For the famished guest, a bowl of bright green apples, hand-polished each morning by the manager at the front desk, is the first sign that the Soho Metropolitan, Toronto's newest boutique hotel, could well become an old friend.
The next is a mini-bar that stocks such gourmet essentials as chocolate-dipped apricots and root chips; a café that serves a freshly prepared menu of light gourmet meals all day long; and a fine dining establishment that puts most hotel restaurants to shame.
Not every hotel lavishes so much attention on the menu. However, Metromolitan Hotels -- the same company behind Toronto's and Vancouver's Metropolitans -- also owns Senses, the Soho Met's restaurant, lobby bar and café. A favourite of Toronto foodies until the lease ran out at its Bloor Street location this spring, Senses would be a boon to any boutique hotel. For the Soho Met, it's the jewel in the crown. The 88-room hotel, built from scratch over an old parking lot, actually presents itself as more "ultra-luxury" than boutique, with an indoor pool, full-service business centre, meeting rooms and a rooftop lounge. The fifth to the 15th floors consist of private condominiums and two-storey lofts.
Location
Situated just north of the SkyDome at the intersection of the entertainment district's Blue Jays Way and Wellington Street, the hotel is located on a subtly stated corner rather than a hot spot -- although with Senses on the street, the area is bound to change.
A street-level retail area is also planned, which will include a full-service spa. And a soon-to-open $3,000-a-night penthouse suite will have three separate floors, a spiral staircase, and its own elevator and entrance as added security for visiting celebrities.
Design
While the décor isn't as unusual as that of Toronto's other new boutique hotel, Le Germain, the Soho Met does have some distinctive features, the most original being the uniforms by Canadian designer Brian Bailey. He makes even the front-desk clerks look like they could be in a movie.
Traditional details such as marble finishes, textured upholstery and muted earth tones, although combined with a trendy College Street feel (the bar features an arrangement of low-hanging seating cubes), still give the sense of a hotel, albeit an unquestionably modern hotel.
Clientele
With room rates around $300 a night, corporate travellers are the most likely fit, but the Soho Met should also find favour with vacationers for its proximity to the entertainment district and its romantic touches, such as matching bathrobes and a heated pool with a view of the Toronto skyline.
Ambiance
The ethic feels a little more West Coast than East. The hotel's day begins when the café, which dominates one side of the entrance, opens at 6 a.m. and sunlight pours through the floor-to-ceiling windows over suited travellers, locals having meetings, and women wearing Juicy Couture althetic wear. By nighttime, the hotel's bar moves the place effortlessly into the realm of networking and pickups.
Service
A surprisingly small staff of 20 provides efficient but personalized service that begins at check-in, when a member of the house staff guides guests to their rooms to explain pertinent features such as an automated "Do not disturb" system, which replaces the conventional cardboard door sign. Activated with a button, an indicator on the outside -- and a force field -- prevents anyone from entering. ("If you press it," warns the staff, "we assume you mean it.")
Rooms
The Soho Suite opens onto a spacious dining room/office area that offers a unique fishbowl view overlooking Wellington Street, with floor-to-ceiling windows in both a separate TV corner and the bedroom. The other rooms range from deluxe to one-bedroom suites, starting from about 600 square feet, but their furnishings are all similar.
The marble bathroom floors can be heated, and stand-alone hairdryers and slippers make the room feel homey, even if futuristically designed hot and cold water taps can be hard to distinguish. The shower stall has two heads. Toiletries are from Molton Brown, the British cosmetics house, with robes and linens from Frette.
All rooms are Internet-ready, equipped with an outlet inside the safe in case you want to charge a laptop or cellular phone while they're inside. The mini-bar gets thumbs up for its atypical extras as well as an impressive drinks list, from ice wine to imported beer. The room service menu is from the restaurant.
Food and drink
Senses offers a menu in its signature style of light but luxury international fusion. Designed by executive chef Claudio Aprile (formerly of North 44 and Zoom) and operating under Chef Neal Noble, the restaurant offers starters and mains or a nine-course, $89 tasting menu that could include black truffles, barbecued eel terrine, venison and a spiced rhubarb water degustif.
Senses' pastry offerings are invariably good, from a butterscotch ice-cream sandwich to a chocolate torte. A private dining room can be booked for a customized chef's table dinner, or an à la carte dinner for up to 14.
The Senses café serves espresso drinks, light meals and desserts from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m., while the off-lobby bar, offering its own Senses menu, delivers upscale bar food and not-so-typical bar food items -- including steak and oyster sandwiches with root chips, or pork ribs with vanilla yams and black beans -- seven days a week. For now, the restaurant is only open Wednesday to Sunday.
Things to do
The hotel's location offers easy access to the SkyDome, the CN Tower and trendy shopping along Queen Street, as well as Chinatown and the King Street theatre district. A little farther away are the Eaton Centre, Kensington Market, the Bloor-Yorkville shopping area and the city's museums and galleries.
Information
The Soho Metropolitan: 318 Wellington St. W., Toronto. Phone: (416) 599-0555 or (800) 668-6600; Web: . Rooms start at $275. The Soho suite is $575 and the penthouse is $3,000.