‘This Place Really Misses The Hookers'

A reporter searches in vain for the ‘Slutton’ — the legendary actor party scene at the luxurious Sutton Place Hotel in Vancouver: ‘The thing now is networking’

- David Walters

It’s 6:30 p.m. on a Thursday in March — pilot season — and the dinner crowd trickles in to Boulevard, the restaurant and oyster bar in Vancouver’s Sutton Place Hotel. I’m here to investigate whether the AAA Five Diamond-rated hotel long favored by actors, directors, producers and writers in “Hollywood North” still brims with the licentiousness that made it a legend called the “Slutton.” Here, ascendant talent and A-list stars enjoyed a spring break atmosphere after long days on set. Robert De Niro once deemed the margaritas “better than Mexico’s” while partying with Sean Penn.

“Back in the day, if you couldn’t find a date, you could pay for one,” muses Ryan the bartender. “This place really misses the hookers.”

Spencer Garrett, an actor who has worked in Vancouver 20 times in the past 15 years and only stays at the Sutton Place, witnessed the golden days firsthand when the rowdy party hotel resembled the Riot Hyatt in Almost Famous. “In the mid-’90s to the early 2000s, it was very rocking, a lot of drinking at the bar,” says Garrett, who co-stars on Amazon’s Bosch (which films in Atlanta). “I think the days of the Slutton are bygone. The new owners were likely not wild about that nickname, which is probably why the hookers were exiled.”