, we're all proud to have had the opportunity to work with such an amazing group of leaders in this movement. We look forward to seeing the EVEN brand, and Cork & Kale, grow and thrive."

The EVEN Hotels brand concept was born from more than 24 months of consumer insights research and offers a holistic approach to enabling wellness in travel. The brand offers a fresh perspective on wellness travel and provides guests a variety of options to help them Eat Well, Rest Easy, Keep Active and Accomplish More, all supported by in-hotel and mobile technologies, and a unique team member education and certification program.