|
 35 years ago, the world’s two most famous
peaceniks staged a week-long bed-in at the storied Fairmont Queen
Elizabeth, in a suite on the 17th floor. John Lennon and
Yoko Ono’s well-publicized protest was perhaps the first occasion
that the Queen Elizabeth, easily the largest and most impressive of
Fairmont’s hotels in Canada’s great cities, made its way prominently
into the public eye, but the hotel has endeared its guests regularly
ever since. Back in 1969, it was rock’s
most endearing
pair. Now, following a formal announcement that the Queen Elizabeth
will serve as the official hotel of the 2007 Presidents Cup, it will
be two of international golf’s strongest sides descending on the
Royal Montreal Golf Club for the week of September 17, 2007. Their
stay is sure to bring back to the forefront one of Fairmont’s most
prized city hotels, which itself is coming off an extensive
renovation period.
Located on Rene
Levesque in the heart of the downtown core, The Queen Elizabeth is
an ideal home base for exploring Canada’s most thrilling and
cosmopolitan city. When the QE first opened its doors in the spring
of 1958, it was the second largest hotel in the Commonwealth, and a
modern architectural marvel on the Montreal skyline, built atop the
city’s Central Station and boasting the most meeting and convention
space of any other hotel in the city.
Since that day,
and spanning the last 46 years, 22 million visitors have checked
into the Queen Elizabeth, including some of the world’s most
distinguished personalities—Lennon and Oko, Gandhi, Queen Elizabeth
II, Prince Charles, and Neil Armstrong, among countless others.
During Expo ’67 and the 1976 Summer Olympics, the Queen Elizabeth
hotel served as an effective headquarters for heads of state and
other international dignitaries. In short, it was the piece de
resistance in the city’s tourism and hospitality industry, but
as time and modernity wore on this wonder, and when Montreal
experienced a prolonged lull in tourism during the 1980s and 1990s,
the opportunity was ripe to restore the hotel to its original
brilliance.
$50-million and
five years later, the lobby, the convention space, two Fairmont
‘Gold’ floors and all the guest rooms have been renovated, and the
hotel has added a contemporary Tea Lounge, two business areas with
high-speed wireless Internet access, and a gourmet boutique. It is
in short a luxury hotel perfectly positioned for the next century.
Walk in from the awning outside, or up the escalator from the
underground valet, and guests arrive in a broad lobby adorned with
magnificent chandeliers lighting the space. Each of the 1039 rooms
in the hotel have been renovated, including the two Fairmont Gold
floors, where one can assume golf’s best American and international
non-European players will be staying when they compete at Royal
Montreal two falls from now. The occasion of the announcement firmly
entrenches the Queen Elizabeth as downtown Montreal’s most
golf-friendly accommodation; the Fairmont hotel was official host
for the 2004 Skins game at Le Fontainebleau, and it offers all its
guests club rental and tee time arrangements at close to a dozen top
courses in the greater Montreal region.
As in 1958 when
the Queen Elizabeth first opened its doors, there is still no hotel
in the city better equipped to host large corporate functions and
banquets than this Fairmont jewel. 22 meeting rooms of varying size,
totaling close to 50,000 square feet, ensure that no matter the size
of the group, your event is certain to find a comfortable space in
which to succeed. In fact, for festivities or conferences that may
carry on for multiple days, the Fairmont features a private
Executive floor, with 44 guestrooms and seven meeting rooms. For
multi-day functions and overnight events, the floor ensures a level
of privacy—formal for corporate groups, and intimate for
celebrations of family—of luxurious distinction.
Owing to the
elegant traditions of a great night in Montreal, the Queen
Elizabeth’s cuisine has long been on par with its standards of
service, comfort, and hospitality, and never has the reputation been
as secure as it is today. The Queen Elizabeth’s main dining room,
The
Beaver Club,
is itself a testament to the significance of this property on the
Montreal skyline. Drawing its name from the old Beaver Hall,
commemorated in a hillock park a few blocks east of the existing
hotel, the dinner club was a gathering place for fur traders back in
the early 1800s, where they would eat, drink, be merry, and discuss
business, trading prospects, and dangerous travels from the season.
In the same tradition as these age-old bacchanalian banquets, the
Fairmont Queen Elizabeth reactivated the club upon its opening,
bringing together politicians, business czars, and other prominent
figures once a year, in an exclusive membership that reached 900
constituents at its peak.
Redesigned in
2003, the legendary Beaver Club has been ranked among the top 10
restaurants in the world by
Hotels
magazine, a
feather that executive chef Thierry Villette wears proudly in his
hat. Born in the north of France, but with experience learning and
apprenticing in Nice and Paris, Belgium, Senegal, Gabon, the United
States, and Canada, the well-traveled Villette holds clarity and
simplicity as the most significant principles to bring to the
kitchen. Classic dishes wear innovative twists, and yet the core
virtues of elegant taste and presentation are still top priorities.
While the menu tends to change seasonally, local ingredients are
always the centerpiece of each entree, whether it be lobster from
the Gaspe, Marieville duckling, Quebec goose, or Magdalen Island
Princess scallops. Villette’s creations and inspirations are a
perfect fit for the Beaver Club, which reflects the timeless values
of elegance and tradition that the hotel has always held.
In 1969, as in
2007 and for years to come, the Queen Elizabeth remains the place to
be and be seen. |
