Located in Victoria, Canada, on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island, you’ll find the Fairmont Empress Hotel. Nestled against Victoria’s Inner Harbor, the historic hotel is known as Canada’s Castle on the Coast, and it’s easy to understand why. The hotel opened in 1908 after taking four years to build with the intention of serving those exploring the country by rail on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Named after Queen Victoria, every element of design was, and still is, fit for a queen. While the historic hotel has undergone several renovations, the turn-of-the-century architecture has remained intact.
Staying at The Empress is all I ever dreamed about as a young girl growing up in Canada. My grandparents often spoke about this iconic hotel even though we lived on the other side of the country. It has been renowned in North America for over a century, and its reputation still holds strong. A visit today is sure to deliver a glimpse of the past while mixed with modern touches.
There are a variety of room types, including the Fairmont Gold stay, which is essentially a luxury hotel operating within the larger hotel. The rooms are lush, modern and comfortable. But the most exciting part I found? Access to the Gold Lounge kitchen, where you’ll find an honor bar stocked with locally made spirits to mix a drink, along with snacks, appetizers and desserts.
The Gold Lounge is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the food and beverage programs at The Empress. And a big part of that is one group of guests that never leave – the onsite honeybees.
Walking through the impeccably landscaped gardens is part of the attraction to visiting the city of Victoria, and the grounds of The Empress are no different. The gardens are home to hundreds of thousands of honeybees that work to pollinate flowers and herbs, and Babe’s Honey Farm works to manage the hives and harvest the honey for culinary use. “Fairmont Empress prioritizes local and sustainable products, and on-site honey is a perfect example of this,” says Executive Chef Morgan Wilson. “When we’re looking to add a little sweetness to a dish, we first think about honey as that sweetening agent. It has much more depth of flavor and complexity than something like sugar or even maple syrup.”
According to Wilson, the honeybee program has been running for 12 years, and it plays a large role in The Empress earning its Biosphere certification for sustainability.
So, what are they doing with the close to 700 pounds of honey produced by these busy workers each year? One of my favorite menu items was the burrata and nectarine appetizer, which paired slices of toasted sourdough with a big round of burrata cheese, fresh mint and Empress honey to create a perfect balance of light, fresh flavors for summer. Honey is also mixed into whipped honey butter, used to glaze vegetables and featured in desserts. It’s also the ideal agent for cocktails, whether incorporated as a spiced honey syrup with their namesake indigo Empress 1908 Gin or mixed into a complex zero-proof cocktail with Lumette, a locally made non-alcoholic gin. “Similar to using sugar to make a simple syrup, honey is incorporated into the recipe as a way to balance the flavors,” says Wilson.
