The Latch in Sidney, Vancouver Island, Canada | Italian Cuisine

Welcome to The Latch, Italian Restaurant, Miraloma Resort, Sidney, Canada. Next door to Miraloma on the Cove lays an exceptional historic restaurant called The Latch; offering superb continental cuisine with an Italian flair. The elegant and cozy dining rooms offer the perfect setting for a romantic dinner in Sidney.
The Latch,is a preserved historical building and was originally called Miraloma. It was the private summer residence of Walter C. Nichol (Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia from 1920 to 1926). Since then, it has seen many owners over the years who have had the pleasure of hosting elegant garden parties and visiting royalty.
When he began designing this house, famous Victoria architect Samuel Maclure was told that "it should be something unusual and should employ, as far as possible, B.C.'s woods." The original house on the property, owned by Mr. Copeman, was also to embody in this design.
All this was accomplished with genius. The entire exterior was covered with fir slabs on which the bark was left. The rustic effect was heightened by the porches and balconies built of tree trunks of various sizes fitted into place with skill by the builders, Hunter and Halkett. The whole structure had to be extremely well-built to support the heavy fir slabs. It took ten men to raise the large bark-covered boards which conceal the eaves.
The principle of using B.C. woods was expanded to include the interior as well as exterior. The halls were finished in great panels of native fir; all the other rooms were finished in cottonwood, spruce or beech, a variety of effects were achieved by the staining.  Two financial receipts indicate that the contractor's fees may have been a total of $13,145 for the house when it was built in 1926.