The Westdrift Manhattan Beach, an Autograph Collection Hotel, is the official hotel of Manhattan Beach Food & Wine.
The expansive 26-acre property with a 9-hole, par 3 golf course and pickleball courts is a boutique hotel for travelers of all callings and Westdrift Manhattan Beach delivers the sophistication of a true- blue East Coast classic blended with the laid-back vibe of coastal California.
“Modern decor and sophisticated amenities combine to create Westdrift’s intimate guest spaces, sumptuously adorned for comfort with the rolling golf course views and sparkling city lights in view for that added touch of luxury.”
“Jute Coastal Bar & Kitchen, Westdrift’s signature restaurant for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, is an indoor-outdoor enclave that features a fresh, creative and communal-focused dining experience.”
“Jute’s signature cocktails, craft beer, and wines from private labels will whisk you away on an experience slated to elevate the already vibrant Manhattan Beach culinary scene. Calling upon talents of local mixologists to evolve their ever-changing cocktail menu, Westdrift's Mixology Lab is always testing new ingredients and innovative techniques using seasonal ingredients.”
Westdrift’s Jim McCafferty, Director of Catering & Events is our guide to all the luxe amenities of Westdrift Manhattan Beach.
The SoCal Restaurant Show is live from a West Rift Manhattan Beach, an autographed collection hotel. Manhattan Beach is known for its iconic 928-foot-long recreational pier, completed in 1920. It's home to the Roundhouse Aquarium. And welcome back. Sadly, there's the concluding segment of our 12th anniversary anniversary show, but the better news is, is we're going to be right back here with you next week from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, right here on AMA 30, K-L-A-A, the home of Angels Baseball. And also next week, the Ask the Chef segment with Chef Andrew Gould will be returning in this time period, but we hate to leave. We've been having a great time here this morning at our remote at the West Rift Manhattan Beach, an autographed collection hotel, who is the official sponsor of the hotel sponsor of the Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival. And believe it or not, it is an easy 10-minute walk from where we are right now to the event site, which is really impressive. I wanted to thank the West Rift Manhattan Beach for their hospitality this morning. They have just been great in providing the space that we are in for our live remote. Also all the refreshments and the pastries, everybody here has been very kind and cooperative. And we wanted to give them their due because a lot of people are not familiar with this hotel for whatever reason, but we're about to change that. So representing them this morning is Jim McCaffordy, who is the director of catering and events for the West Rift Manhattan Beach. And with that as background, sitting across from me is Jim McCaffordy. Jim, good morning and welcome. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Jim. And congratulations on the anniversary, too. Thank you. That's a big deal. You know, we're still kind of reveling in all of that. Now we are on what you call the Jute patio here. Jute is the name of your restaurant, which we're going to talk about momentarily. But we have this incredible 180-degree view of your nine-hole three-part golf course. Jim, in this day and age in Manhattan Beach, with the property values of all the residences that surround us, how does this still continue to exist? How is it not developed into townhomes? Well, we're glad it's not because it's beautiful open space. Well, of course, it's beautiful open space. You see all the birds that are out here now, right? And every year we see more and more, and they have their babies here and they come back. So it's quite the sanctuary. And you know, a lot of people in the South Bay know there's coyotes in the area, and we have to watch out for them, too, at night. So... They're little devils, yes. But it is a great place, and this is an amazing place to come into work every day. Tell us a little bit about the background of the hotel, because it's big, but it doesn't feel like a big corporate business hotel. You have a very relaxed vibe here, and obviously that's conscious, so... Yeah, the hotel back before COVID was the Manhattan Beach Marriott. So we're just off Rose Grants Boulevard, just a couple blocks down, of course, from the village, like you said. It's a 10-minute walk. So yeah, starting as a Manhattan Beach Marriott, and then the property was redeveloped into Autograph Collection Hotel, which is a 320 individual boutique properties. And we all get to bring something different to the game of Marriott. So you know, this property was redeveloped, opened for about six, seven months, and then COVID hit, of course. So the hotel remained opened, but it was kind of mothballed, almost, for about two years. So when I came on board, I was able to kind of restart the hotel. We had just come out of it. We brought in new staff. We brought in some new sales managers, event managers, culinary team, just to kind of revamp and bring everybody this great product that we have now. So it's great, because we got to really reimagine what this hotel is, and our ownership group is great, and they just give us kind of free reign to do whatever we want, which is an amazing thing. Within, you know, you think of a lot of the Marriott hotels, they're a little bit more boxy. They follow the structure with the Autograph Collection hotels. You really get that ability to just do what you want and keep it kind of micro-local. Definitely more corporate. Now, you have a breakfast lunch and dinner restaurant here. Jim, most hotel properties of your style, this would be something that would be just an amenity for hotel guests. And you're lucky to break even. That's not what you want to do here, because particularly for happy hour and dinner, and you have a wonderful craft beer program, this is a destination for locals. Tell us a little bit more, because again, that's unusual. Sure. So, yeah, Jute Coastal Kitchen. It's a great concept. It's just open. It's welcoming. The location kind of changes almost daily, depending on who we have in the hotel, right? So, sometimes, you'll see a lot of celebrities, you'll see a lot of sports stars, and then you'll see folks that are here for conferences as well, and the energy level changes with different guests that are here at the hotel. So, it's great. It's not just a traditional hotel bar that you go to. Jute really focuses on mixology. Our chef Solomon is fantastic. He really likes to bring in a lot of the local purveyors to spotlight. Of course, some of you mentioned the draft beers. Of course, we have three weavers in Englewood. There's LA Aleworks and Hawthorne, so we're big partners with them. We like to keep it-- Local local. Yeah, we like to keep it hyper-local, because when you're traveling, that's what you want to do is you want to experience what the area has to offer, and the South Bay is so vibrant and there's so many great restaurants, great bars, great producers. It is really nice to just kind of have those offerings, and again, we have free rain to kind of showcase that. The other thing that's great about Jute coastal kitchen here is that we have an open concept, right? So, we call it the indoor/outdoor enclave, because as you can see here, we have the windows kind of closed, so you know, keep a little quiet, but we can open it all up. Most mornings when you come down besides dealing with the fog that we've had here in the South Bay for the last few weeks, you know, super sun, you know, sun-shiny and lovely and just having everything all wide open. Great food. We have breakfast, lunch and dinner, Korean tacos we have here, that's probably my favorite. We always run different specials as well. Some good guacamole too, I can tell you. Super fresh and amazing. But yeah, you know, and then we have our rush hour, which is like our take on happy hour, and you know, where else can you get a five dollar beer nowadays? Jim, not many places. Now, as we almost need to say goodbye, one more time where the hotel is and the website, so people can get more information about what we're talking about and see the breakfast, lunch and dinner menus for Jute, which I particularly recommend looking at that lunch and dinner menu, might be stopping there myself in a few minutes. Yeah, for sure. It's almost lunch time, so let's wrap this up and go eat. But no, you can visit WestDrift.com. That's our main hotel website in there. You'll see links to all the different events that we have going on and of course Jute Coastal Kitchen, our golf course. We also have pickleball here, so a lot of amenities here on property and it's not just for hotel guests, you know, come down if you're local and you want to play pickleball. We have really cheap courts, it's 25 bucks for an hour. You can't beat that price. No, you can't. But yeah, come visit us and you do get validation, you know, in the restaurant for parking. That's so important. Don't let parking fees scare you. Yes, well they do. Ladies and gentlemen, Jim McCaffordy, who is the director of catering events here at the West Drift Manhattan Beach. Again, Jim, thanks for the hospitality. My pleasure. It's been great to host you and host the Manhattan Beach Food in One. And more tonight, food fans, that's our show and our anniversary show. A tip of the talk to my co-host, Chef Andrew Grulle. My thanks to Mike Boyle here in technical excellence, Tony back in Angel Stadium in the control room and Kudos also to Adam Bell behind the scenes on social media. Next week, of course, we are back with our usual fresh show. We're proudly presented to you by Melissa's World Variety Proters. Dr. and the dugout with Alan Byer MD takes the field next good evening and be safe.
