Tango Bistro latest success for Smugglers
This is undoubtedly a stressful time for restaurant owners in Calgary, with fewer corporate lunches, people eating out less and another increase to the minimum wage looming.
Yet there are many who have weathered previous storms and still seem to keep costs down while continuing to maintain a solid core of guests.
One of those is the Smuggler’s Group of Restaurants that began life in 1967 at the same Macleod Trail location where it operates as Bar X Steakhouse.
The late Frank Krowicki had a vision when he took over the restaurant to include a mix of casual, late-night fine dining and a piano bar.
He added to the building and soon Smuggler’s Inn was recognized as the place to be for prime rib.
Expansion around the inn included the still-popular enclosed patios that face onto Macleod Trail. In 2000, Open Sesame opened in the same complex, followed in 2007 by Bolero, the city’s first 14-skewer Brazilian style steak house.
Its latest addition is Tango Bistro on the west side that began life as a tapas bar.
The group’s general manager, Andrea Cintula Scott, says the space was much too large for the small offering, which was recently converted to a Frenchstyle bistro with a much larger menu.
It was a smart move by Cintula as the bistro is now enjoying a much larger volume, keeping front and kitchen staff busy.
Cintula has been around the food business for a long time. Her first job, while in high school, was decorating cakes for a neighbourhood Dairy Queen.
She enrolled in SAIT’s hospitality management program before heading to other parts of Canada and Europe to gain practical experience in hotels and restaurants.
After returning to Calgary, Cintula applied to Smuggler’s Inn for a serving job to get settled back here, but the offer was to take the position as bar manager. That was 14 years ago.
Now, with the help of day manager Kevin Cooper, she is responsible for running the four separate restaurants that have a seating capacity of 450, plus the patios, reporting to the Krowicki family shareholder group.
Cintula says the challenges are forever changing, with some 40 eateries between Glenmore Trail and Heritage Drive.
But she has been able to retain loyal, satisfied customers as well as a staff totalling 140 that are happy to be there.
Food is made from scratch in the three on-site kitchens — and the common bakery — where corporate chef Gary Hennessey has been with the group for 21 years, Bolero manager Greg Pearson has 22 years of service, and Smuggler’s Inn manager Heidi Balogh has been with the company for 33 years.
Managed by Michael Cooper, Tango Bistro has already earned a great reputation for taste and service, and according to Foodies is classed as one of the top 100 restaurants in Canada. The two-course business luncheon, all local beers and no distracting television sets get good scores from me.
NEWS AND NOTES
Naomi Le Bihan and Amanda Hehr, co-founders of Cru Juice, built their two-year-old company into a well-recognized brand in Alberta with five retail locations, dozens of retail partners and 65 employees. That caught the eye of Bruce Mullen, former executive of Mullen Trucking, who launched Jusu bars in Victoria and has now acquired Cru Juice. Mullen plans to become a national leader in the grab-and-go market for high quality, nutrient-rich, plant-based food and beverage products.
Both Le Bihan and Hehr have taken equity positions in Mullen’s new united company and will continue to work with Cru as an alternative to traditional fast food.
Jeremy Gutsche, founder of TrendHunter.com and one of the most requested keynote speakers, who can boast four million views of the YouTube video of his speech based on his Better and Faster book, will be speaking at the University of Calgary on Oct. 18. Gutsche will present the ideas behind Better and Faster in the Wayne Henuset Entrepreneurship Speaker Series — a return, as he is a Haskayne finance graduate.