Taking Care of Business
For the last 18 months or so, our food editor, Neal McLennan, has been hosting an Instagram Live on Thursdays at noon called the Thursday Takeout. He chats with folks from across the hospitality industry—restaurant owners, chefs, front-of-house managers, bartenders, sommeliers—and the conversations have shone a very personal light on what the pandemic has meant for an industry that is the backbone of every great neighbourhood.
One of those interviews struck a particular chord with a lot of our viewers, and that was with Shiva Reddy, general manager of the soon-to-be-open Collective Goods. She’d talked about how difficult the economic side of the pandemic had been, for sure, but the most poignant part of the conversation relayed how tough it had been on industry professionals like her who were naturally hospitable—who wanted to offer guests a wonderful night out in their restaurant, only to find themselves having to provide an experience that’s anything but. To have to enforce the latest provincial health rules, to keep their distance, to ensure groups were small and staying at their tables and, above all, to hope they didn’t get sick themselves, or pass the illness on to a loved one—everything that has been so essential to getting us all safely through the pandemic, but that’s the antithesis of what the industry wants to be.
And while the pandemic has been absolutely vicious on restaurants, COVID merely fanned the flames on what’s been a tough business for decades. This issue, along with our pandemic-pivoted 32nd annual Restaurant Awards (you’ll note a very takeout-oriented set of celebrations this year), Neal digs into what it would and should take to boost an industry we as a city may have been taking for granted (“We Are Failing the Restaurant Industry,” page 64).
As I write this, cases are rising, but the vaccine passport has just been announced, and I have great hopes that local restaurants can stay open and do what they love to do: create a welcoming and safe space that feeds both body and spirit. A heartfelt congratulations to all of our Restaurant Awards winners, and immense gratitude to the industry for everything you’ve done to get us through these last 18 months. May we all pay you back tenfold in the months to come.
Anicka Quin editorial director anicka.quin@vanmag.com @aniqua