Situated at the heart of Toronto's bustling downtown, Azure is located at 225 Front Street West at Simcoe St. in the InterContinental Toronto Centre hotel. Azure is easily accessible by car, subway and on foot.

Enjoy complimentary valet parking while having dinner at Azure. Valet parking is available at the lower lobby entrance of InterContinental Toronto Centre off Simcoe Street. If you're going to the theatre, symphony or ballet, enjoy dinner at Azure and take advantage of complimentary parking until midnight.

DESIGN

Azure is a warm and contemporary space with floor-to-ceiling windows that provide a light and natural environment. The modern elegance of Azure is enhanced by the breathtaking signature artwork of Stuart Reid. The 9-foot by 18-foot work, Liquid Veil, that hangs above Azure's mahogany bar, is created from layers of acid-etched, mouth-blown glass.

Reid's Liquid Veil is installed as a backdrop above the bar and is composed entirely of mouthblown sheets of coloured glass, acid-etched and plated together in multiple layers. Reid's mastery of acid-etching, a difficult and complex technical process, produces here a work of subtle richness and visual complexity - an unparalleled artistic and technical achievement in the medium.

Liquid Veil was constructed by Reid and a team of fabrication assistants at his studio on Lake Huron. Designed to respond to the specific set of needs posed by the restaurant setting, the piece is restful and tension-releasing. Though an abstract work, a study in blues appropriate for the Azure Restaurant & Bar, Liquid Veil evokes landscape, seascape and skyscape associations reflective of where the piece was created - overlooking the sublime, everchanging sky and water of Lake Huron

FOOD

Azure appeals to a wide array of crowds with original breakfast buffet, espress power lunch and gourmet dinner menus, all individually created by Chef de Cuisine, Jonaton Lome. Also available are private dining rooms that seat up to 45 persons--set menus are available.

Notify your server of your show time or order from our Table d'hote Menu, with guaranteed service in 30 minutes . For post-theatre, sample our bar menu of light appetizers, cocktails and desserts.

WINE

Azure's award winning selection of vintages offered from new to old world. The Azure Team together with Jean Paquette would be delighted to offer professional pairings for you to compliment your dining experience.

Leading the service team at Azure Restaurant, Jean Paquette has refined his service repertoire through years of experience providing imitable service at some of the world’s best hotels. After working in Geneva, Switzerland, Nevis, West Indies, Provodenciales, Turks and Caicos and South Beach, Miami, Jean has returned home to share his international experience with his guests. Friendly, but exacting service by a team of professionals passionate about providing excellence, is the variable necessary to nudge a mere memorable dining experience into the sublime. Jean and his team would like to welcome you to Azure, a gem in the city.

REVIEW: It Spot, National Post, Saturday, May 1, 2004

Not So Quiet on Front

By Don Ellis

Following a $30-million renovation to transform what was once the Crowne Plaza, the InterContinental Toronto Centre has all the cool hotel credentials in place: a lobby the size of a football field, boasting the clean lines of a mercifully plant-free atrium; 500-plus deluxe rooms (including Club InterContinental, an even higher echelon on the 8th floor); a spa with beyond-the-fringe treatments; and a bar.

Taking up a prime chunk of lobby real estate is Azure, the hotel’s food and beverage machine, a huge space filled with linen-draped tables and hanging chandeliers and surrounded by soaring windows of aquarium proportions. But the first thing you’ll notice when you enter is the large blue panel of tempered glass, an acid-etched mural that signals the bar and lounge area, boldly giving it center stage.

Indulgent and scene-stealing, the lounge outsexes the restaurant by far, but design never goes overboard. Azure, as a swanky hotel bar should be, is the heart and soul of the hotel, devoutly given over to that deep, rich vein of high-end travel; a meeting ground for business people, tourists, investment bankers and local loungers.

The one looming piece of design is in fact that brilliant blue wall, which provides a backdrop to the service bar. This abstract work is Stuart Reid’s Liquid Veil, an $80,000 installation consisting of a framework of mouth-blown sheets of acid-etched, coloured glass, which is boldly backlit, bringing a dreamlike quality to the entire space.

Reid is something of a daydream believer himself: Just as his previous artworks tend to burst into surreal pixilations (as seen in the windows of St. James’ Cathedral and his Urban Ribbon abstract just around the corner in the InterConti lobby), the blues and purples in Liquid Veil blend wildly into each other. Silhouettes of busy staffers can be seen running back and forth from behind the semi-opaque piece, while bartenders do the same in front, their illuminated waltz bringing more life to the piece.

Stunning artwork alone does not create a hot spot. But not to worry, as the quality extends to all aspects of Azure: Executive Chef Laurent Kehr and Chef Masayuki Tamaru (Crush) have taken over the kitchen, while the 800 labels of wine are carefully controlled by sommelier Kit Gingrich.

“It’s a lifetime pursuit,” Gingrich says, about her life as a sommelier. “I’m constantly studying, and it’s extremely thrilling. My first career choice was to be a pilot, but I just didn’t feel it had that particular zing.”

Recent visits have found the bar pulsing with a hip mix of out-of-towners and locals alike, a democratic assemblage of expense-account types. All of which equates to more of an after-dark scene than Front Street has seen in years.