Montreal Gazette

COOKING UP A STORM

W Hotel helping to feed the homeless

- BILL BROWNSTEIN bbrownstei­n@postmedia.com Twitter.com/ billbrowns­tein

It is hardly an overstatem­ent to point out that June through August are the year’s peak periods for this city’s hotels. Their years are made on those three months.

But that period will be a huge bust this year. It was all to begin with the Formula One madness, followed by the jazz and comedy and myriad other festivals — which have either been cancelled or postponed. Our tourism trade will be out countless millions.

Nearly 50 per cent of Montreal’s hotels have already suspended operations since mid-march due to COVID -19 and resulting travel restrictio­ns, according to industry insiders. And some won’t ever be coming back.

Old Montreal’s swanky W Hotel is still operating — barely. It’s at about five per cent capacity. Yet while its 152 guest rooms sit largely empty and its restaurant­s/bars remain closed to the public, its kitchen staff has not been idle.

Since the beginning of May and through all of June, the staff has been and will be cooking up a storm every day to provide nearly 34,000 free meals for the homeless throughout the city.

That works out to be over 600 dinners a day being prepared, picked up and dropped off to, among other spots, the Old Brewery Mission, YMCA Guy-favreau, Centre Jeanclaude Malépart, Marché Bonsecours and Centre Sportif de la Petite-bourgogne. Meals run the gamut from meat loaf and mashed potatoes to pasta and sausages.

True, Ivanhoé Cambridge, the hotel’s owner, has deep pockets, but it, too, is going through particular­ly trying times with its various holdings. So its largesse is all the more striking.

W Hotel general manager Christina Poon reports that all — from the hotel’s execs to its staff — have been totally on board with this project.

“With this crisis, we heard the call from the city that it needed help, that it had these temporary shelters with so many in need of meals,” says the Montreal born and raised Poon. “At first, I was hesitant because of all the health concerns relating to the situation, and I was worried about my staff being safe. But our team was so gung-ho.

“They wanted to come to work, because all the protocols were in place and they couldn’t have been more committed to making meals for those in need.”

Since it launched 15 years ago, the W Hotel has been involved with various charitable projects, like the Children’s Miracle Network and Terry Fox Foundation.

“We’ve always been very discreet about our community work,” Poon says. “It feels wrong to brag about doing something right. But in this case, it’s so important to be able to inspire others to follow suit. That’s our hope.”

All the same, what a difference a year has made on the hotel front.

“Normally at this time of the year, our hotel would have been just overflowin­g with guests and cars to park. Our concierges would have their phones just ringing off the hook. Our dining and bar areas would have been packed,” Poon says. “It would have been insane, but a nice insane.

“That’s part of why we’re saying that because this now is so totally off the charts, so abnormal, we just couldn’t sit back and not do anything about it. We felt the need to get involved.”

With the possibilit­y of the F1 and Just for Laughs perhaps being held in September and travel restrictio­ns being loosened, Poon feels business may pick up a little in the fall.

“But then we quickly hit the slow winter season,” Poon says, her voice tailing off. “Maybe in the spring of 2021 we’ll see something close to what we consider normal. But the harsh reality is that if hotels don’t exist, you can forget tourism.

“Sometimes I feel we’re in a sci-fi film, and I go: ‘Why?’ Everything seems empty all over the world. But we have to stay upbeat.

“There are so many who are not healthy, who don’t have shelter or food. And that’s where we have to go: ‘Let’s give back!’ ”

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 ?? ALLEN MCINNIS ?? Executive chef Joris Larigaldie plates all 600 meals made by the W Hotel for the homeless to reduce the number of people that touch the outgoing meals prior to shipment.
ALLEN MCINNIS Executive chef Joris Larigaldie plates all 600 meals made by the W Hotel for the homeless to reduce the number of people that touch the outgoing meals prior to shipment.
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