Best Hotel:
Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel
1038 Canada Place
Fairmont.com/PacificRim
The Fairmont chain of hotels has long been a highly visible part of Vancouver’s hospitality and tourism industries. When the Fairmont Pacific Rim opened in Coal Harbour, however, it was with a decided splash that sent ripples through the hotel world.
The award-winning design – favouring natural materials, silvery finishes and light colours – has been matched with a strong green initiative that encompasses a kitchen that focuses on local, organic, fair trade and sustainable products wherever possible, as well as organic or biodynamic wines. The onsite herb gardens and apiaries assist the “full scratch” kitchen make everything in-house.
This is the hotel’s sixth year in operation, and renovations on all of the rooms are scheduled to begin later this year. If that sounds unusual, it’s because it is. Hotels normally undergo renovations every 15-20 years.
“We reinvent ourselves all the time,” says Frederic Bellone, hotel manager. “We are very fortunate to have such an amazing product and owner,” he continues. “They constantly invest in the hotel. More importantly, however, we have a very passionate and dedicated team.”
The renovations include the conversion of 20 rooms into 10 one-bedroom luxury suites. Each will be completely unique, and with its own “music experience,” featuring an authentic turntable and a selection of LPs chosen to suit the guest’s personal preferences.
“It’s inspired by ‘60s design elements,” says Bellone.
Music, as well as art, fashion, food and drink, are what make the hotel stand out in the city, and are its unstated raison d’etre.
“We hold two fashion shows each year, in addition to rotating the artwork,” explains Bellone. “We just acquired a piece by Guido Molinari, and for Christmas, we partner with Versace, who last year created an amazing deconstructed Christmas tree for the lobby display.”
The Lobby Lounge now offers live entertainment seven nights a week, an important draw for the mainly (80 per cent) local clientele. Another big draw is the cocktail program, run by head bartender Grant Sceney. With the success of the Ocean Wise Raw Bar, as well as Giovane Café, cocktails are designed to not only cater to both a local and international clientele, but also to pair well with the fresh seafood and other contemporary offerings on the menu.
“There’s no set theme to our drinks menu,” says Sceney, but we’ve set up an aperitif section, and then divided cocktails based on mood and preference, such as light and refreshing, or unusual and intriguing. We definitely focus on local ingredients, housemade shrubs, tonics and bitters, and different flavour combinations.”
Those combinations have resulted in long-standing favourites like Sceney’s Absolut Beta, a heady mix of Absolut Citron, lemon, beet-pepper shrub, ginger, honey, egg white and basil.
The “Pac Rim,” as locals call it, may have won for best hotel, but it keeps winning for so much more.
