Below is a review of Hotel Le Germain in downtown Calgary, as
well as the Charcut Roast House and Double Zero Restaurant.
On Friday Matt and I left Gemma with the grandparents and
slipped away to Calgary for a romantic weekend. Although we missed her, we knew
she was in the most loving care, and the freedom of it being just the two of us
helped ease any nerves we had. We stayed at the stunning Hotel Le Germain in
downtown Calgary, situated directly across from the Calgary Tower and the
Fairmont Palliser hotel. Matt really hit it out of the park finding this place! Le Germain is a metropolitan boutique hotel,
similar to the Matrix or the Mettera here in Edmonton, but more luxurious.
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| Room at Hotel Le Germain |
We love the modern style of boutique hotels, and the room
certainly met what I’d expect at a hotel like this. I loved the rain shower in
the bathroom and have decided that when I build my dream house, I’m putting one
in!
A highlight for me at
Le Germain was its well equipped fitness centre – perhaps the best equipped gym
I’ve ever seen in a hotel. They had a row of treadmills and ellipticals, two
trx’s and bosu balls, a punching bag, a spin bike, a rowing machine, not to
mention two full sets of dumbbells and many other pieces of equipment for abs
and stretching. Oh, and the fitness centre is located at the top of the hotel,
with floor to ceiling windows that wrap around on three sides of the gym. We took
in downtown Calgary as we worked out each morning!
The working out was necessary seeing as we ate very well
this weekend! Our first evening we ate at the hotel’s Charcut Roast House, a
popular and highly regarded charcuterie restaurant in Calgary. Charcuterie refers to a French style of food
that emphasises sliced, prepared meats.
We ordered their famous charcuterie platter of three varieties of meats
and ate it along with the cheese and bread we ordered additionally. Like
everything else in this hotel, Charcut’s food and style really fit with what we
look for when we holiday—European and modern. Another endearing aspect of this
restaurant is how they serve warm chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Cookies
are my weakness, making this restaurant all the more wonderful. My only issue
with Charcut was the service. After I mentioned that I wasn’t interested in
ordering a $15 glass of wine, I noticed the server seemed to take less interest
in our table. And it’s true, Matt and I weren’t planning on over-doing the
spending this weekend, but it was a little off-putting. I served through
university so I understand wanting to put my efforts with the clients who will
ring up the highest bill, but I also learned that the best tippers often came
from the clients I didn’t expect to be so generous. Regardless it was a
delicious meal that brought back many memories of our dining in Europe.
Our favourite meal was on Saturday at DOUBLE ZERO, a more
upscale pizza joint in Chinook Mall. It is named after 00--the highest grade of
flour--which they use in their pizza dough, making for an extremely light crust.
Double Zero was rated best pizza place in Calgary by Avenue magazine, and we
totally agree! It beat Famosos, an Edmonton area favourite, hands down. The
pizza was fantastic, but we also enjoyed two other traditional Italian dishes –
a caprese salad (tomatoes, arugula and fior di latte) and arancini (breaded
risotto balls) – which had us longing for another Italian vacation. We decided
that a visit to Calgary is no longer a visit without stopping by Double Zero.
Our stay in Calgary at Le Germain was exactly what Matt and
I needed to re-energize as we head into the final weeks of school, and served
as a reminder of how important it is to invest in our marriage, not only for our
sake, but for the sake of Gemma. I’ll be blogging on this topic tomorrow, so
please pop by again.
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