Taboo Resort, Golf and Spa, Gravenhurst: Manhattan Style among the Pines at Taboo Resort
by Margaret Swaine
Taboo Resort, Golf and Spa has had more face lifts than a Hollywood star in its pursuit of glam in cottage country. With the most recent renovation it’s achieved “the look”. The striking lobby imparts hip urban luxury, its restaurants are city-slick and the bedrooms modernist boutique hotel style. The reason to be there, the great outdoors, is brought into play with plenty of floor to ceiling windows that showcase the glittering beauty of Lake Muskoka. The new multi-million-dollar make-over just completed was designed by cutting edge Toronto firm munge//leung renown for doing cool places in Ontario’s capital such as the Ultra Supper Club and Koolhaus.
Located by the lake on 1,000 acres of parkland, the resort was built in 1926 during a time when Muskoka was the favoured playground retreat of business tycoons and celebrities (a position which the area still enjoys to some extent today). Then called The Muskoka Beach Inn, travellers reached it by horse and buggy or sleigh from the railway station in Gravenhurst. When fire destroyed the main lodge in 1959 it was soon rebuilt closer to the water and renamed the Muskoka Sands Inn. It was transformed again when The Great Golf Group of Companies purchased it in 1984 and began a series of renovations and additions. Cottage chalets, three new outdoor pools, a remodeled indoor swimming pool, dining facilities and a new wing of suites were just some of the improvements.
However the biggest change was serendipitous. In June 2002 the resort opened a CPGA-standard course named Taboo, designed by golf course architect Ron Garl. Mike Weir, Canada’s top PGA ranked golfer was signed up to make Taboo his Home Course. The deal with Weir brought more fortune and attention than the resort had ever imagined when Weir went on to become the 2003 Masters Champion. The Taboo course which rolls through granite outcroppings, wetlands, and forests, won multiple accolades from the golf press and instant popularity among recreational golfers. Such was the impact, the resort itself was renamed Taboo in 2003 and further upgrades took place to bring the resort up to par with the golf experience. The boat house was restored, the conference centre expanded and a spa facility opened. Then this winter most of the public areas and many of the rooms were redone completing the transformation from wilderness hotel to premier northern retreat.
“We have such credibility on the golf course,” said Nigel Hollidge, Director of Operations, Golf/Marketing and acting general manager “and now people will have the same world class experience in the resort.” To me that statement downplays what the resort already had been offering. Two years ago I was delightfully impressed by the food at Wildfire, the resort’s fine dining restaurant. Wildfire has evolved this year into Elements of Taboo – three different dining experiences – namely the restaurant, the lounge and the Culinary Theatre. At the helm of the Culinary Theatre, located in the core of the dining area, are the past Wildfire chefs Michael Pataran and Jay Scaife. Their job is to create pizzazz while they deliver tasty little dishes based on the ingredients selected by the diner. Patrons sit at the counter squared around their open kitchen and watch as the meal is created. Several plasma screen televisions capture the action as well. On the night I ate there, Scaife created a Spring bank farms bison salad with Asian spicing and Pataran a steamed cod with sea urchin butter sauce as part of the parade of tasting dishes. It’s not comfort food and not all the dishes work but it is engaging fun and for the most part quite yummy. You pay from $45 to $105 depending upon the number of courses. If requested, for a set price, sommelier Michael Sullivan matches the dishes with beverages such as special sakes, handcrafted beers and out-of-the-ordinary wines.
Patient doesn’t need to burn his pocket because this medicine can be afforded at low price generic viagra mastercard rate. Yet viagra tablet there she is right back in another abusive relationship. Impotence problem (or erectile dysfunction) free cialis samples in men are getting increasing with continuous increase in population. The professional cialis handlers are drug lords that will not care the place that the drugs fall neither can they care who gets addicted. Elements restaurant (formerly Winewood) is decorated in soothing earth tones accented by modern art and sculptures and the ever present Lake Muskoka through the windows. Chef Tawfik Shehata presides here with a focus on seasonal continental cuisine. He’s a talented chef whose food I’ve previously enjoyed at Eau Restaurant in Toronto (now closed). His rack of lamb with braised lamb shank ravioli is a winner as is the Nova Scotia lobster. Service needs to be snappier but that may come with time.
Small appetites can hang out at the bar and piano lounge where the selection includes hanger steak, clams with Muskoka cream ale or heirloom tomato salad. In case the scenery bores, there’s four flat screen plasma TV’s above the bar.
The rooms vary considerably in size and style. The largest are the 22 platinum suites of which four are two storeys and nine redesigned this year by Dragana. The one I’ve stayed in was spacious with a separate sitting area, fireplace, a balcony and Jacuzzi tub to accompany the picture perfect view of the lake. This year I opted for one of the Signature Design Suites just redesigned by munge//leung. It had the great lake view, Egyptian cotton linens and a plasma television. However the custom walnut desk along one wall seemed rather more boardroom than bedroom. I had high speed internet, a designer style office chair and Italian bathroom fixtures but no place to really relax. The Muskoka chairs on my cedar balcony solved the issue. While some of the North Shore rooms haven’t yet been renovated, they’re larger with fireplaces and Jacuzzi tubs. Families should take the platinum suites or the two, three or four bedroom chalets.
Taboo is a few hiccups short of the five star, five diamond property they aim to be. They are however the best resort in Ontario in my estimation and I’ve traveled plenty throughout the province. You can’t beat the package of fine dining, waterfront, golf, swimming pools, tennis courts, volleyball courts (on sand and in water), parkland for hiking, marina, games and fitness room, nascent spa and ultra chic décor. It’s not old Muskoka, it’s a new world.
IF YOU GO: Where: Muskoka Beach Road, RR. 1 Gravenhurst, Ontario P1P 1R1. Cost: in high season (June to September) $295 per room for a resort view to $385 for a luxury lakeview. Suites and condos start at $455 and go up to $1085 for a four bedroom deluxe. Contacts: 1-800-461-0236 or www.tabooresort.com Driving distance from Ottawa is about five and a half hours.