Hotel menu caters to local showgoers

The Wyndham Orange County may boast a swank new lobby and registration area this spring, as the hotel’s general manager is seeking to introduce new decor and a small-plates menu to attract patrons from the nearby performing arts venues.

General Manager Tom Smalley, also the president of Costa Mesa’s Conference and Visitor Bureau, said he hoped to start the renovation soon and have it completed by the end of spring.

Among the changes planned are added seating with high and low tables and several flat-screen televisions to show performing arts-themed DVDs.

“The challenge is to find construction folks who will work from 11 at night to 7 in the morning, so it doesn’t interfere with customers,” Smalley said.

Part of the reason for the revamping, he added, was due to Wyndham’s increased popularity among people en route to and from shows at the Orange County Performing Artscenter and South Coast Repertory, both a few minutes’ walk from the hotel.

The Wyndham already offers a package in which customers who spend $50 or more on food at the hotel before a show get 20% off food and beverages afterward.

The small-plates menu, Smalley said, would change seasonally and feature an eclectic selection for the area’s increasingly diverse crowd.

The Wyndham may undergo an even larger renovation in the future, as the Costa Mesa City Council approved in November a plan by the property’s owner to add a high-rise residential tower, reduce the number of hotel rooms and build a spa on the first floor. The hotel may close during the expansion, but no official start date has been set, and Smalley said the project has been put on indefinite hold.

Representatives for Makar Properties, the firm in charge of the high-rise project, did not return calls seeking comment.

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].