Shutters On The Beach

Mary Thompson

Hospitality Experience Authority

Mary Thompson a director of food and beverage outlets with over 20 years in hospitality, is passionate about continuing to innovate at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica, California. 

Her career in the hotel world is a winding road where she oscillates between free-standing restaurants and hotels. Her career began in high school in Philadelphia where she was a waiter and barback at a wedding facility and later under the leadership of Stephen Starr and Georges Perrier. She really fell in love with the business while in college and made a sharp turn away from teaching and leaned into the world of hospitality. Her love for wine grew when she moved to Portland, Oregon and where she began her studies of wine and winemaking while also continuing to progress in leadership positions in restaurants and hotels. 

The lure of New York City pulled hard and she, once again, found herself on the East Coast but now learning from acclaimed chefs and restaurateurs like Daniel Boulud & Jean Georges Vongerichten. The pace of the city and the sheer amount of talent around her provided additional tools to continue her development as a Sommelier and Restaurant Manager. 

Just over 15 years ago the wind blew her again but this time to Southern California, where she immediately fell in love with Los Angeles. Here Mary found a love for opening new properties; growing teams and developing concepts from the ground up. It was in these restaurant openings where she was able to use her creativity to incubate wine programs, craft staff training materials, create cocktail programs and produce events. 

It was this creative spark that now is a through-line in her work in restaurants and hotels. Within the hotel environment, Mary’s innovation reached a new high point while working with Roy Choi at The Line hotel. Roy Choi is a Korean American chef, TV personality and food innovator known for pioneering the gourmet food truck movement with Kogi BBQ trucks, blending Korean and Mexican flavors. Roy’s cutting edge ideas prompted her to continue to develop and execute concepts at a pace she had not yet encountered. She learned to conceptualize, strategize and pitch ideas with uniqueness and precision while still leaning into the concept and overall operations of the hotel. 

After stints with Roy and other noted Los Angeles restauranteurs like John Sedlar Rivera and Josiah Citrin, Mary found her way to Shutters on the Beach. Shutters on the Beach is one of two beachside properties in Los Angeles and has overlooked the ocean for over thirty years. This iconic 198-room property has been the backdrop of countless television shows and films, and a hallmark of the Santa Monica coastline.  

When I came to Shutters, I viewed it as a unique opportunity to have a property that is both timeless and timely, yet still had room to evolve. My initial responsibilities were over the beverage programs for our signature restaurant (1Pico), the lobby (The Living Room) and the pool. As a Sommelier, I thought it was important that the wine list at 1Pico speak to place, craft production and history. Nearly immediately I started to recraft the program to speak to those goals by working with wineries and small distributors. Just as importantly, I wanted our long-standing team to feel energized by that evolution, which led to ongoing education through daily lineups, tastings and in-depth training sessions that kept curiosity and engagement at the center of the guest experience. 

Concurrently I went to work on our Living Room cocktail program, moving away from tired trends and aiming to innovate with custom ice, branding irons, smoke and logoed stirrers while leaning on local, small brands as the building block that high-quality ingredients can stand on. I recruited talent passionate about innovation and storytelling, allowing us to build thematic, press-worthy menus that not only complemented the culinary experience, but continually refreshed the energy and reputation of the hotel within the cocktail and hospitality community. 

After wrangling the offerings into becoming a point of pride, we aimed to showcase them to our guests and community. We started with activations and built up to fullon events. We began with simple spirits pop-ups in The Living Room where we would feature new local spirits and the people who crafted them. We then started our wine dinner series which continues to gain momentum each month. Our wine dinner series, in particular, continues to grow each month, creating new opportunities for guests and locals alike to gather, discover and experience the hotel through an everevolving lens. 

Currently Mary has just launched Shutters on the Beach private label wines from Santa Barbara, garnered the Wine Spectator Award for the second year in a row and has dabbled a bit into custom canned mocktails, boozy frozen pops at the pool and elevated amenities for our returning guests. 

Mary often likens restaurants to speed boats and hotels to cruise ships. While making things happen occurs very quickly in restaurants, hotels take much longer but you bring more people and resources along for the ride. Change is likely scary for your team, especially those with tenure, but it is an essential part of staying relevant and appealing to our discerning guests.