Montréal has recently seen a bumper crop of new boutique hotels—few, though, are as self-consciously opulent and relentlessly upscale as Hotel Le St-James. The building is, like so many in Old Montréal, a nineteenth-century landmark, a Second Empire bank building dating to 1870, an imposing and stately structure, very much at home amongst the district’s still-functioning banks and office buildings.
The public rooms are impressive, full of restored period details, like faux-Greek columns and antique chandeliers and candelabras. The rooms are no less ostentatious, decked out in antique furnishings and rich fabrics, though such welcome anachronisms as flat-screen LCDs and Bang & Olufsen sound systems tend to dull the illusion a bit. Pleasing enough to the eye, the rooms quite hold up to the touch as well, with Frette linens and Molton Brown bath amenities.
The in-house restaurant called Le XO, is open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and cocktails, though the Grand Salon is a perfectly, well, grand setting, for breakfast or afternoon tea. There is a small but complete fitness center, and a spa to rival any city hotel. The Rolling Stones (and their massive touring entourage) famously booked the entire hotel on the occasion of their last visit—whether this speaks to the exquisite creature comforts or to the hotel’s reputation amongst jaded and well-traveled businessmen is left for the reader to discern.
355, Saint-Jacques Street Montreal, Quebec, Canada T : 866-299-2910 F : 619 531 7955
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