Richard Brumm, Director of Culinary Operations, Executive Chef, Bonita Bay Club
When it comes to club kitchen design, Richard Brumm, WCEC, CEC, CCA, AAC, Director of Culinary Operations and Executive Chef of Bonita Bay Club in Bonita Springs, Fla., emphasizes the importance of anticipating the future requirements of a facility. By prioritizing forward-thinking design, he ensures that the kitchen remains adaptable and equipped to meet the evolving needs and expectations of the club.
“For example,” he says, “the first renovation we did when I came on board was a new member bar: 60-80 covers, small plates, appetizers, basically a pre-dinner space. And that’s what we built.”
But from the first night it was open, he says, members wanted to use it as a regular, more traditional dining venue. Today, the kitchen does 180-220 covers per night in-season.
“I’ve renovated that specific kitchen six times since it was built to try to get it to the point where it can produce at the level the members want,” says Brumm. “As we’ve built kitchens after that, we’ve gotten better and better at designing them for what we need.”
Factoring Future Needs
Bonita Bay Club’s most recent project is a full rebuild of its second clubhouse, which started this summer.
“The [Naples Club] used to be in the middle of nowhere,” says Brumm. “Over the past 12 years, the sprawl of Naples has brought the city around the club. As that area expands and grows, the dynamics of our membership will also change. We need a facility with the infrastructure to eventually do dinner, breakfast and more extensive banquet operations.”
The new kitchen will feature a dedicated banquet facility and a garde manger space. But pastry will be done out of Bonita Bay’s central hub, along with pasta production and some other from-scratch operations—a system Brumm finds most efficient.
Construction is expected to take a year, he says. And while some of the current equipment is still functional, the question becomes whether the cost of proper, temperature-controlled storage outweighs purchasing new equipment.
“What we’re finding, especially with some of the older pieces, is that it’s more fiscally sound to let it go,” says Brumm. “So we’re looking at donating some items to our local culinary schools and local nonprofits, trying to do some good for the community.”
When it comes to these types of considerations, Brumm adds, chefs should beware of value engineering during the initial design process—a lesson he learned the hard way.
“It’s important to decide whether the cost-savings on the front side is really beneficial in the long run,” he says. “When you’re building a new kitchen, you must think 10, 20, 30 years down the line. Is it going to stand the test of time?”
‘Keeping Up With Club Kitchen Design’ is a three-part C+RC series. The original article first appeared in the July issue of Club + Resort Chef magazine. Click here to read about Belleair Country Club and here for Farmington Country Club, parts 1 and 2 of the series.
Watch the video below, courtesy of Bonita Bay Club, for a recent progress report on the Naples Club project:
