Signature eateries and stylish design define Thompson Toronto

TORONTO-The Thompson Toronto in the city's rapidly developing downtown west end is not only a luxury lodging property, but also a place with three interesting restaurants.

The hotel, which opened June 2, and held a splashy opening party June 17, has a diner open 24 hours, seven days a week, as well as the first Canadian outpost of a celebrity chef's Italian restaurant group, and the second version of a popular cottage country Japanese fusion restaurant.

It is the first property to be opened by New York-based Thompson Hotels outside the United States, where the chain's collection of small hotels attracts celebrity guests. The company says the Canadian unit is also its first "multi-use property." It is associated with a 336-unit condominium development.

The Toronto Thompson, owned by Tony Cohen's Global Edge Investments and Peter Freed's Freed Developments, has 30,000 square feet of common space-a huge area for a property with 102 guest rooms.

In addition to conference space and a screening room, the hotel also has lounges at the top and bottom. The lobby lounge features a 125-foot by 12-foot black and white mural painted by Spanish artist Javier Mariscal, depicting his impression of Toronto's skyline.

The rooftop lounge on the private 16th floor is available to hotel guests, condo dwellers and club members. It offers a 360° view which includes the Niagara area across the lake, and has a pool with seasonal cabanas as well as an indoor lounge with fireplace and bar.

"The whole idea of the project is to bring the inside out and the outside in," Cohen told CLN on a tour of the property.

Acclaimed Italian fare

The Thompson Toronto's signature restaurant is Scarpetta, the third dining spot of that name to be opened by chef owner Scott Conant whose other two units are in New York and Miami, both highly rated by critics.

Scarpetta, with 150 seats inside and 30 on a summer patio, will serve Conant's signature items. Creamy polenta with fricassee of truffled mushrooms, spaghetti with tomato and basil, and roasted baby goat with porcini, pancetta and potatoes, are on the Toronto menu.

The restaurant is designed by the hotel's interior designer, New York-based Studio Gaia, and mixes old world elegance with Italian sophistication. It has matched natural wood with polished bronze, glass and textured leather, as well as sheer curtain fabrics and sparkling hand-blown glass chandeliers.

Food for night owls

The new boxcar-style diner, called The Counter, is now available to revellers spilling out of the west end bars and clubs in the early morning hours. Menu items include an all day breakfast, burgers, mac'n cheese, poutine, smoked meat, milk shakes and salads. It is licensed during legal drinking hours.

The Counter's design team, Bent & Gable, consisted of Brenda Bent, wife of chef-restaurateur Susur Lee, and her partner Karen  Gable.

With a curved wooden ceiling and blue tile floor, the long, narrow room features blue velvet banquettes, porcelain figurines on a wall, and hand-blown lamp shades hanging over the bar. The graphic, flocked wallpaper has an art deco look.

A modern note is introduced by things such as 42-inch plasma televisions.

A taste of Asia

Min Soo Kim told CLN last month that the Thompson's Japanese Fusion restaurant, expected to open in mid-July, will have 180 to 200 seats inside and 30 to 35 on a patio.

Kim, a former minor league baseball pitcher in Korea and North America whose parents have a hotel in Gravenhurst, ON opened Wabora Restaurant in Bracebridge ON three years ago.

The restaurant, with its extensive menu of Japanese and Korean fare, as well as steak, was named best new restaurant in the Muskoka/Parry Sound region by Where Magazine in 2008.

The menu, he said, would be similar to the Japanese fusion one in Muskoka, "but upgraded."

He expects to employ about 13 chefs in a number of stations in the restaurant.

The Thompson Toronto's director of food and beverage is Thomas Krooswijk, previously with one of the chain's Los Angeles properties, the Hollywood Roosevelt.

The name of the hotel's executive chef and restaurant chefs are not being publicized because Thompson policy is to promote the concept rather than the chef of a restaurant. The only time chefs are mentioned by name is when they are celebrities, such as Conant, or Susur Lee who opened Shang in the Thompson LES in New York in 2008.