New restaurants brave odds to open doors amid pandemic
`Every day brings new challenges,' says owner of Glebe eatery
Last Friday at 11 a.m., the restaurant Cantina Gia in the Glebe welcomed its first dozen or so customers, who lined up in the drizzle after reading an Instagram story offering the first 10 visitors a free lunch.
Staff opened the eatery's big front windows and leaned out to take orders for porchetta sandwiches and rigatoni bolognese. Behind them, the dining room was still very much unfinished, and completed orders were handed over to customers to enjoy elsewhere. Co-owner Chris Schlesak said his restaurant's opening was meant to offer a sneak peek of its menu and afford his staff a trial run.
It's not lost on Schlesak, or his business partner, Adam Vettorel, that opening a restaurant when Ottawa is in the thick of the novel coronavirus is far from optimal.
“The challenges of opening a restaurant during a pandemic probably have not completely sunk in,” Vettorel says. “Every day brings new challenges on top of what is generally regarded to be one of the most stressful entrepreneurial undertakings possible.”
Cantina Gia and other new eateries are emerging regardless of the pounding COVID-19 has dealt restaurants since mid-March. First, dining rooms were forced to close and many restaurants pivoted to offering takeout fare. Patio dining was allowed in June, and limited indoor dining was permitted in July. But recently, after rising infection numbers in Ottawa and elsewhere, the Ontario Hospital Association and the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario called on the province to temporarily close dining rooms, among other measures.
While federal subsidies have helped many restaurants pay wages and rents, it's commonly felt that COVID-19 will lead to a large-scale reckoning with the least viable restaurants shutting some time next year.
But while Ottawa has already seen COVID-related restaurant closures, a striking number have nonetheless opened. Overall, the usual churn of restaurants appears to be continuing. For example, Cantina Gia moved into the long-vacant space that was Nosh.
Vivaan, which opened last Friday on Preston Street, replaced DiVino Wine Studio. Suya Palace, which will serve Nigerian cuisine when it opens later this month, moved to Somerset Street West where the Witches Thicket had been.
Some new restaurants are following through on commitments made pre-COVID to rent property. Cantina Gia is one such project, as is the three-month-old deluxe restaurant Aiana in the Sun Life Financial Centre.
The new restaurants acknowledge their efforts are fraught with extra perils and complications. But for some, the alternative to open in larger, more attractive spaces was to wither away elsewhere.
Teegavarapu Sarath Mohan, chef and owner of the modern Indian restaurant Vivaan, quickly seized his chance to open in Little Italy. Business was dead at his previous eatery, NH44, which was hidden in an east-end industrial park before Mohan closed it last month.
“At NH44, we were just struggling,” said Mohan, who rented the space for Vivaan in August. “It's a huge risk that I took, but I just believe there's a lot more traffic on Preston.”
But at Vivaan, Mohan has a new dilemma — a staffing shortage due to COVID-19 fears: “Nobody wants to come and work. We hired a few people and they didn't show up.”
Suya Palace owner Lanre Akan said goodbye to a 600-square-foot space on Bronson Avenue to gain a space three times larger that had been vacant since last fall. Akan says he was able to move because his new landlord has given him a deal and matched his own contributions to the rent.
Akan says the new Suya Palace will have a larger menu and the patronage of West African expats.
“We have the support of our community,” Akan says. “But even with that, it's really, really tough.”
Like many established restaurants, some newcomers are tweaking their business models, hoping to become more pandemic-resistant.
Cantina Gia was to have been a traditional trattoria offering casual dining and take-away food.
“It is looking increasingly likely that we will be opening as a takeout-only pasta restaurant while we wait for the second wave to resolve and hopefully the safe development of a vaccine,” Vettorel says.
The cured meats from Vettorel's upscale Centretown restaurant North & Navy will be sold at Cantina Gia, along with house-made sauces, pasta, other takeout dishes and wine.
However, Aiana, arguably Ottawa's most ambitious and expensive new restaurant, is betting heavily on its luxurious dining room experience despite the COVID-19 curveballs it has already faced.
The restaurant's space was leased last fall and it was to have opened in mid-April. But opening day was delayed by four months after the pandemic halted commercial construction this past spring, says Aiana's owner, Devinder Chaudhary.
The restaurant was to seat 110, but its capacity, respecting physical distancing, is about 60. With downtown buildings emptied of workers, Chaudhary thought better of serving lunches as he had planned. Once occupancy of the Sun Life building returns to 30 per cent, Aiana will open for lunch, Chaudhary says.
The pandemic has not dampened Aiana's lofty culinary ambitions. Its executive chef is Raghav Chaudhary, an Ottawa native and the son of Aiana's owner. He worked at celebrated Michelin-starred restaurants in San Francisco and Sweden after graduating from The Culinary Institute of America.
Among Aiana's splurges are a $42 Wagyu beef burger and a $185 tasting menu. Owner Chaudhary stresses that prices include service in lieu of tipping, and that they fund progressive wages for staff, who are all full-time employees with benefits.
“For Aiana to be successful, it's absolutely critical that my employees are paid really well,” he says. “That will get reflected in the quality of the experience the patrons will have.”
Aiana is nearly full Fridays and Saturdays, but has 20 to 25 customers other nights, Chaudhary says.
He's candid about how insufficient his current revenues are.
“It's a financial disaster,” he says, adding that his break-even point is much higher than that of a less pricey restaurant.
“But I understand this is just a phase. It will be over.”