Lakeview Hotel has new proprietors
The Lakeview Hotel in Knowlton is not only celebrating its 150th anniversary this year but it is also welcoming new owners. Chantale Bourgeois and Brendan Cote recently purchased the historic hotel. They are living the dream and delighted to be back in their home territory. Many Knowlton citizens are delighted that new life is being injected into this building. Tourists to Knowlton are happy to have another accommodation choice.
The young couple previously worked in computer businesses for years and eventually decided that they wanted to interact more with the public, with people. Owning a restaurant would be ideal. They didn’t just want a restaurant, they absolutely wanted to find their place in Knowlton. That location was a big part of their dream. Many of their peers may recall that they were both Massey Vanier graduates who later went to Montreal to obtain their degrees.
They knew the restaurant in the Lakeview Hotel was closed but they had ideas of reopening it. Discussions with the owner led not only to opening the restaurant but to opening and running the hotel.
For now, they are concentrating on general maintenance and upkeep. They will do some painting, put flowers in the gardens, do the spit and polish jobs.
But they did not go into this venture blindly. Someone viewing the building with an untrained eye may think one thing, but Brendan is an engineer and when he looked in the crawl-space basement, he realized that serious work had been done in the past. Probably by Ron Blair who actually had
The building jacked up when he did a major reno in 1986. When Brendan observed steel I-beams in the basement, he realized the situation wasn’t what it looked like. Concrete had been poured into the foundation and then covered with the original stone wall to keep the vintage look on the outside. Steel beams and cement actually support the building. He noted that the plumbing had been redone with plastic pipes, wiring had been replaced; no more spool and bobbin wiring. It now is the quality that you would find in a modern house. The windows had all been replaced with thermo-pane.
Presently 28 rooms are available for tourists. These rooms are furnished with good quality antique pieces. Before the purchase, hotel guests did not have breakfast included. The kitchen wasn’t open. Until the kitchen can be opened for use, now, croissants and muffins are purchased from local providers for their guests.
Phase one of the plan is to have breakfast available for hotel guests as well as customers from Knowlton. And then to open the pub. The pub hours will be late afternoons and evenings and they will be serving finger foods.
The terrace by the pool will be available to customers. Meanwhile, many of the kitchen details have to be worked out. The gas needs to be checked so it can be turned on and the refrigerators going for the cooling of beer, etc. Fire suppression needs to be certified, the hood over the stove needs to be checked. This is all currently being worked on.
Phase two is to get the dining room going again. In another era the dining room was quite formal and a certain dress code was required. Those requirements will be updated.
In future they plan to be available for the community to hold large events. They have a big room with a stage that will hold 150 people. There’s lots of parking available.
Presently, Chantale and Brendan are just trying to get the valve turned back on. They have no grandiose ideas about promotions or themes. They’re taking it one step at a time (Although the possibility of an opening launch seems likely).
When I sat down with the couple, they had been on the job two weeks. They still didn’t know entirely what keys went to what doors.
For fifteen years Brendan travelled the world in his line of business. He got to stay in many hotels and today he knows what he wants and what he doesn’t want as a hotel guest. They plan to provide for their customers what they would want for themselves.
The couple are aware that there is a lot of work ahead of them but they have the energy, and patience to carry it through. They are excited about the challenges. After speaking with them I was more than impressed. They’ve done their homework, they have their plans and they are tackling the eating of that elephant, one bite at a time. I was asked not to get into anything personal but I can’t help but express that my opinion is, they will make it work. They are intelligent, educated people with a definite direction in mind. They have considerable life experience but more than that, they have a great passion. They are surrounded by professionals to advise them. They have the support of family. Many people in the community have expressed support. The chances of Chantale and Brendan making a success of this project are pretty good. The best of luck to them. We’ll be following their progress.