Opened late last year, Four Seasons Hotel Toronto is the brand’s newest North American property and global flagship. After more than three decades at the Avenue Road address, the hotel now occupies a newly crafted, soaring, 55-story glass box in the city’s tony Yorkville neighborhood, and offers up a stylishly modern design, a celebrity chef restaurant and a spa that boasts the distinction of being the biggest in the brand’s urban portfolio. Here are five things you should know about one of the hottest hotels to hit Toronto in 2013:
1. Location. Four Seasons Hotel Toronto is located at 60 Yorkville Avenue, just blocks away from the hotel’s former location on Avenue Road. Many of Toronto’s major attractions are within walking distance, including the luxury shopping of Bloor Street (think Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Holt Renfrew and Hermès), the Royal Ontario Museum, the Bata Shoe Museum and numerous restaurants and cafés.
2. Can you say Boulud? Celebrity chef Daniel Boulud has set up his latest restaurant, Café Boulud, on the hotel’s second floor, and a more casual concept, dbar, on the ground level. Open and modern, Café Boulud’s dining room doesn’t feature stuffy white tablecloths. Instead, diners enjoy dishes inspired by Boulud’s four “muses” (La Tradition, La Saison, Le Potager and Le Voyage) beside floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking Yorkville and Warhol-esque pop-art paintings of people like Michael Jackson and Kate Moss. Don’t miss the signature dessert, a grapefruit givré topped with sesame halva, rose loukoum and grapefruit sorbet.
3. Serious spa-aahhh time. At nearly 30,000 square feet, the spa boasts the distinction of being the largest urban spa in the brand’s portfolio, and incorporates 17 treatment rooms, two steam rooms, a hair salon, mani-pedi stations and an indoor pool and sauna. Taking over the hotel’s entire ninth floor (much of the eighth is also dedicated to a spacious fitness center and yoga studio), the treatments are priced, rather uniquely, on time rather than modality. So, all massages range from about $160 to $230 (60-90 minutes) and facials from about $175 to $250 (75-90 minutes). Plus, treatment rooms, named after precious stones that align with chakras, all offer full-length windows, meaning guests have the option of soothing darkness or warm natural light during their treatments.
4. Sleep. The hotel’s 259 guest rooms, including 42 suites, are decorated in soothing white and gray tones with yellow accents and a Zen-like, almost Asian modernity. Taupe-gray leather headboards and blond wood flooring ensure that rooms look modern, while floor-to-ceiling windows let in ample natural light by day (and remain dark at night thanks to blackout shades). Spacious bathrooms include freestanding deep soaking tubs and rainfall showers, plus thoughtful add-ons like lighted magnifying mirrors and double sinks in many of the rooms. Four Seasons Hotel Toronto features Etro amenities throughout all room types. Added in-room perks include gratis Wi-Fi for up to three devices as well as privacy and “make up room” commands activated with the touch of a button. An additional brand-wide perk is also available at the Toronto property: Many room-service items now include guaranteed 15-minute delivery.
5. Get artsy. The hotel features more than 1,700 commissioned works of art by Canadian artists. One standout piece is a massive installation of dandelions from Ontario-based artist Alissa Coe, who crafted the piece around the theme of wishes. The installation is reflected in prints shown as guests exit the elevator doors into the guest room corridors. Other featured artists include the celebrated Attila Richard Lukacs and Sondra Mezzaros. Much of the art featured is also for sale.
Photos Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotel Toronto
