With 12-foot ceilings, soaring windows, soaker tubs, limestone walls and a small-plates restaurant, the Frontenac Club hotel in Kingston, Ontario, is a luxurious retreat that blends two centuries of history with all mod cons. If you’re celebrating a special occasion—or if you just enjoy the finer things in life—I can highly recommend the Frontenac Club for your next Kingston vacation. Read on to find out why.
Disclosure: I received a free stay at the Frontenac Club for the purposes of this review. The hotel did not review or approve this post. All opinions are my own.
Let the sun shine in
When I visited in the depths of winter, I was craving light. Fortunately, both my guest suite and the public spaces of the Frontenac Club have huge windows that capture every ray of winter sunshine.
Let’s start with my room—or, should I say, rooms. Located in an upstairs corner of the hotel’s Bank Wing, the Frontenac Suite can sleep four people, with a king-sized bed and a queen-sized sofa bed. The suite has huge mullioned windows in the bedroom, the living room (where the sofa bed is located) and even the bathroom. If you’re sensitive to morning light, as I am, you’ll be happy to know that all the windows are fitted with indoor wooden shutters that keep the suite dark for sleeping. However, I flung all the shutters open whenever I was awake, because the sunshine cheered my winter-weary soul.
The Bank Gastrobar, on the hotel’s ground floor, is similarly bright. When the Bank Wing was constructed in 1845, it served as the first branch of the Bank of Montreal in what is now Ontario; this wide-open space was the banking floor. Even though a long stretch of banquettes blocks the lower section of some of the windows, the space is still airy and bright.
Stretch out in a spacious room or suite
I toured the Frontenac Club with Sean Billing, one of the property’s six owners. While my 625-square-foot suite was among the hotel’s largest, all of the 20 rooms and suites are quite spacious. Every room has a king-sized bed, at least one chair or sofa, bathrobes, a bar fridge and barware, and a TV. Note that if you like to watch TV in bed, you might want to book a different suite than the one I stayed in, as the TV in the Frontenac Suite is located in the living room.
The accommodations are spread across three connected wings: an 1826 farmhouse called the Cartwright Wing, the 1845 Bank Wing and the 1907 Club Wing. Each unit has its own unique decor, which might include an exposed brick wall or a stained-glass window; my suite featured large black-and-white photographs of a woman with elaborate necklaces.
Music fans might want to book the Backstage Room, decorated with photos of the Tragically Hip and other Kingston bands, and equipped with a turntable stocked with local music. Note that there are several steps down from the door into the room.
As the Frontenac Club is a heritage property with multiple levels and staircases, the hotel has only one fully accessible room (room 101).
Unwind in a tub
As someone who lives in a house where the only bathroom is the size of a walk-in closet, I’m a big fan of posh hotel bathrooms. On that front, it turns out I’m not alone.
Billing says many guests get their first impression of a hotel room from its bathrooms. He knows a thing or two about hotel guests, having worked around the world for Marriott and Fairmont (including a stint at Ottawa’s Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel).
So when he and his partners bought the building in 2017 and began renovating it, fancy loos were a priority. “We decided we’d start with the bathrooms first and make sure the bathrooms were generous,” says Billing.
They didn’t hold back. The enormous bathroom in the Frontenac Suite includes a huge walk-in shower, a long vanity and a deep, standalone tub with an adjacent windowsill that easily accommodates a book and a glass of wine. I tested both the shower (great water pressure) and the tub (lots of hot water) because, hey, I like to do a thorough job.
Curl up by a fire
Each of the hotel’s 20 rooms and suites has a gas fireplace, which I also made good use of during my winter stay. Mine was opposite the king-sized bed, and it kept the room cozy, something that’s not an easy thing to do in a property with high ceilings. During the renovation, the owners discovered that the ceilings in many rooms had been dropped multiple times, likely in an effort to save money on heating.
Speaking of the fireplace reminds me of the suite’s eminently sensible tech controls. In many hotel rooms, you have to play a bit of a guessing game with remotes and switches, flipping them on and off until you finally get the effect you want. At the Frontenac Club, the bedside controls for the fireplace and various lights are clearly labelled. Thank you!
Eat, drink and be merry
The Frontenac Club’s restaurant, the Bank Gastrobar, is a sleek spot with a towering central bar surrounded by cushy booths. With its high ceilings, it would likely be a bit loud when crowded. Fortunately, the hotel was quite quiet during my mid-week visit, so the restaurant was a serene place to relax.
In the evening, I began by tucking into an à la carte charcuterie plate. Along with cured meats from local suppliers (Bath’s Creel & Gambrel in Bath, Belleville’s La Cultura), you can select cheeses from Ontario and Quebec makers. The rest of the small dinner menu consists of tapas and other shareable plates, but since I was alone, I also happily ate a delicious plate of chili-garlic pink shrimp all by myself. All in the name of research!
The Bank Gastrobar offers a selection of craft cocktails and mocktails, as well as beers and a selection of wines by the glass. You can also bring your own wine, which they’ll open for a corkage fee.
This isn’t a cheap date; the charcuterie, shrimp and a martini set me back a cool $75. But if you’re in the mood for a splurge, it’s a tasty one.
Enjoy the outdoor spaces
In winter, a company called Stoked Sauna offers a thermal circuit on the Frontenac Club’s ground-level patio. You can move between saunas, a cold plunge pool and Muskoka chairs clustered around a fire table. In summer, guests can enjoy the outdoors on the patio and the hotel’s rooftop terrace; the latter offers a view of the lake. Due to bone-chilling temperatures, I didn’t check out any of the outdoor amenities during my visit—sorry not to have intel to share!
Immerse yourself in history
If you’re a history nut, as I am, you’ll be in your element at the Frontenac Club. Heck, the place even has its own in-house historian, Arthur Milnes, a former assistant to Brian Mulroney and speechwriter for Stephen Harper.
Billing and Milnes seem to have revelled in uncovering the building’s layers of history during the restoration project. As mentioned earlier, the Bank Wing was constructed as a branch of the Bank of Montreal in 1845. As a carrot to induce Montreal employees to move to the “wilds” of Kingston, the bank provided apartments above the branch for many of them.
In 1905, the bank moved to a new location, and the limestone structure became a men’s social club called the Frontenac Club.
In those days, all sorts of movers and shakers came through Kingston, says Milnes. “Kingston punched above its weight, both in the business world, but also politically,” he explains. For instance, U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt came to town in 1938 to receive an honorary degree from Queen’s University. Luminaries such as inventors Sir Sanford Fleming and Alexander Graham Bell passed through, as did military leaders like First World War general Arthur Currie. Many of these big names became Frontenac Club members.
The club prospered for three decades, eventually boasting a dining room, a billiards room and a bowling alley. After it closed in the 1930s, the building was subdivided into multiple small apartments. At one point in the 1960s, three nurses training at Hôtel Dieu Hospital lived in the bank vault. It was only big enough to contain two beds, so the nurses used them in rotation. “They were hot bunking, like on a submarine. They adjusted their schedules to be able to kind of come and go,” Billing explains.
When Billing and his partners bought the structure in 2017, it was an eclectic bed and breakfast that had been remodelled in many stages over two decades. The new owners gutted the building back to the studs. Workers uncovered all sorts of historical items in the process, some of which are now displayed in the hotel lobby.
“We found coins in the building. We found business cards. We found love letters,” says Billing. Other artifacts included a mimeographed play from the 1970s, a 1950s car raffle ticket and a Second World War-era package of cigarettes. The demolition even uncovered an old kitchenette that had been walled off with an icebox still in place and an abandoned knife in the kitchen sink.
If history is your jam, do try to pigeonhole Billing or Milnes during your stay. They will happily elaborate on these and many other stories of the hotel’s past.
To sum up
So, do I recommend the Frontenac Club? Absolutely, if your budget allows (it is among the pricier hotels in Kingston). It would be a great place for a special getaway, such as a birthday or anniversary celebration. And it really does feel like a private little club.
If you go
The Frontenac Club is located at 225 King Street East in Kingston. It’s a five-minute walk from Kingston City Hall and Confederation Park, meaning that downtown Kingston’s shops and restaurants are within easy reach. In the opposite direction, a five-minute walk brings you to the Great Lakes Museum, where you can tour a meticulously restored Edwardian passenger liner called the SS Keewatin.
Check the hotel’s website for information on the Bank Gastrobar’s opening hours.
Room rates include full-service breakfast, wi-fi and onsite parking for one car.
Kingston is located about two hours southwest of Ottawa by car, bus or VIA Rail. If you’re looking for more things to see and do while you’re in the area, don’t miss my big guide to Kingston.
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