In 2012, the Listel Hotel closed its faded O’Doul’s Restaurant, once a popular spot for live jazz and Sunday brunch, and turned one half of it into an art gallery and the other half into a lively, local-food-obsessed bistro called Forage. It’s been a winning formula, and a perfect fit for this great little boutique hotel on Robson Street. The Listel is known as Vancouver’s most “art-full” hotel, and there is cool art everywhere you look, from the cast-iron statues in the lobby to the First Nations art on loan from the Museum of Anthropology on the Museum Floors to the contemporary works on the Gallery Floors. Every room is a lovely little oasis of luxury and art, with the cool, clean, comfortable lines of the decor creating a perfect frame for the paintings, and special touches like vintage-style alarm clocks or lamps that could double as sculptures. Or maybe they actually are sculptures—it’s hard to say. Don’t forget to visit Forage, where talented chef Chris Whittaker captures the essence of the West Coast on a plate.