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Finding his place at Charleston Place
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
When Paul Stracey left his native England to further his education in the hospitality industry, he didn’t know that he would be getting more than an education.
The move ultimately landed him a top-tier job with Orient-Express hotels, a trip across the United States in a minivan and a wife, although not in that order.
Long before he set off for a summer internship at The Lodge at Vail in Colorado, Stracey had set his sights on a career in hospitality, all because he hated school.
“I wasn’t bad at school, I just didn’t like it,” Stracey said.
Stracey started cooking out of necessity at age 14. His mother was expecting Stracey’s youngest sister and was too tired to cook, so he helped her prepare the family meals. By the time he was 16, Stracey was cooking for dinner parties and decided he wanted to be a chef.
“It sort of consumed me,” Stracey said. “My family agreed I could leave high school at 16 if I studied culinary arts in London.”
Stracey worked in London restaurants while pursuing a degree in catering and hotel management at Westminster College. He later worked in a French bistro his father opened in Framlingham, Suffolk. After a couple of years at the bistro, Stracey became a sous chef at the Angel Hotel, a premier dining spot near the Norfolk border.
After spending about seven years in restaurant kitchens, Stracey concluded he wanted to learn more about the hospitality industry, including what it was like to work in the front of the house. He took a summer internship at The Lodge at Vail in Colorado, where he worked a variety of jobs including telephone operator, bellman and front desk receptionist.
“I left dreary, rainy England and spent four fabulous months in Vail, Colorado, in the middle of the summer,” Stracey said. “And I met a girl who turned out to be my wife.”
Stracey later operated a locals’ bar in Denver before he and his wife made a spontaneous decision to move to the West Coast.
“Neither of us had a job,” Stracey said. “We put all of our belongings in the back of a Honda Civic, including a cat and a dog and a record player. We drove across to San Diego and within about a week, we both had really good jobs.”
But his new post as assistant manager at The Golden Hall & Visitors Center, a San Diego convention center, wasn’t as enjoyable as his restaurant and hotel experiences. So Stracey answered an ad for an assistant food and beverage director at the 600-room Holiday Inn-On-The-Bay and spent seven years at the massive property, winning promotions to food and beverage director, and hotel manager.
He next accepted a position as food and beverage director of the Bahia Resort Hotel on San Diego’s Mission Bay. All the while, Stracey kept abreast of Orient-Express hotel news, because the company had operated The Lodge at Vail during Stracey’s internship there. In 1995, he saw an ad for the position of resident hotel manager at Charleston Place, the No. 2 position under the general manager.
“We jumped in the back of a minivan this time, with two dogs and two cats,” Stracey said. “The South intrigued me, and I loved the coast. I thought it would be fun to see something else of America and it was a great opportunity, a very nice hotel.”
Stracey worked with former Charleston Place General Manager Dean Andrews for two years. When Orient-Express promoted Andrews and moved him to New York, Stracey was promoted to general manager of the 440-room convention hotel.
In September, Stracey was again promoted, this time to managing director of Orient-Express North America. He will continue in his role as general manager of Charleston Place while also overseeing operations at five other Orient-Express properties in North America. The properties include the 21 Club restaurant in New York City; The Inn at Perry Cabin on Maryland’s Eastern Shore; Keswick Hall near Charlottesville, Va.; Windsor Court in New Orleans; and the El Encanto in Santa Barbara, a property that is under renovation and scheduled to open in early 2009.
Stracey said his new responsibilities and some additional travel in his schedule should not affect his duties at Charleston Place.
“I have incredibly loyal and strong people that work here with me, and I’ve been working with them for the full 12 years that I’ve been here,” Stracey said. “Because you have such talented people, there’s a little bit of autopilot. But I’m not going to do crazy amounts of travel, and I will work very hard to make this my primary focus because it is the biggest hotel we have and does provide a tremendous amount of revenue.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@setcommedia.com.
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