Victoria’s Central Highlands town of Ballarat has welcomed its latest boutique hotel with the opening of Hotel Vera after four years in development.
Housed within a 19th century mansion at 710 Sturt Street Vera, the hotel features seven personalised suites with king-size beds, spacious and sophisticated bathrooms with brass fittings and black trims, and thoughtfully selected amenities.
Each suite is named after and inspired by local townships – Kingston, for example, is known for its potatoes and its namesake celebrates the Irish heritage of the area with rich greens.
Ground floor suite Tourello has wheelchair access from the driveway as well as appropriate height and access amenities, while Lonarch is a pet-friendly suite with an enclosed courtyard and dog bed.
The hotel’s carefully curated interiors follow a chic contemporary aesthetic juxtaposed against period features such as elaborate cornices, original fireplaces and five-metre ceilings.
Hotel Vera is also the new home for award-winning degustation restaurant, Underbar – meaning ‘delectable’ in Swedish. Derek Boath leads as Culinary Director and Chef, bringing culinary experience from some of the world’s top restaurants, including three-Michelin star New York restaurant, Per Se.
Working with small local purveyors and producers, Boath presents a menu centred around natural, local ingredients. Underbar offers an intimate and exclusive dining experience for no more than 14 diners with a tasting menu of nine to 11 courses and drink pairings.
The hotel is the fourth regional enterprise for local duo Martin Shew and David Cook-Doulton, and is named after Cook-Doulton’s late grandmother, “who was the embodiment of the attentiveness and unassuming grace that characterises the Hotel Vera experience”.
The hotel’s sustainability efforts include the recycling of demolished materials during the restoration of the historic building, paddock-to-plate ethos, installation of a Porsche EV charger, and a partnership with local social enterprise Fifteen Trees to plant 250 trees to help offset the impact of the build.