A look inside the Opinicon makeover
Grand Old Dame of the Rideau gets authentically fun makeover while keeping its Canadiana charm
Call it Canadiana cool.
The revamped Opinicon Dining and Resort had its grand reopening earlier this month offering easy summer living, Canadian-style: a breezy lake view restaurant, an ice cream parlour, rustic cottages, paddling on the water and live music in the trees.
But what’s dubbed the Grand Old Dame of the Rideau isn’t just back, she’s turned sesquicentennial “it girl” with summer style as young as her 30-something new owners.
Pulling up to the ochre-painted main lodge with its rolling lawns and signature red Muskoka chairs — matched exactly to the originals in a colour christened Opinicon Red — is like stepping back in time. Except now, you can pull up to an electric car charger.
While the lodge, the 1870s house of an early Chaffey’s Lock settler, has gone from dark and divided to white and flooded with light, patrons take in the same brilliant blue view of Lake Opinicon through the original wavy glass windows.
The 16 cottages, some dating from about 1910, retained features like stone fireplaces and pine floors. But they got sleek retro-classic hexagonal tile bathrooms while the decor mixes stuffed trout on plaques and original tourist postcards of the Rideau system with mid-century finds, custom wool blankets from a PEI mill and pillows with the resort’s jumping fish logo.
“My hope is that there would be enough of the old Opinicon, if you want to call it that, that there’s a familiarity but that there’s an additional level of Canadiana,” said Fiona McKean, who bought the property two years ago with her husband, Tobi Lütke, the cofounder of Ottawa-based tech darling Shopify.
Just one example: art like dusty prints of Parisian streetscapes has been replaced by vibrant paintings by local artists including Ottawa’s Andrew King, who was inspired to paint a series featuring those iconic red chairs by an Opinicon stay.
“We’ve taken all that out and put Canadian artists first and put them up on the walls,” McKean said.” It does lend itself to a bit more of a vintage Canadiana feel.”
McKean grew up cottaging near the Opinicon, a 90-minute drive for Ottawa families for nearly a century until it closed in 2012. She and Lütke bought the property as-is at auction when McKean was days away from her due date with their third child.
They managed a limited opening that spring but what followed wasn’t just a facelift, it was a twoand-a half-year renovation project that went into the millions of dollars, “way more than anticipated,” McKean confesses.
The aim was to revive the classic vibe of the place, which McKean describes as a mix of magic and pure nostalgia.
But first came tackling practicalities like missing foundations, twisted support beams, asbestos and lead paint.
“When we were first given the keys in January 2015, we really didn’t have a solid idea of what we were dealing with — in fact, what we were dealing with was not solid,” McKean said. “Every time we touched something we discovered it needed to be replaced or completely rethought. It has been quite the process, an epic journey and I’m very happy with how it all turned out.
“It’s a mix of the old with a fresh twist and all the modern conveniences that you could hope for.”
Overseen by Andrew Reeves of Linebox Studio, who also designed the couple’s modern and colourful New Edinburgh home, the lodge was totally renovated. There was also work on each of the two dozen buildings on the 16-acre property.
And it’s not done yet. A pool, spa and pool house with rooftop deck for dining are still under construction after rain delayed pouring concrete. New accommodation is also in the works as part of the goal of creating a year-round business which McKean aims to make sustainable both for the environment and the tiny village of Chaffey’s Lock, inspired in part by talks with Zita Cobb of Newfoundland’s Fogo Island Inn fame.
A tour begins in the new lobby which mixes white walls and an open ceiling exposing skylights in the gallery above the mid-century sofa, grand piano and colourful Persian carpet. A very young Queen Elizabeth smiles from a pastel portrait from a photograph by the capital’s very own Yousuf Karsh. Behind the front desk is a striking series of five panels depicting birch trees by Ottawa artist Alison Fowler.
Towards the lake is the 100-seat dining room, outfitted with jadegreen painted Anaglypta wallpaper, whitewashed chairs and tablecloths. On the other side is a cosy pub.
Up a grand curving staircase is a new lounge with tree-top lake views that’s a homage to a formerly tacky tiki bar. There are tangerine walls, a bamboo bar, playful Polynesian-themed prints, vintage video games and comfortable chairs and couches from Vanier Moderns, a favourite source of mid-century Canadian-made treasures.
Next door is the robin’s egg blue Alford Room with a soaring beadboard ceiling and faux-antler chandeliers. It’s named after a family who ran a business on the site for decades and has since returned to their namesake venue for a reunion, McKean said.
Then there’s the resort’s general store where the old Opinicon is nearly untouched — it’s mint-green with staff scooping ice cream behind the original Formica countertop to customers on chrome stools.
No wonder — McKean’s own inspiration was summers spent boating over to the “majestic” resort to buy penny candy and ice cream cones as a child in the 1980s.
“There’s not a lot of that left that’s really authentic,” she said. “So making sure that we’re doing it justice, that we’re properly taking care of the heritage that’s been given to us and then making sure it will last another 200 years, that’s really been the driving force of what we’re trying to do.”