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Top 100: Restaurants – The Bistro - Marriott

The Bistro - Marriott is number 49 on our list of the 2014 Fast Casual Top 100 Movers & Shakers: Restaurants.

January 19, 2015

The Bistro - Marriott is number 49 on our list of the 2014 Fast Casual Top 100 Movers & Shakers: Restaurants.

As the first hotel to make the Top 100 list, The Marriott has proven it belongs in the fast casual industry. Its concept, The Bistro, serves sandwiches, salads and lattes inside 800 Marriott locations and will near 1,000 by 2016, said Lon Southerland, senior director global of food and beverage of Marriott International.

"It has been a tremendous amount of fun leading my team in doing something transformational and actually disruptive in our industry," Southerland said about the chain's opening of 200 units a year for the past three years. "We've sort of flown under the radar and popped up way ahead in many respects, and it is gratifying to see the team being recognized in the industry.

Transition from the hospitality industry standard buffet to a fast casual concept was a sharp turn away from the Marriott's competition, but Southerland was confident The Bistro would resonate with guests.

"Within a couple of years after our launch, a number of the savvy competitors did their own research and learned what we realized early on; they then turned to follow us," he said.

Another first The Bistro takes credit for was posting calories on menus; it made the info available June 1, 2010.

"We take pride in making this decision to post calories well ahead of national legislation, being fully transparent and enabling our customers to make informed choices," Southerland said. "In my opinion this was the right thing to do, and when you do the right thing with the customers' benefit in mind you seldom make a mistake."