Six years after closing, customers are once again walking through the doors of the Oak Bay Beach Hotel after the opening of Kate's Café this week.
The $52-million redevelopment of the hotel on Beach Drive is still underway, with 150 workers on site Friday. They are counting down to Nov. 15 when rooms, restaurants and other services are all scheduled to open.
Visitors are coming into the hotel using the one entrance that is open to reach the café, the colonnade and adjacent conservatory. Other areas are blocked off as workers finish various segments.
Kate's is open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is named after its manager, Kate Coles, the 24-year-old daughter of hotel owners Kevin and Shawna Walker.
The Walkers, their other daughter Brooklyn and her baby Avalon, were at the hotel with Kate on Friday. It's a family celebration as well as a celebration with the community, Kevin Walker said.
When the café opened its doors on Thursday afternoon, customers were lined up down the stairs. "They were all so happy. I was holding back tears welcoming everyone," Kevin said.
The café's menu features home-style cooking and is inspired by Australian cuisine, such as meat pies. Kate has lived in Australia and her husband, Mick, the hotel's facilities manager, hails from Down Under.
Above the café entrance, the hotel's original sign greets patrons, who also walk through the original door. Hand-hewn dark beams on the ceiling were saved from the popular Snug Pub, which will open with the rest of the operation next month, Kevin said.
Kate's Cafe has 35 indoor seats, plus patio seating, and also serves the conservatory. Kate's goal is to create a friendly, family-oriented restaurant.
Local residents Helen Nicholls and Betty Cairns enjoyed a light-as-air cheese scone and tea in the cafe Friday morning. "We wish them all good luck," said Cairns, whose parents celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary at the hotel.
Nicholls praised the café, and noted the project has been a "long time in progress." The two expect to return often.
The café is licensed. It has a children's menu and regular menu items include a bowl of soup for $8, a Snug beef burger at $16 and a local seafood fish pot at $17.
Original plans would have seen the hotel open in 2009, but higher construction cost led to delays. Subsequent targets were missed - including hosting the David Foster Foundation gala in May.
But Kevin is determined that everything will open in mid-November. "We can't miss any other dates," he said.
The hotel has 100 rooms, 20 luxury residences, a spa with pools, a new Snug and the David Foster Foundation Theatre, which will offer dinner theatre, starting Nov. 16 on Friday and Saturday nights. It will operate as a cinema on other nights.
So far, sales of hotel units and residences have reached $34 million, Kevin said.
The original hotel dated back more than 80 years. Kevin's father purchased the property with a partner in 1970. It has been replaced by what Kevin describes as a "high-tech building masquerading as a manor house."
Past the café, the hotel's original stained glass windows have been refurbished and reused. The library, a private dining room and board room, features a custom-made sapele mahogany table with seating for 24. Behind its traditional design, the room hides high-tech features such as plug-ins for computers under the table.
Solid sapele mahogany panels are featured on walls, where the faint aroma of wood is in the air. Local artwork is showcased in a partnership with Winchester Galleries.
Linda Cook, who lives across the street, loved her cappuccino in the café and raves about the hotel. "It is just really, really lovely."
Cook doesn't mind living near the construction. "Now we get this beautiful bonus in our own neighbourhood." She's looking forward to visiting the cafe and spa and attending the dinner theatre.
The hotel's original fireplace was taken apart and restored for the grand lobby, Kevin said. He was inspired to do that by a local resident who was married in front of the fireplace and, over the years, had celebrated family events next to it. The goal is to be sensitive to people's memories.
"There's a magic to this place and it has something to do with the history that it has here," he said. A Calgary man stopped by with his son to tell Kevin he will back at Christmas for a pint.
Shawna Walker said: "I think people bought into this vision with us and that they took ownership of it with us."
timescolonist.com
>> Check our website for a peek inside the new hotel
