WHO KILLED OUR TOP EATERIES?
Death by a thousand cuts: Corbella
Another iconic downtown Calgary restaurant is closing its doors and in so doing is opening a wider window into understanding just how tough things are for many small businesses in the city’s downtown.
On Friday night, Catch & Oyster Bar served its last dreamy bowl of New England clam chowder and its last plate of wontoncrusted tempura prawns. For an establishment that was voted Canada’s best overall restaurant in 2010, it’s a big fall from the heady days of tough-to-get reservations and waiting lists.
Even on its final day, the oyster bar, attached to the Hyatt Regency hotel on Stephen Avenue Mall, is less than half full and the bar seats are almost empty.
John Drinkwalter is sitting on one of the mostly empty bar stools to drink a frothing glass of Tokyo Drift, a craft IPA made in Calgary.
“I’m paying my respects to a restaurant that started me off on my career as a chef,” says the 32-year-old who was hired straight out of SAIT’s professional cooking program and worked at the restaurant for seven years.
“I learned so much here,” adds Drinkwalter, who works at Blink, another high-end restaurant less than half a block west of Catch, which is close to other formerly renowned Calgary restaurants that have recently closed, including Divino, which was successful for 33 years; The Belvedere, which was around for 19 years; the Trib Steakhouse and Rush Ocean Prime, to name just a few.
Meredith MacLean, director of sales for the Hyatt Regency, says Catch is sold out for its final night and she expects that some tears will spill along with some wine and water for wistful staff and loyal patrons.
“The reason we’re closing is similar to some of the other establishments on Stephen Avenue,” says MacLean. “The downtown towers have a 31 per cent vacancy rate, so foot traffic is down and it’s just become unsustainable to continue, unfortunately.”
While saddened at the closure, everyone “is also very proud of the contribution Catch & Oyster Bar has made to Calgary’s culinary scene not just because of this restaurant,” she says, sweeping her hand towards the old, sandstone Imperial Bank of Canada building, but because of the number of talented chefs who have trained at Catch, spreading their food artistry and talent around the city, such as Michael Noble, who owns NOtaBLE and The Nash.
Foodie extraordinaire and Calgary’s top restaurant reviewer, John Gilchrist, who writes for Postmedia, perhaps sums up best what is happening to downtown Calgary’s high-end restaurant scene.
“If you live by the corporate card, you die by the corporate card,” explained Gilchrist on Friday. “With the hollowing out of the downtown towers owing to corporate layoffs and businesses like Imperial Oil and eventually ATCO leaving the core, it’s tough to get clients in those pricier seats.”
Clayton Morgan, owner of The Belvedere, which closed on Oct. 21, says it’s not just the empty office towers that forced him to shut down.
“It’s death by a thousand paper cuts,” complains Morgan, whose restaurant changed fine dining in Calgary.
“Economics 101 says during hard economic times governments shouldn’t raise taxes. But no, every level of government — the city, the province and the feds — have hiked our taxes and other things,” adds Morgan.
“Beer taxes, liquor taxes, the carbon tax, business taxes, for the privilege of operating a business in this city, the hike in the minimum wage we could handle, but then Rachel Notley mandates that on Jan. 1, holiday pay is going up by 25 per cent,” explains Morgan.
Restaurant owners are also hit with new rules that forbid employers or employees to bank hours for a day off in lieu. Now if a waiter works overtime, they must be paid, time-and-a-half, rather than get extra time off later.
“It’s nickel and dime, nickel and dime at the very worst of times,” says Morgan, who is sad for his staff who have yet to find work. “These people in power are bozos, they have no clue what’s going on out here and the pain they’re causing. They just keep on socking it to us.”
Economist Jack Mintz, President’s Fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, says with costs going up and demand going down, something’s got to give.
“Taxes and regulations can have an impact at the margins. What happens when you increase the tax burden on capital, how much does investment decline?” asks Mintz, who was reached in Toronto. “I haven’t researched that lately for Alberta, but we know there is a negative impact. Is that 10 per cent, 20 per cent or 30 per cent? I don’t know. We know the falling price of oil must take a significant share of the blame, but it’s like piling onto the quarterback.
“The quarterback gets hit by one person. He might stay standing but he gets tackled by another and then all sorts of other people pile on the quarterback, and you can cause a bone to break, eventually. It’s the added-on impact.
“What’s happened to Alberta is Alberta is not attracting much investment and, in fact, they’ve lost companies. Foreign companies, in particular, are selling off their assets in Alberta and the investment climate is still pretty negative right now in Alberta, and that’s where your long-term growth comes from is privatesector investments.”
Mintz particularly worries for all of Canada attracting investors since the U.S. effective tax rate on capital is expected to drop to 18.6 per cent, which is substantially lower than in Canada at about 20 per cent.
“It’s too bad about Catch and The Belvedere. Those were good businesses,” adds Mintz. “I always enjoyed going there, but it’s another sign of the times.”
Businesses might have been able to survive the recession of 2015, but reckless government policy has helped to chase away the big capital spenders. A lot of smaller employees and business owners get hurt in the process. In short, Calgary and Alberta’s business climate is no longer such a good catch.