“You always hear, don't do food and beverage, and I was like, we're never doing food and beverage. And then here we are doing food and beverage, and I love it now,” says Sky McLean. Growing up in the suburbs of Richmond Hill, Ontario, McLean never pictured herself as a restaurant owner/entrepreneur. After achieving her MBA in real estate from York University, McLean purchased her first-ever property, a Canmore condo, which inspired her beginnings in the hospitality business.
The zoning laws on her condo meant that McLean could rent out her place as an Airbnb when she wasn’t using it. “I decided when I was gone for the weekends - skiing, climbing, biking, I'd put it on Airbnb and try to make a couple bucks. Well holy, it was really lucrative,” she says. So she didn't stop there… “I had no exposure to hotels. I couldn't even afford to stay in one at the time. So I got a loan and bought another condo that had nightly rental zoning. And now I had two.”
McLean met her husband Tim, who was a carpenter, and when she was let go from her job, it was the push she needed to break into the hospitality business. “I have these two mortgages and we're screwed,” she laughs. “There was no way to support this situation. But these two condos are such a good little business, why not have 32 of them?” McLean worked to raise money from investors and built the first Basecamp Resorts in Canmore. “Tim did the construction, and I did all the development and project.” And on August 1st, 2017, the property opened to the public.
There were other hotels for sale and the market was hot, and with Canmore getting on the map, McLean was ready to raise more money and do more deals, resulting in five more properties and an expansion into Revelstoke, BC. “We opened Basecamp Lodge and Lamphouse Hotel on the same weekend in 2018. And I'll never forget that, it was my birthday weekend and I was pregnant with my first kid, Madison, and we opened these two hotels, and then at the same time we started Basecamp Resorts Revelstoke, as well as Basecamp Suites, Canmore,” she says. “It was fun, and it was stressful.”
“Now, we’re not going to open a million more restaurants, but we're going to have more for sure – in the right location, in the right hotel. Hotels and restaurants go together, and we’re going to definitely do it again.”
McLean’s first restaurant, Rhythm and Howl, is inside Mountain House, her new premium Canmore property. While she has a passion for good food and good drinks, she never saw herself as owning a restaurant. “It's different if you're a foodie or a restaurateur or a chef, but here I am getting into arguably one of the hardest businesses and survive as someone who knows nothing about it other than how to consume it,” says McLean. “And a restaurant in a hotel is also very different than a restaurant on Main Street,” she adds. “We’re trying to get people into a hotel lobby.”
So they hired good people, successful consultants such as Native Tongues’ Cody Willis and Adam Gill from Una, along with operations manager, Dave Jones, Chef Jason Leizert, and GM Brent Seetaram. “I love it,” she says. “Now, we’re not going to open a million more restaurants, but we're going to have more for sure – in the right location, in the right hotel. Hotels and restaurants go together, and we’re going to definitely do it again.”
So, what is the bottle that McLean is going to be opening on her next special occasion? The bottle of Painted Rock Cabernet Franc was given to her by Dave Jones, who knows what kind of wine she likes better than she does. “I think the reason that this wine is really special is not just because it's going to be good, and I love Cab Franc - that's my favourite grape - but because it came from Dave who had a huge influence on the restaurant and knows exactly what I like. To me, a bottle's even more special if there’s sentimental attachment,” she says. “Because for me at Basecamp, everything is really about the team.” And when might McLean open that bottle? She just turned 40 and it’s the start of her birthday month!