One of Vancouver’s oldest and most highly regarded hotels launched a new bar February 12 that could evoke memories of the Prohibition era - that is, if any centenarians happen to wander in.
Called Prohibition, the 3,000-square-foot, 130-seat drinking hole includes stylish elements from around 1927, which is when the Rosewood Hotel Georgia first opened.
Green counter lamps are in the style of the era as is some fabric and the turquoise leather couches that fill the dark-lit underground establishment, the hotel’s managing director Bernhard Wimmer told Business in Vancouver hours before the 4 p.m. opening.
“We had a choice,” he said. “Do we want to have a bar that looks like Prohibition, that serves like Prohibition and has music from the Prohibition era or, rather, do we want to have a bar that is in reality in 2015.”
The executive team decided to have a bar that had elements to evoke the 1920s but not to overdo it to the point that people don’t want to make the spot a regular hangout.
The hotel spent several million on renovations to the spot that is accessed on Howe Street and has a green light on, at the entrance, when the bar is open, much as might have happened in 1927.
The site has been vacant for more than a decade and was previously a bar named Chameleon.
“Everybody was waiting this and it has given people another opportunity to now visit the Rosewood Hotel Georgia,” Wimmer said.
“You can go to the hotel restaurant for dinner, then you go to the lobby lounge 1927, where you can have more quiet, and in the summertime, go up to Reflections. After Reflections, you can go to Prohibition.”
Celebrated chef David Hawksworth opened his 2,800-square-foot fine-dining restaurant in 2011 at the hotel. He later added a café called Bel Café.
The hotel also has a piano lounge named 1927 that is both a place for afternoon tea or a drink in the evening. Its other eatery, the 129-seat Reflections, is about 1,500-square-feet and has dining areas both inside and out.
TripAdvisor LCC currently ranks the Rosewood Hotel Georgia No. 2 in Vancouver, based on peer reviews, after L'Hermitage Hotel.
The hotel is one of Vancouver’s oldest along with others, such as the Sylvia Hotel, which was built in 1912 and the Hotel Vancouver, which opened in 1939.
