Lancaster City is an easily overlooked location for travelers heading through Pennsylvania, because it has a reputation for being mostly known for the surrounding Amish community and farmland. Traveling to Lancaster will bring with it images of farms, horse and buggies, and other traditional ideas of what Lancaster is comprised of, but it’s also been undergoing a shift in the past few decades that has given it a food scene that could intrigue anyone with an interest in an experience that leaves you feeling good when all’s said and done.
The Belvedere Inn is one restaurant that stands out in the food scene because of its ability to create an environment that’s flexible enough to work for almost any occasion, whether you’re attempting to have a romantic night out with your partner or are looking to get together with friends to connect after a long day at work.
So, let’s get into why The Belvedere Inn is worth highlighting for Feel Good Friday.
The Feel Good Elements of the Belvedere
Starting in 1998, the Belvedere Inn operates out of the Victorian Italianate home of tobacco magnate John S. Roher, which he built near a hotel and tobacco shop he owned near Queen and Chestnut to house his family. The building is topped with a central belvedere, or a viewing structure, which Roher would take visitors up to so they could enjoy the wide view of the surrounding Lancaster City.
Today, walking into the Belvedere feels like walking into a Victorian hotel, with dark carpeting running through the hallways and artwork filling the walls. The menu is filled with a variety of contemporary American dishes that can appeal to anyone who wants to sate their hunger while connecting with loved ones.
However, the atmosphere of the Belvedere comes from more than the decor or the food, because the business is run with an eye towards enabling people to have fun while delivering the kind of hospitality that Roher’s guests would have expected during their time. While it may seem like “fun” is an unnecessary component of the hospitality industry, which sees high levels of churn and burnout among its workforce, the Belvedere Inn has turned the idea of fun into an award-winning business model that has survived for decades.
Business Lessons from the Belvedere
If someone looks at enough organizations, they begin to notice that there are many things that businesses share which helps make them successful. Developing a penchant for unreasonable hospitality, creating a sense of wonder, and leaning into the historical elements of a building or community are all things that can help bolster a business’s success rate, because all of them center the idea of giving the customer a memorable experience. Done right, it creates a durable value proposition which customers are likely to support even if a competitor comes along to challenge their place in the market.
However, what the Belvedere does a little differently is it uses the idea of “fun” as the core of its culture without relying on the typical tropes you might find in a fun focused business. There are two main reasons why this works: it boosts employee engagement and it enables the business to adapt to customer expectations.
Boosting Employee Engagement
Every manager today knows that employee engagement is an invaluable resource for team success. Research shows that when employees are highly engaged in their work, they’re more productive and more likely to deliver a positive return to the broader organization’s bottom line. However, there are many strategies managers can use to pursue that holy grail, with varying degrees of success, but it’s rare to see a business that uses fun as a way of achieving it.
A good chunk of modern employees see work as a necessity rather than a place to enjoy yourself, and that’s likely more prevalent in the hospitality industry, where there’s significant pressure to deliver a quality experience to visitors, lest they decide against returning. Yet, the Belvedere Inn prides itself on trying to create a space where its workers can feel like they enjoy themselves while they help customers, and that has led to a better overall experience because the people serving customers feel like they actually matter rather than simply completing a task.
Fun may feel like something that’s better sought on the weekend, but as the Belvedere Inn shows, it can help ensure employees remain engaged.
Developing Flexibility in Its Customer Experience
Businesses that specialize their customer experience as a way of niching down effectively are immensely successful, which is why it’s so often advised to business owners. However, there are different ways of approaching customers so that you can broaden the markets you serve, and the Belvedere Inn offers effective ways of doing that without compromising its approach to fine dining.
There have been other businesses covered in the Feel Good Friday series that have used the physical space to tailor its service so that it optimally accommodates different customer groups, and the Belvedere shares this strategy to some degree. However, what’s striking about it is that its decor and lighting design helps accentuate the spaces so that someone could get a different experience if they visit after sunset than if they did while the sun was still up.
There may be other businesses that can accomplish a similar effect, but the Belvedere combines these elements with the history of the building so that someone could get the sense of visiting a friend or having an intimate dinner with a romantic partner within the same few feet, and that makes it unique.
The Bottom Line
Business leaders don’t really talk about “fun” as a business strategy, which is underrated for a variety of reasons. Jobs don’t have to be the sole source of purpose in someone’s life — and they shouldn’t be — but they do take up an inordinate amount of time, which makes it all the easier to work hard when management tries to make the job enjoyable. When that’s coupled with a space that has the ability to attract a diverse clientele, you essentially develop a system that allows you to create a dedicated workforce that wants the business to succeed as much for its own sake as their own, and that’s a powerful driver for business growth.
However, if you aren’t really looking to start a business or better understand how to manage your team, then the Belvedere Inn is still a great place to visit with friends and loved ones, because it offers a phenomenal atmosphere to lounge in while connecting over an enjoyable meal. If you do go, it’s always worth getting a window seat, because even if it isn’t in the belvedere, you still get a great view of Lancaster, especially at night.
Before You Go…
This is part of a series of articles highlighting businesses operating in the food and beverage space as part of an initiative to share feel good stories coming from local businesses. There's a few things you can do to support this initiative:
If you're interested in being notified when a new article's released, make sure to follow me on LinkedIn or subscribe to The Coffeehouse Creative.
If you're a business or customer that's got a feel-good story or a recommendation, shoot me a message and it may be featured as part of Feel Good Fridays.
