Hotel lobby bars might feature a gleaming glass atrium, modern retro-refurbishments that update a decades-old hotel history, a rustic frontier theme with an indoor firepit, or perhaps a Moët & Chandon vending machine. But what lobby bars all have in common is a renewed dedication to customer service where the line between hotel guest and walk-in customer is now merely a dotted one – and where the food and beverage experience is paramount.
Clive’s Classic Lounge in Chateau Victoria
Built in 1976 by Victoria entrepreneur and philanthropist Clive Pearcey, the Chateau Victoria legacy lives on at Clive’s, says lounge manager Shawn Soole. The venue strives to be a European-style hotel lobby bar that is the hub of the city – and especially so post-Covid-19.
“We wanted it to be local-centric but with a style reminiscent of the 1920s to the 1940s,” Soole says. “Like a place Hemingway would visit for his morning coffee and return for a three-cocktail lunch while reading his telegrams.”
The menu is always evolving at Clive’s.
Describing their approach to be a bar that’s in a hotel rather than a hotel lobby bar, there’s an Art Deco, post-WWII “feel of better things to come,” Soole adds. Now in its 16th year, Clive’s was revamped in February including décor, staff uniforms, food and beverage and even way the front-of-house greet customers. “That’s necessary,” he emphasizes, “to stay on top in a market where there are several other hotel lobby bars.”
Chef Josh Chilton has shifted Clive’s away from the “stigma” of hotel-lobby food. “The menu is always evolving but it’s much more restaurant-centric now and European inspired. You can have a ten-ounce striploin or beef carpaccio or oysters,” Soole says. Cocktails are strong on the classics – Negronis, Martinis, Manhattans – that define lobby bars. “But we also run with molecular and equipment-wise, glassware and our ice for something much more elevated. There are drinks that are super adventurous.”
Stanley at Le Centre Sheraton Montreal
In a city with 24 championships to its name, the lobby bar Stanley at Le Centre Sheraton is adjacent to a rink where the first Stanley Cup final took place in 1894. Renovations completed in June 2023 make Stanley, “the pulse of the hotel” and born of a post-pandemic era addressing people’s renewed vision of travel and what hotel management calls “immersive experiences.”
Stanley is only steps from the Bell Centre in Montreal.
Stanley’s food and beverage offerings are designed for convenience and connection, says Le Centre Sheraton Montreal marketing manager Carole Sangouard. The flexible “We or Me” section of the menu includes chicken mini-tacos, octopus with chimichurri and black olive powder and tuna tartare with Japanese wafu sauce.
Eight signature cocktails and a few mocktails provide liquid refreshment, from a French 75 to a vodka-vanilla espresso Martini. There’s a brunch menu and live music on Wednesdays, and the Stanley is only steps from the Bell Centre and Les Habs.
Mossop’s Social House at Hotel Victoria Toronto
Mossop’s opened in October 2023 paying homage to Frederick Mossop, a hotel clerk who bought the property in 1906. The Edwardian era design captures post-pandemic warmth in drawing room style: stained glass archways with the original hotel crest, floral wallpaper, mosaic tile, tasseled lamps, brocade furniture, globe lights and wood define spaces such as the Mosaic Room. There’s even a collection of historic matchbooks that the hotel handed out since the 1960s.
At the Hotel Victoria, “The front desk is part of (Mossop’s) bar.”
Describing Mossop’s as a central gathering place for the immediate area, general manager Jordan Gravelle notes that a guest’s first exposure to Hotel Victoria is through food and beverage: the “social house” redefines the lobby from a functional administrative space to an engaging experience, for both hotel guests and walk-ins.
“It spins the hotel’s hospitality into Mossop’s,” says Gravelle. “The front desk is part of the bar, so it’s a unique concept that when you walk into the lobby of the hotel, you’re walking into the restaurant.”
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Chef Tomer Markovitz provided the original culinary consult on the menu – including a communal “salatim,” a smorgasbord of dips, spreads and pickled things to savour, perhaps before flavours of za’atar, tahini and pomegranate syrup energize shareable dishes such as majadra with cinnamon and cumin-spiced rice and black lentils.
Mediterranean ingredients inspire the cocktails too: classics get a re-visioning and aim to reflect the building’s history. There’s a wide selection of “no-and-low” drinks. Fifty per cent of wines are Niagara region.
43 Down at the Sheraton Toronto
Spurred by the post-pandemic milieu, the Sheraton brand set about reimagining what their public spaces could potentially look like, says Sheraton area general manager Tim Reardon.
“We took a fresh look at our lobby and assessed how we would reimagine it but also activate it with food and beverage as the anchor for that activation,” says Reardon of the space inside the Sheraton Centre Toronto on Queen West.
Yet renovations started by looking in from the outside, evolving into an installation of floor-to-ceiling glass with food and beverage as the focal point.
“For both hotel guests and local clientele, you can look inside and see what’s happening. Walk into the lobby and you’re in Dual Citizen, our coffee bar, and amidst small meeting rooms and sound-proof booths but which keep you in the energy of the lobby space and its town-square atmosphere. 43 Down is a few metres away,” he adds.
43 Down at the Sheraton in Toronto.
With its suffused light, rich earth tones with soft textures, wood paneling, underlights at the bar and a coffered ceiling design, the décor is “timeless, elevated yet approachable,” says Reardon with the bar as the focal point in the middle of the space.
The menu features a blending of cuisines that change every six to eight weeks: warm Mediterranean olives or smoked almonds, shishito peppers with dukkah, crab cakes with lotus root chip, a taco with marinated prawns, nori and tobiko, and Rossini Nigiri of seared foie gras, Japanese rice and seaweed salad.
Mixology is embraced as “theatre:” cocktails can be both classic and re-invented – a duck fat whiskey sour or an “oxidized” white rum tanti auguri – along with an absinthe tower and three cloched cocktails – “under the dome” – designed to intrigue.
The new vision represents a sort of Renaissance for lobby bars, according to Reardon.
“With the décor, they’re very cool places to go. And there’s talent on the both the mixology and culinary side that delivers an experience hotel guests and outside customers are seeking.”
– Andrew Coppolino is a restaurant reviewer, book author and food columnist advocating for local chefs, restaurants and food businesses
