Story | Connie Li Photography | Kat Florence Hotel
A 100-acre private nature reserve, a 150-year-old manor, seven-figure rare gemstones and a different acclaimed chef at dinner each night—Kat Florence Hotel is bringing a more private kind of getaway to Elora.
Perhaps you are already looking for somewhere a little different to escape to this coming holiday season—somewhere that doesn’t require a long-haul flight, yet still feels removed from the bustle of the city. Not far from Toronto, Elora could be just the place.
Known for the Grand River and Elora Gorge, the Ontario town is also filled with quiet streets and distinctive limestone architecture. In 2024, jewellery designer and rare gemstone artist Kat Florence returned to her hometown to transform the former Commercial Hotel, originally built in 1848, into Kat Florence Hotel. Now, the experience is extending well beyond the historic building, with a 100-acre private nature reserve, an 1870s heritage manor, a collection of seven-figure rare gemstones and nightly dinners prepared by a rotating team of acclaimed chefs.
Kat Florence at The Library
What ties these seemingly different experiences together? Perhaps one word: privacy.
It could mean heading into the forest with a private guide instead of following a tour group, staying in a restored historic manor with your own private chef, or settling into the hotel’s Living Room with a drink while taking a closer look at rare gemstones more often encountered at auctions or in museums.
As Kat Florence explains, the idea is not to keep adding more in order to accommodate more guests, but to give those who do stay something they cannot experience anywhere else.
So, where is better to begin our private Elora escape than in the woods?
Into the Private Nature Reserve
The 100-acre Kat Florence Reserve lies around the Elora Gorge, encompassing protected forest and wildlife habitat along with approximately 2,500 feet of secluded riverbank. This isn’t another Elora attraction open to the public; access is reserved for selected hotel guests and invited visitors.
One of Florence’s main reasons for purchasing the land was to help preserve its plants and wildlife. So the Reserve isn’t simply a “private forest” for guests to roam freely. To minimize the impact on the natural environment, visits are limited to one couple or suite at a time and accompanied by a private guide.
Spend a few hours walking through the forest, observing the plants and keeping an eye out for local wildlife, or stop for a picnic by the river. There’s no need to pack the day with activities; with your private guide, you can explore at your own pace.
Stay in a Historic Manor
Leaving the forest behind, another kind of private experience awaits at Imperial Jade Manor.
The manor began life as Rosemount Cottage in the 1870s and later became Saint Margaret’s All Girls School. Kat Florence herself once lived here. Now carefully restored, the historic house has become a private retreat within the Kat Florence Hotel experience.
Built in the Italianate Revival style using locally quarried Elora limestone, the manor still looks very much like an old country home from the outside, with its stone walls, arched windows and garden. Step inside, however, and the experience is thoroughly modern.
There is a spa, a 60-foot swimming pool and a custom six-figure stone hot bath where you can soak outdoors under the stars. Then there is private chef Dale MacKay, the first winner of Top Chef Canada, who previously worked for Gordon Ramsay in New York and Japan and served as Executive Chef for Daniel Boulud’s Dinex Group.
Imperial Jade Manor really does feel like a private home where someone else takes care of the details. Swim a few laps during the day, have a massage when you feel like slowing down, then slip into the stone hot bath under the night sky. When hunger sets in, Dale MacKay is there to cook.
A holiday at “home” suddenly sounds rather appealing.
A Gemstone Gallery Inside the Hotel
Gemstones are, of course, Kat Florence’s world, and bringing them into the hotel adds a very personal touch—as well as an experience that would be difficult to find elsewhere.
Beginning this season, rare pieces from the Kat Florence Atelier will be displayed throughout the hotel’s original 1848 limestone building, turning the Living Room into an evolving Living Gemstone Gallery.
A flawless 424.8-carat royal velvet blue Tanzanite.
A 52.48 carat Jeremejevite.
a matched pair of pair of flawless, unheated Paraiba Tourmaline earrings.
These are far from the usual artworks decorating a hotel. Among them is a flawless 424.8-carat royal velvet blue Tanzanite, the largest of its kind ever offered at auction; the largest matching pair of flawless, unheated Paraiba earrings ever to go to auction; and the world’s largest flawless 52.48-carat Jeremejevite, set with D-flawless diamonds. Each is valued in the seven figures.
What makes the experience particularly interesting is how these rare gemstone creations are presented. Rather than being treated entirely like objects in a traditional museum display, they become part of the hotel’s everyday spaces. Sit for a while in the Living Room or simply walk from one room to another, and you may find yourself face to face with a museum-worthy gemstone.
Who’s Cooking Tonight?
A holiday getaway should, after all, come with something good to eat.
Every night at Kat Florence Hotel includes a multi-course tasting dinner, but the same chef isn’t necessarily in the kitchen each evening. The hotel’s team of Master Chefs rotates, so guests may not know in advance who will be cooking that night, or exactly what will be on the menu.
The current line-up includes Anthony Bish, who has appeared on Iron Chef and MasterChef; Marc Collyer, formerly of the two-Michelin-starred The Manor House in the UK; and the newest addition, Neill Anthony.
Kat Florence and Chef Neill Anthony.
Anthony has worked with Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing and Alyn Williams, and has spent years cooking privately for celebrities and royalty. His client list has included King Charles III, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, as well as Elton John, Madonna, U2 and Paul McCartney. He has also travelled with Middle Eastern royal families as their private chef.
Selected invited guests can also dine at Don & Kat’s Private Dining, a riverside setting with a private terrace overlooking the Grand River. The new Library on the River, meanwhile, offers somewhere to read, work or simply sit and enjoy the view.
Before dinner, there are also Sundowners, inspired by the tradition of luxury safari lodges in Southern Africa: head outdoors as the sun begins to set, have a drink, chat with fellow guests and then make your way to dinner.
Whether Elora is somewhere you have never visited or an old favourite, perhaps this holiday season is a good time to see this quiet, picturesque Ontario town from a different perspective—and enjoy it in a rather more private way.
Kat Florence Hotel
43 W Mill St, Elora, ON N0B 1S0
katflorencehotels.com
