Open Jaw :: On The Town ::

With Martha Chapman
04JUL08

Cheers! Celebrating the season Fairmont style

Chefs at the Royal York tend their much-admired roof garden

All Toronto Abuzz Over Fairmont Royal York’s Newest Guests

With their leading-edge attitude toward the environment, it’s perhaps no surprise that some downtown Fairmont Hotels have a novel approach to greening even their rooftops. The legendary Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, for example, has had an herb garden on its roof for a decade now, supplying its kitchens with aromatic herbs from on high. And perhaps bringing new meaning to the term “hundred mile diet” (“hundred meter diet?”).

So what a sweet treat it was for the members of the travel trade to have a meet and mingle atop the hotel on a recent evening. The sun shone, the champagne flowed, and there was definitely a buzz in the air.

That’s thanks to the hotel’s newest residents. Sure, they’re not paying for their accommodation, and there’s over 10,000 of them, but the hotel is as pleased as punch to make room for them.

They are the residents of the hotel’s newest green initiative: a rooftop apiary, or beekeeping station. Not only will hotel guests enjoy the best of local honey, but the Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative, who are working with Fairmont on the project, believe that pollinating bees may even spread to neighbouring Toronto Islands and the Don Valley.

During a quick peek at the hives, it was evident that the new residents were settling in well. And looking forward to meeting more hotel guests, who are invited to tour the garden and apiary on guided tours of this pocket of green in the heart of YYZ.