La Banque, La Voute mix meetings and history
An interview with Ken Churilla, director of marketing for Ravisloe Country Club, La Banque Hotel & La Voute French Bistro.
Q: Where is the property?
A: La Banque Hotel and La Voute Bistro are located at 2034 Ridge Road in Homewood, just off the corner of Ridge Road & Dixie Highway.
Q: What does the venue have to offer when it comes to corporate meetings?
A: La Banque and La Voute are both excellent options for corporate meetings. La Banque's conference room features complete AV materials with an 80-inch flat screen HD TV, Apple TV with an HDMI port, centerpieces, white boards, easels, etc. La Voute is much more intimate hosting up to 10 people in the private dining area of "the vault." With world class chefs at the helm in La Voute, nearly any catering requests are possible for both locations.
Q: Describe the atmosphere and history of the building?
A: La Banque and La Voute are both nestled inside what once was the Homewood State Bank from 1925 until 2013. In keeping with its soul, many pieces of the old bank were incorporated into La Banque and La Voute. The original vault door (signed by then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover) leads to the private dining room and many safety deposit boxes have been restored to their original beauty and repurposed as room numbers and shelving over The Gold Bar.
Q: What attracts clients when booking space?
A: The meeting space at La Banque is a great space to get away from the distractions of a company's office and allows for privacy as well as group interaction and creativity. With La Voute just steps away and featuring both an award winning executive chef and some of Chicagoland's best mixologists for bartenders, clients can have lunch catered or they can decompress in the restaurant. In addition, just five minutes away is our sister property in the award winning Ravisloe Country Club, which in 20116 was ranked the No. 9 golf course in Illinois by Golfweek Magazine. A Donald Ross designed course, Ravisloe has been one of the true gems of Chicagoland since 1901 and has been opened as a public course since 2009. With a hotel, restaurant and golf course all linked together the possibilities for our clients are endless. Given our proximity to the Metra station, we can even pick up any clients and deliver them to La Banque, La Voute or Ravisloe and transport them in between.
Q: Tell us a little about yourself. What is your past experience in the industry?
A: I have been marketing to the Chicagoland area for the bulk of my career with stops that include CBS Radio Chicago (WSCR-AM, WCKG-FM, WUSN-FM), Fox Sports Net (now Comcast SportsNet) and Balmoral Park Racetrack. I am also the author of "No One Said It Would Be Easy: A Husband's Journey Through His Wife's Battle with Breast Cancer," Dunham Books.
Q: Tell us one interesting fact about the venue that most people may not know.
A: The names of the hotel and restaurant both pay homage to the building's past and present. La Banque and La Voute are French for 'the bank' and 'the vault' and both give a nod both to the building's original purpose as well as the French Canadian heritage of their owner in Claude Gendreau.
Q: What is one hospitality idea that you are willing to give away to our readers?
A: It's no real secret, listen to the customer and give them what they want. Treat them well and they will be happy.
Q: How is social media changing the industry?
A: Social media isn't just changing the industry, it's changing the world. It has become the avenue in which people get their news, share their opinions and both discover and promote new businesses and ideas. Everyone and everything is connected these days.
Q: Two people we should follow on Twitter and why?
A: Haha, that's a loaded question. It all depends on what you use/like Twitter for. Personally? @springsteen is the only one I check daily because to me, he's a pillar of inspiration and genius in business, creativity, passion and soul and when you're in marketing/business, those four things are all interconnected.
Regardless what you do for a living, he hit the nail on the head when he said "we learned more from a three minute record (baby) than we ever learned in school." In the way of a more direct, industry fueled answer @AmyPorterfield always has fantastic content for marketers and @mcuban because he's a winner in so many avenues of life and pulls zero punches. He's someone that understands yesterday, today and tomorrow better than most of us and by the time we get there, he's already had it figured out.