Park Hyatt Toronto

Where Atwood Set a Scene, and the Bar Still Remembers

Park Hyatt Toronto reopened after a four-year renovation with its most famous room intact in spirit if not in name: the rooftop Writers Room, long known as the Roof Lounge, where Margaret Atwood placed a scene from Cat's Eye and where Farley Mowat and Mordecai Richler once drank. The Writers Guild of Canada is said to have been founded there on a napkin. The rest of the hotel, 336 rooms across a Yorkville tower, was rebuilt around that legacy rather than around it, with a palette pulled from the Group of Seven's canvases instead of an imported design template.

Why It Works

We chose this hotel because its five-star credentials rest on something more specific than thread counts: a literary history that a design budget cannot buy, reintroduced through oxblood banquettes, dark oak and velvet, and a double-sided fireplace that splits the Writers Room into public and private halves. Cocktails named for real Canadian figures, June Callwood's Conscience, Atwood's own Bitter Relief, arrive stirred tableside from vintage shakers. It is a hotel that renovated toward its own story instead of away from it, a rarer choice than it should be among five-star relaunches.

Why This Location

The hotel sits on Avenue Road in Bloor-Yorkville, Toronto's gallery-and-boutique district, a few minutes' walk from the Royal Ontario Museum and the Bata Shoe Museum, and close to the University of Toronto's downtown campus. Bloor Street's flagship shopping runs a block over, and the subway at Museum station puts the rest of the city, from the Financial District to the Toronto Islands ferry, within easy reach without a car. Yorkville itself stays quieter than the Entertainment District after dark, favouring gallery openings over nightclubs.

Fast Facts

• Price: €€€€ (Luxe)

• Vibe: Literary, art-driven, quietly grand

• Rooms: 336, renovated with decor inspired by the Group of Seven

• Best For: Culture-focused travellers and cocktail-hour regulars who want a five-star stay with a story attached

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The Writers Room, where the Writers Guild of Canada is said to have been founded on a napkin

• Dining: Rooftop cocktails and an elevated menu including foie gras doughnuts and truffle tuna tartare

• Amenities: Fitness centre, pet-friendly rooms, expanded rooftop terrace with panoramic city views

• Attractions: Royal Ontario Museum, Bata Shoe Museum, Bloor Street shopping, University of Toronto

A Renovation That Kept the Ghosts

Architects KPMB led the four-year overhaul, and the brief clearly ran toward restraint: floor-to-ceiling windows, an expanded terrace, and rooms that trade dated opulence for a calmer, art-forward register. Antique ink bottles and quills scattered through the Writers Room are a quiet nod rather than a theme-park gesture, and the result reads as a hotel that respects its own history without embalming it, a difficult balance for any property this well known.

A Bar That Still Writes the City's Stories

The cocktail list treats Canadian literary and journalistic figures as source material rather than trivia: dark rum and Amarena cherry for June Callwood, Roku gin and coffee-bean Campari for Atwood. Paired with the panoramic terrace view and a kitchen turning out foie gras doughnuts alongside vegan and gluten-free options, the Writers Room works as a destination in its own right, not just an amenity for hotel guests passing through, and Torontonians book tables here independently of any stay.

Before You Book

This is a hotel for guests who want their five-star stay to come with a sense of place rather than an interchangeable lobby. It suits couples and solo travellers drawn to art and books more than families, since the appeal leans adult and literary rather than kid-friendly. Reserve a Writers Room table ahead on weekends; it remains one of Toronto's most requested rooftop seats, renovation or not, and walk-ins are rarely guaranteed a spot by the fireplace.