Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Sean Christie Sean Christie Born into a family of restaurateurs, developer and operator Sean Christie learned the ropes of hospitality early, eventually carving out his own impressive space in the industry. Spanning multiple bars, nightclubs and restaurants in New York City and Las Vegas, the founder of Carver Road Hospitality ’s most recent ventures are the culinary spaces at CIVILIAN in New York City’s Theater District. This year, the property’s Starchild Rooftop bar served as the backdrop to an illustrious Celebrate Black Broadway event during the Tony Awards hosted by Amber Ruffin and Tituss Burgess.
He also helped launch Rosevale Cocktail Room, a destination for mixology lovers and Vermouth fans, where they can sample specialty curated tasting flights from around the world. Continuously innovating and growing in the culinary and cocktail space, we asked Christie what’s next for him and what trends he’s seeing in hospitality for fall 2024. How did you get your start in hospitality and what led you to found Carver Road Hospitality? Sean Christie: My grandfather and father were restaurateurs, so I grew up in the business from a very early age, leading to my love for hospitality and continued work in the industry, which spans over two decades.
Prior to forming my current company, I was President of Events & Nightlife at MGM Resorts International, and before that Executive Vice President of Business Development at Wynn Resorts. Throughout my career I’ve been responsible for the creation and development of major nightclubs and restaurants across Las Vegas, such as MGM’s On The Record Speakeasy and Club, the Bellagio’s Mayfair Supper Club, and the Wynn’s Encore Beach Club and Surrender Nightclub to name a few. I formed Carver Road Hospitality with my partner, Nelson Famadas, to build a best-in-class hospitality firm that continues to create elevated guest experiences in distinctive spaces.
What's your unique take on hospitality? People want to have fun when they spend their money without sacrificing great food, cocktails, service or ambiance. At Carver Road Hospitality, we sell fun with a tasteful sense of style. From inception to beyond, our goal with every venue is to provide our customers with stellar service-driven culture, and our continued elbow grease, to ensure we’re constantly evolving within the landscape and meeting customers where they are.
Why did you partner with Jason Pomeranc at CIVILIAN? How do you complement each other? Jason is someone who grew up in the industry that I was aware of and always admired. We both recognize the need for more thoughtful food and beverage concepts. He took a shot on us at CIVILIAN, where we opened our first New York-based establishments, Rosevale Kitchen and Cocktail Room and Starchild Rooftop.
We collaborated to curate experiences for hotel guests and the local community by providing unique, fun food and beverage concepts for all visitor needs, including cocktail hour, dinner, and late-night options. We try to pay him and the ownership group back daily by creating these special moments in each venue. MORE FOR YOU Trump Vs.
Harris 2024 Polls: Harris Leads By More Than 5 Points In Latest Survey Secret Service Puts $2.5 Million Bounty On Most Wanted Hacker’s Head Apple iPhone 16 And iPhone 16 Plus: Everything We Know So Far What's trending in 2024 in hospitality? Food and cocktails as playful, fun moments. Food and Beverage spaces have been getting more and more creative with their menus, and guests and social media are really responding to these interactive aspects of hospitality.
People are also looking for inviting social environments that foster new connections. It's exciting to rise to the challenge of creating spaces that will continuously surprise guests, whether it's through our ever-changing programming, or offering them something exciting that they can't find at other establishments. Rosevale Cocktail Room, for instance, has the largest vermouth program in the United States, with specialty curated tasting flights from around the world.
We’ve sourced over 200 labels of vermouth to create this program and give guests a tasting experience unique to any other bar in the country. NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 09: Schele Williams, Malachi Laws, Tituss Burgess, Natasha Yvette ..
. [+] Williams, Greg Caston, and Paul Tazewell pose during "Celebrate Black Broadway" at The Starchild Rooftop at The Civilian Hotel on June 09, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Valerie Terranova/Getty Images) Getty Images function loadConnatixScript(document) { if (!window.
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What was the concept and how do you tailor your events to specific occasions? At Starchild, we hosted the Celebrate Black Broadway event with Amber Ruffin and Tituss Burgess in honor of the TONY awards. Being in the heart of the Theatre District, it has always been extremely important to us to connect with the neighborhood — like on the second floor where we have our Broadway Blue Room, which has an incredible collection of theater artifacts (like the original prop guns from the off-Broadway production of Hamilton). We’ve hosted countless events with the Broadway community, from opening night receptions for shows, to dinners with the American Theatre Wing, to cast parties, photo shoots and many more.
No matter the event, our main goal is that our guests have fun . For the Celebrate Black Broadway party, we had the incredibly talented up-and-coming DJ Quiana Parks and hip-hop legend DJ Large Professor in our DJ booth all night, who created a fantastic energy for the room. Most important to us was ensuring these creatives felt celebrated for their work on stage, and giving them a space to connect, dance, and let loose with their peers.
What's next for Carver Hospitality? We recently opened a restaurant, Seamark Seafood and Cocktails, and speakeasy, Old Wives Tale, at Encore Boston Harbor, and we have several projects in the pipeline in the Las Vegas and New York City markets. As always, our newest venues will be geared towards creating elevated moments for our guests across the country, with particular attention to upscale service, design, and the highest caliber of food and beverage..
