“I love her as a singer, but she was so
cheesy as the MC,” says the glam Amazon-woman to her friend in
the elevator at Opus Hotel. “She wasn't MC-ing!” he shrieks,
hiking up his $500 jeans as the doors opened on their floor.
It's the kind of conversation hip people have in a hip
hotel and the 97 room Opus Hotel is the hippest roost in town.
How hip, you ask. Well, Pam Anderson, who was born near
Vancouver, was in the city during my stay and I expected to bump
into her around every corner.
Just in case the paparazzi aren't
following you around, Opus Hotel has created five
different fictional hipsters with their own customized Lifestyle
Concierge profile of restaurants, shops, activities and
attractions. Each hipster also has his or her own décor, color
scheme and room type stocked with books and CDs that he or she
would, theoretically, like.
I stayed in one of hotel's Blue
rooms which, in Opus speak, corresponds to “Susan” a fashion
analyst from Toronto who's a pop culture junkie.
The gimmick was fun at first””like a
sophisticated version of charades. But then I realized that Susan
was way more anxious to spot Pam Anderson than I was. Still, many
return guests have gotten so attached to “their” Opus personality
that they request the same color room for each visit.
Regardless of the
color scheme, every room comes with an Oxia Oxygen
Personal Canister in the bathroom to combat the side-effects
of rock star caliber partying (use of this
amenity spikes on weekends) and all mini-bar baskets contain
Intimacy Kits. Bathrooms are stocked with L'Occitane bath
products. Some rooms have iHome radios with iPod connections and
all rooms will have flat screen TVs in 2007. Even the business
center is chic (when was the last time that happened?), thanks to
clear acrylic Mira chairs and mirrored desks.
Yes, it all feels very W Hotel
(right down to the hotel's prominent use of a single “O”
initial), but back before The W lost the boutique hotel plot a
bit and started to act more and more like what it is: the
offspring of giant hotel parent company.
The see and be seen vibe of Opus
Hotel is carried through to its elegant and bustling French
bistro, Elixir, most noticeably in the bathrooms where
nothing more than a faintly frosted pane of glass separates the
women's room from the men's room and surveillance screens above
the wash basins allow you to spy on people sitting at the
restaurant's bar. Order from the Petit Plats section of the
restaurant's menu, by the way. That's where the most inventive
dishes on an already inventive menu can be found.
It should come as
no surprise that, for the past three years, a stay at The Opus
has been part of gift bags given to presenters at the Academy
Awards (last year's goodie bag also included a Frette cashmere
travel blanket and a gift certificate to the Cornelia Day Spa). And,
speaking of awards, the hotel has been presented with a few of
its own. The 65 seat stark and modern Opus Bar, pictured left,
was named Most Popular Nightspot by Zagat in 2006 and the hotel
itself was named one of the world's top 100 properties and #2 in
Canada in Conde Nast Traveler magazine's 2006 Readers'
Choice Awards. Opus Hotel also made it onto the list of the best
500 hotels in the world as compiled in Travel &
Leisure magazine's 2006 Readers' Choice Awards.
Unlike most hotels, The Opus' web site is
entertaining and informative with a dishy, fun to read blog written
by the energetic (and plenty hip) General Manager plus handy
tools like floor plans of all room types and a shopping area
called Oshop where you can pick up some Thomas Haas
handmade truffles ($15) or a bottle of Blue
Mountain Pinot Blanc ($50) without ever
leaving your room””though the Yaletown neighborhood where the hotel is
located offers plenty in the way of local boutiques within
walking distance to help you exercise your credit card the old
fashioned way.
The first new hotel to open in
Vancouver since The Opus debuted in 2002 is scheduled to be
completed in 2007, ending Opus Hotel's long run as the newest
property in town. But I doubt it will end the hotel's run as the
hippest.
Rates start at CDN $199
Opus Hotel
322 Davie Street
Vancouver, British Columbia Canada, V6B 5Z6
Phone: (604) 642-6787
www.opushotel.com
In April, 2006 peripatetic journalist Karen
Catchpole left her job as deputy editor of SHOP Etc.
magazine in New York City, jumped into a Chevy Silverado and
embarked on the Trans-Americas Journey, a three year, 70,000+ mile
road trip through North, Central and South America. When she's
not reviewing luxury hotels, resorts, ranches and B&Bs, she
can be found enjoying the nearest camp ground.
