Vintage Park western wine theme works

By Steven Isherwood
Publisher

VANCOUVER—The Executive Hotel Vintage Park is proving that a hotel restaurant can augment the brand, offer something distinctive, and add to the bottom line.  The 60 seat La Vallee (plus 25 seat patio) offers wine country cuisine marrying contemporary flavours with French cuisine.

The restaurant’s menu, created by executive chef Gregory Short at a sister hotel, the Executive Inn Vintage Court in San Francisco, concentrates on the western wine regions led by Napa, Columbia and Okanagan valleys.  The hotel has partnered with 54 wineries in the Pacific Northwest.  Carrying the theme further, every day there are complimentary wine tastings for guests, between 5 and 6 pm.  They are often themed, and sometimes led by the hotel’s winery partners.  The wine tastings also move throughout the hotel, from the lounge to the lobby, to the 9th floor patio deck.

“The re-branding of the property with the wine theme was the next step in terms of evolution,” suggests general manager Jared Sissons of the Executive Hotel Vintage Park. Many of the rooms on the executive floor are named after wineries, such as Hester Creek, Sawtooth, Alder Ridge, or Red Rooster.
 
 “We favour BC Wines in particular, stocking our normal rooms and suites with BC wines in the mini bars,” he says.

Surrounded by leading Vancouver restaurants like C, Kettle of Fish, and Umberto Ristorante, La Vallee offers an alternative, particularly when it presents wine maker dinners.  New this year will be flights of wines paired with dinner menu options. 

Leah Blakeway is the restaurant manager, who also oversees the 120 seat banquet facility.
With food and beverage approaching 30 per cent of hotel revenues, and sales up 12 per cent over the previous year, Sissons suggests the property is well poised for strong growth.