In anticipation of adding a pollinator bee hotel to its collection of rooftop honeybee hives next spring, Fairmont Washington, D.C., Georgetown is displaying a pop-up pollinator bee hotel in its lobby and serving a pollinator menu in its Juniper Restaurant.
The hotel first welcomed more than 100,000 Italian honeybees in May 2009 and now hosts three beehives on its rooftop, which enhances the property’s culinary program. A pollinator bee hotel is a collection of nesting materials — wood, twigs, fallen branches, soil and pith-filled holes — designed to attract, support and protect native, lost and solitary bees by replicating their natural nesting sites. This allows the bees to breed, lay eggs and seek protection from predators.
The pollinator menu at Juniper includes “Salad in a Jar” — honey and goat cheese mousse, greens and edible flowers with a lemon-thyme vinaigrette; seared scallops in tigers milk served with mandarin and apple slaw, vinaigrette and bee pollen; and sweet corn pannacotta, rooftop honey cake and grilled watermelon for US$72. Each time a guest orders the menu, a portion of the sale goes to the District of Columbia Public Schools’ Junior Beekeepers Program.
Earlier this summer, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Launched its first pollinator bee hotel at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, and Fairmont plans to roll out the offering at more hotels next year.