A New Resort Aims to Turn Campbell River Into B.C.’s Next Tofino

Ryan Watson’s smile emerges easily when he muses about the place he’s in and the thoughts of its possibility. Having helmed the kitchens at two of the leading hotel restaurants in Canada — the Vermillion Room and 1888 Chop House, both at the Fairmont Banff Springs —, Watson is now the executive chef at an ambitious resort that makes clear its mission is to transform a logging outpost in northern Vancouver Island into a global tourism destination akin to Tofino — or at least its successes.

Naturally Pacific Resort hired Watson to vault its culinary program to notoriety. If he’s daunted by the challenge — or the expectations — he doesn’t show it. On the contrary, Watson comes across as level-headed about the initial stage of the resort, which premiered on an auspicious Mother’s Day weekend  — complete with Northern Lights, balmy weather, and the excitement that only comes with the ironic duality of start-up life: The sense of achievement in making it so far, mixed with the realization that the most important phases of work have also just begun.

Watching a new hotel burst with equal parts joy and anxiety as it unlocks the doors for guest arrivals is always hypnotic, a kind of red-carpet moment for an entire edifice. The emotions are even more intense when it’s a business owned by a family, with deep community roots, and not one of the international brands that dominate the hospitality industry. Naturally Pacific began in 2017 when the Mailman construction family, owners of Seymour Pacific Develpments, purchased the land, building through the pandemic to the eventual reveal.

At the Grand Opening ceremony on May 11, proprietor Amanda Mailman swiped at tears before cutting the ribbon (with a pair of scissors an “Alice in Wonderland” set director would admire). Justin Stevens, the amiable general manager with years of experience at safari lodges in the Serengeti, was busy tending to all the details that demand attention at an early-days hotel. And Watson’s Crave brigade turned out plates in volume for the first time while the extraordinarily in-synch bartending team operated in seasoned form with quality and service. Some elements of Naturally Pacific are humming, others will take time. If there’s an unevenness in the property at the outset, it is balanced by the confidence and expertise of the leadership team who know what’s needed to set the 100-room resort on its desired ascent.

Watson is one of those calming influences on the project. It’s during a break in his kitchen duties when he and I discuss what it takes to build a world-class culinary environment, and why Naturally Pacific has planted the roots to do it. The property provides Watson with gardens and orchards that will amount to more than 15,000 acres of fruits and vegetables to use in his recipes, along with a planned 2,500-square-foot greenhouse.

“I always think about Michael Smith and what he’s doing on Prince Edward Island,” says Watson, referencing the celebrity chef and owner of the incredible Inn at Bay Fortune, home to a large and intricate garden that is pivotal to the landmark’s prosperity. “That’s the ideal set up for a chef and the kind of thing we can have here eventually.” [Read More: “Chef Michael Smith Reaches New Heights”]

What Watson already has that few chefs can match is the breadth of Naturally Pacific Resort. It includes the Campbell River Golf Club, which essentially makes up the property’s backyard, and includes a grounds crew that helps to manage and maintain the gardens and orchards. That staffing gives Watson the time to contemplate all that can be done with the space, including identifying the produce to plant and anticipating in what year the land will yield enough of a harvest to make the on-site restaurant, Carve Kitchen and Meatery, more self-sustaining.

“We’re already getting strawberries that have so much flavour, and we’re using our cucumbers in our mignonette. The herbs are growing really well. Asparagus on this part of the island is incredible when it’s in season and I can’t wait til we’re able to have our own for all the things we want to do with it,” he says, indicating his long-term plan to get the most out of the Naturally Pacific garden bounty.

For the premiere harvest dinner, which took place on the eve of the opening, Watson presented a no-extravagance-spared culinary bonanza that showcased the tastes he wants to represent — beginning with an amuse bouche of beet-cured salmon topped with Northern Divine caviar and crème fraîche on a crusted potato puff and paired with Veuve Clicquot. A haute delight followed by breads from Freyja — which I predict will turn out to be a west-coast immigrant success story that rivals the Maritime marvel, Peace by Chocolate — and a lick-your-plate delicious burrata course that preceded the decadent steak and salmon platters that were bolstered by some of those vegetables growing in the resort’s garden.

Not all meals at the resort are so perfect — yet. Watson is adding eight foreign workers with luxury hotel experience to the kitchen, giving him needed expertise in a region where upscale tourism options are scant. He will also be training his team on banquets and events catering because the resort plans to open a conference centre.

For now, Naturally Pacific is finding its groove, much like the heralded hotels that it emulates on the Pacific coast did in the 1990s and early 21st century, when the idea of mansions in Tofino and $1,000 room rates seemed like a hallucinogenic dream. The beloved “End of the Road” has — deservedly — become an iconic destination that attracts global lovers of nature and fine-living.

Campbell River possesses some of the same elements — namely, the things you can’t buy: nature and wildlife. It surpasses Tofino in convenience of location and ease of access. But it is also a more challenging place to build a tourism destination. While Tofino was largely a blank slate when the Wickaninnish Inn debuted in 1996, Campbell River is an established community of about 35,000 people supported by logging and mining industries. Sportfishing attracts enthusiasts from the United States and across Canada, and eco-tourism offerings have serviced a niche travel market for years. But there’s no cute village of only boutique stores, quirky shops run by hippies and nepo-hippies, or a casual fine-dining scene that warrants the kind of superlatives and accolades needed to lure the coveted foodie traveller. Tofino, with a population of less than 2,000, has cultivated all of that activity, thanks to foresight and fawning adventurers who fell in love with its novelties.

Campbell River has dominant big-box stores and several U.S.-based franchise names that stifle the local character. It does have a beautiful marina, which leads to the eco-tour operators and their inviting fleets, and an engaged Indigenous community that participates in promoting the destination. To its credit, Naturally Pacific features in its marketing the riveting visuals of orcas Phelps-ing through the Discovery Islands and connects guests with local guiding companies. During that magical Mother’s Day weekend, Campbell River Whale Watching passengers received a gift for the ages with a morning sighting of about two-dozen orcas swimming, jumping, bobbing, and back-flipping near its boat in the Sutil Channel, between Cortes and Quadra islands. The sighting lasted about 30 minutes before the pod were positively identified as being southern resident orcas, a group of only 74 in existence in the waters around Vancouver Island. Limiting human interaction is one way to help the recovery of their population, so the boat slowed to let them pass.

The sighting underscored what everyone at Naturally Pacific Resort believes: That the best of Vancouver Island — from its seafood and produce to Indigenous history and exhilarating wildlife viewing — can be found in its location three hours north of Victoria by car or 45 minutes by  plane from Vancouver. When asked if he is concerned that the town doesn’t have the luxury pedigree to accommodate the clientele that Naturally Pacific seeks to lure, Stevens, the general manager, says, “Neither did Tofino 25 years ago. Campbell River has everything the island has to offer. What it needs is something to give it a little bit more of a push to get to where it can be, and that’s why we’re here.”

MORE ABOUT NATURALLY PACIFIC RESORT

Location: 700 Petersen Road, Campbell River, British Columbia (see map below)
Getting There: Campbell River is a three-hour drive north of Victoria or about 90 minutes from either of the two B.C. Ferries’ terminals near Nanaimo (Duke Point or Departure Bay). Pacific Coastal Airlines flies daily from Vancouver to Campbell River, with one-way flights starting at about $150 per person. (Flights also originate from other locations.) Westjet and Coastal Mountain Airlines offer flights from Vancouver, too.
Website: naturallypacific.ca
Room Rates: $390 for a weekend night in June, based on a recent search of the property’s booking engine.
Immersion Spa + Wellness: Naturally Pacific’s lobby-level spa specializes in aromatherapy and mineral-infused treatments, starting at about $175 each, a reasonable rate for the quality of service provided.

 

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Campbell River Whale Watching

Location: East Dock, Campbell River Waterfront
Rates: Four-hour covered-boat whale-watching tours start at $195 per person (Zodiac tours start at $175 per person). The company offers a range of other adventures and activities, including kayaking. View its website for more details.

Disclaimer: Naturally Pacific Resort hosted Vacay.ca Editor Adrian Brijbassi during its opening weekend. Neither the resort nor any organization reviewed this article before it was published.