When the Hilton Garden Inn opened in downtown in December, many — including hotel management — assumed that the attached restaurants would open soon after. However, Nook Kitchen’s second Arizona location inside the hotel didn’t open its doors until April 6, and the Hilton’s rooftop patio restaurant has yet to open their doors.
In Nook Kitchen’s case, the restaurant opening was delayed due to the historic nature of the building, according to restaurant co-owner Frank Vairo.
He said that communication took time when representatives of the restaurant, hotel, and different permit offices in the city of Phoenix needed to be involved.
“Every change had to be negotiated,” Vairo said. He said the restaurant was not allowed to attach structures directly to the outside of the building, which caused delays.
Historic buildings have restrictions on what can be attached to the outside enforced by the city’s Historic Preservation Office. The office is often concerned about possible damages that may affect the building, Vairo said.
“We look at changes with the idea of ‘is it reversible?’” said Jodey Elsner, of the preservation office.
The office’s focus is narrow in scope and is mainly concerned with possible long-term damage to the building, Elsner said. Keeping the integrity of the building was a focus during Nook’s renovations, Vairo said. He said they left several original columns alone during these construction changes, as well as the windows.
According to Vario, delays were partly due to difficulties that arose during kitchen construction. The kitchen’s pizza oven required specific ventilation, needing the ventilation to be routed through nearly the entire building before exiting into a nearby alley, he said.
Vario was also unable to attach awnings for shade to the location, which led to a solution that included umbrellas to shade customers from the sun.
Michelle Davis, general manager of the Hilton Garden Inn, said the hotel hoped that the openings would happen at the same time.
“The timeline was tighter than we realized,” she said.
Davis said that the patio was not essential to the opening of the hotel, and that the hotel’s general contractor decided that opening the hotel would be the first focus for construction.
“We wanted to retain historic components of the hotel,” Davis said.
The restaurant is still working on adding heating and cooling devices for the patio, Vario said.
“The misting is 100 percent a priority,” he said. He said heating likely wouldn’t be added until the fall of this year.
Construction on the patio began two weeks ago, and the hotel expects it to be available for guest and private use in May.
Contact the reporter at ssblylo@asu.edu.
