August 27, 2015 – Honeybees are checking in on the third floor Garden Terrace this summer. The hotel is pleased to introduce a new Bee Wall installation in partnership with Birks, Canada’s leading jeweller, and Alvéole, a Montreal based organization that promotes and assists with beehive installation, maintenance and honey extraction. 

Since the late 1990s, concerns about colony collapse disorder in North American beehives have been growing. The Bee Wall installation addition to the third floor Garden Terrace will not only aid the community by providing plenty of bees to pollinate downtown area gardens and parks; the honey harvested will also provide the culinary team led by Executive Chef Damon Campbell and the pastry team led by Pastry Chef Kate Siegel with local and sustainable honey for use in the hotel’s kitchen and food and beverage outlets.

“We’re delighted to be collaborating with our valued partner, Birks, on this important initiative,” said Richard Cooke, general manager of Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto. “We believe strongly in sustainability, being environmentally responsible and using locally sourced ingredients and we look forward to offering guests inventive new dishes featuring our very own home harvested honey.”

“Bees pollinate the plants that provide one out of every three bites of food we eat”, says Vice President, Marketing and Communications Eva Hartling of Birks Group Inc. “We are thrilled to partner with Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto to further raise awareness about their disappearance building on Birks’ overall initiatives to support this important cause.”

Since last year, Birks has been actively supporting the preservation and protection of  honey bees. The organization has helped raise awareness around this environmental issue through various initiatives such as the introduction of bee themed jewellery collections, a partnership with the Honey Bee Research Centre at the University of Guelph and an urban beekeeping installation surrounded by a suspended green roof at its flagship boutique in Montreal.

The new Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto and Birks Bee Wall is made of wax that the bees secrete themselves. Over the season, guests will be able to see through glass the development of this Bee Wall built by the bees. It contains roughly 50,000 honeybees, and is anticipated to yield approximately 20 kilos of honey by this winter.

Chef Campbell and his culinary team will create a feature tasting menu using the homemade honey that will debut in late November in Bosk restaurant. Additionally, the hotel’s Lobby Lounge will offer custom cocktails with honey as an ingredient, and the pastry team will add a honey High Tea menu option to the daily High Tea offering. Further, guests wanting to “sweeten” their taste buds will be able to purchase jars of  home harvested honey to take home with them. Also available, guests can treat themselves to a honey and wine body wrap at the Miraj Hammam Spa by Caudalie.

For more information or to make reservations, please call 647-788-8888 or visit www.shangri-la.com/toronto 

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For digitized pictures of the group’s hotels, go to http://www.shangrila.com/imagelibrary 

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Kerry Connelly                                              

Director of Communications                         

Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto                             

Tel:  (647) 471-6318

E-mail: kerry.connelly@shangri-la.com 

Francis Guindon

Manager, Public Relations

Birks Group Inc.

Tel: +1 514 397-2501, ext. 4065

E-mail: fguindon@birksgroup.com