Female-led And/Ore is taking the Toronto restaurant scene by storm
FLOUR TO FLAVOUR
The 2024 Pizza & Pasta Report
REGIONAL REPORT
Quebec's restaurateurs face unique challenges
THE COFFEE & TEA REPORT
Cold drinks are in demand with customers
(l to r) Missy Hui; Jaimie Donovan;Abby Rubiales; Kailey DeRubeis
Operators
PIZZA AND PASTA
Toronto’s
Quebec
The
The
Offering
The
As we turn the page on a new month and a new season, it appears the foodservice industry is gearing up to make the most of the last quarter of the year, using it as a time to catch up and/or accelerate growth, diligently trying to make up for what many are calling a flat year.
Though the pandemic may be in the rearview window, its effects linger on. According to Restaurants Canada, in the first half of 2024, there were 549 bankruptcies across Canada, more than all of 2022 or all of 2021. In fact, bankruptcies in the first half of 2024 are up 54 per cent over the first half of 2023. While consumers continue to enjoy going to restaurants, they’ve also become increasingly discerning about the types of restaurants they patronize and the amount of money they’re spending in them.
On the sales side, Restaurants Canada stats also show that once adjusted for menu inflation and population growth, the average Canadian is spending less at restaurants in 2024 compared to 2023.
Interestingly, while QSR has been the darling of the foodservice industry post pandemic, south of the border, even large chains such as McDonald’s are experiencing sales declines. According to a July 29th, 2024 story in Nation’s Restaurant News,
AT A CROSSROADS
consumer pullback has turned McDonald’s sales negative for the first time since COVID, blaming a “pressured consumer environment for the next few quarters.” This marks the first time same-stores sales have declined both domestically and internationally for the behemoth since the pandemic.
Clearly, today’s restaurants find themselves at a crossroads. And, with labour shortages, rising food costs, and changing consumer preferences continuing to have a huge impact, never has the need for innovation been greater. While operators may be hard pressed to juggle a plethora of daily challenges, — with labour shortages being top of mind — they cannot afford to lose sight of the importance of establishing a distinct identity while building and fostering a vibrant community of customers who are passionately committed to their brand.
As operators sprint to the end of the year, and with 2025 on the horizon, it’s more important than ever for operators to differentiate themselves from the competition. Certainly, the growth of technology evidenced by the advent of food-delivery apps and ghost kitchens has created unprecedented competition. And while technology is an essential tool to be used wisely to help streamline efficiencies, successfully growing your business can only be achieved through the trifecta of offering distinctive cuisine, delivering outstanding service and providing a unique dining experience. At the end of the day, success is all about embracing innovation because more than ever, consumers are looking for unique experiences rather than just meals. And given the precarious economic environment that we’re living in, operators can’t lose sight that value for the money spent is hugely important for today’s consumer. It’s time to shed the long-held, pervasive mindset of following the leader and recognize that a “me-too” attitude just doesn’t cut it anymore. FH
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MONTHLY NEWS AND UPDATES FOR THE FOODSERVICE INDUSTRY
THE BIG DEBUT
Nobu Toronto debuts in the city’s
Entertainment District
NOBU HOSPITALITY,
founded by Nobu Matsuhisa, Robert De Niro and Meir Teper, has opened the doors to its first Canadian restaurant and bar, Nobu Toronto.
Located in Toronto’s Entertainment District, just one block from Toronto International Film Festival, the public can make dinner reservations for Nobu Toronto’s second-level restaurant online through its website, up to one month in advance, or visit Nobu Bar, located street level, now open for walk-in reservations serving a lighter selection of Nobu-style dishes available between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. daily.
Nobu Hospitality celebrates 30 years of excellence and innovation this year with Nobu Toronto, representing the 56th location to join the global portfolio and the first in Canada.
The Toronto menu includes signature Japanese dishes such as the black cod miso, yellowtail jalapeno wagyu dumplings, and spicy tuna crispy rice. Nobu Toronto’s executive chef Alex Tzatzos also introduces new dishes including grilled lamb rack with hacho miso, Chilean sea bass with red jalapeno miso, and spring chicken shiro miso with a selection of vegan and vegetarian options.
Guests will also sip on Nobu’s most popular signature cocktails and mocktails such as the lychee and elderflower martini, Nobu old fashioned, and Matsuhisa martini while shaking things up with new Toronto editions such as the 1942 Hinode, Nobu Toronto’s interpretation of a tequila sunrise made with Don Julio 1942 Anejo, and the Midnight in the 6ix, their answer to a traditional Manhattan.
“It’s a tremendous privilege to introduce Nobu to Canada, with Toronto as our inaugural location — a city celebrated for its rich culinary scene and cultural diversity,” says Matsuhisa. “What makes Nobu Toronto very unique is being surrounded by so many multicultural neighbourhoods which respect one another. We’re excited to offer our signature dishes and thoughtful hospitality to the residents and visitors of Nobu Toronto, who deeply appreciate the Nobu brand. At Nobu, everything we do is guided by Kokoro, meaning ‘from the heart,’ and we look forward to sharing this ethos at Nobu Toronto.”
Designed by Toronto-based Studio Munge, Nobu Toronto spans 10,000 sq. ft. across two levels and offers a total of 280 seats. The interior embodies a blend of Japanese-inspired design and Canadian craftsmanship. The hotel is set to open its doors in spring 2025.
“As we open our doors, we’re immensely proud of the dedication and hard work our team has shown over the past few
It’s a tremendous privilege to introduce Nobu to Canada, with Toronto as our inaugural location — a city celebrated for its rich culinary scene and cultural diversity,” says Matsuhisa. “What makes Nobu Toronto very unique is being surrounded by so many multicultural neighbourhoods which respect one another
months. We have meticulously finalized every detail to ensure that Nobu Toronto delivers an exceptional culinary offering on par with the world’s leading dining experiences,” says Benoit Pretet, general manager of Nobu Hotel Toronto. “Our dynamic team has been eager to begin service and extend a warm welcome to both new guests and patrons who have enjoyed Nobu around the globe. With the restaurant debuting and the upcoming opening of the Nobu Hotel, there’s palpable anticipation surrounding our debut in Canada.” FH
OPENING SOON: JUNE ON CAMBIE
This fall, the award-winning team behind Vancouver Chinatown’s The Keefer Bar is launching a new brasserieinspired concept, June, in the heart of Cambie Village.
“It’s been 14 years since we opened The Keefer Bar, and June allows us to continue our commitment to great hospitality on this iconic corner location in the heart of Cambie Village,” says Cam Watt, co-proprietor of the Keefer Bar and June. “As one would expect of a brasserie, the space accommodates both dining and drinking and a later closing hour will allow people to linger in a lounge atmosphere. We’re excited to bring our team from Chinatown and join this growing and dynamic neighbourhood.”
The team, led by co-proprietor Keenan Hood and operations manager Letícia Castro (previously Como Taperia, The Diamond), is currently working on bringing June to life. At the helm of the kitchen is executive chef Connor Sperling (previously Published on Main, Boulevard), while bar director Amber Bruce and bar manager Satoshi Yonemori (previously Grapes & Soda) leads the bar. Research and development is now underway.
The 150-seat space has been completely gutted and re-designed by Mexico City-based architect Héctor Esrawe.
“Héctor’s projects all share a very distinctive and sophisticated look. Although June is brasserie-inspired, the room will surprise and hopefully delight. His design will bring something unique to Vancouver’s restaurant and cocktail scene.”
STAYING FRESH
Chopped Leaf celebrated its 15th anniversary with a brand re-fresh, featuring a new logo and updated interior design. The re-fresh was unveiled at its original store in Kelowna, B.C.
“When the Chopped Leaf was founded in 2009, it was one of the few fast-casual restaurants that offered fast, healthier options. Overall, the landscape of food, health and nutrition has evolved significantly since then,” says Genti Kongjika, EVP, Chopped Leaf. “It’s critical for any restaurant brand to evolve and stay fresh. We’ve done this while keeping true to our roots and maintaining the essence that makes Chopped Leaf unique and beloved by Canadians, and a rewarding franchise opportunity for entrepreneurs.”
With more than 115 restaurants across Canada and the U.S., the new look will be gradually rolled out as Chopped Leaf continues to expand nationwide.
CHANGING LIVES
This year’s Tim Hortons Camp Day campaign raised nearly $12.8 million that will be donated to Tim Hortons Foundation Camps. Tim Hortons Camp Day has now raised more than $262 million in its history, which has supported sending more than 320,000 underserved youth between the ages of 12 to 16 to a multi-year camp-based program at Tims Camps.
Every year, restaurant owners donate 100 per cent of the proceeds from hot and iced-coffee sales to Tim Hortons Foundation
Camps and raise additional funds through Camp Day bracelets, donation badges and other fundraising initiatives.
“Thank you to Tims guests across Canada and the U.S. who purchased coffee, bracelets, badges, or even went above and beyond and donated extra at their local Tims this Camp Day,” says Axel Schwan, president of Tim Hortons. “Through your support, we’re helping to change lives for the better by giving youth the opportunity to learn, grow and succeed with opportunities at Tims Camps.”
(L to R): Satoshi Yonemori, bar manager; Cam Watt, co-proprietor; Amber Bruce, bar director; Letícia Castro, general manager; Connor Sperling, executive chef; and Keenan Hood, co-proprietor
FIGHTING FOOD WASTE
Pendray Inn and Tea House is the first restaurant in Canada to be certified by The PLEDGE on Food Waste. With a score of 93 per cent, Pendray Tea House has earned the Gold level certification, highlighting its commitment to sustainability and reducing food waste.
The journey toward certification began in January and concluded in June. Collaborating with BetterTable.ca, a Vancouver-based company specializing in helping hotels and restaurants prevent food waste, Pendray Tea House developed and implemented strategies, including categorizing food-waste measurements, maintaining meticulous tracking systems, developing an action plan with measurable goals, benchmarking progress and providing comprehensive team training. Chef Onille Pitogo’s creativity also played a crucial role in re-purposing prep waste into new culinary items, such as the Sustainable Chocolate Cashew Delight.
In January, the average food waste per cover at Pendray Tea House was 83 grams, already well below the national average of 388 grams per cover. By May, this figure had decreased to 60.5 grams per cover, a 27-per-cent reduction. This improvement translated to an estimated $550 in savings for the month of May alone.
OPENING SOON: CENTRAL RESTAURANTS
Central Restaurants, an intimate food-and-drink concept created by the team behind CRAFT Beer Market, is expanding with three new locations set to open in 2025, including a second location in Calgary.
Following on the heels and success of CRAFT Beer Market, founders PJ L’Heureux and Scott Frank decided to develop a different concept focused more on the menu and spirit-forward cocktails. The first Central opened in May 2022 in Calgary.
“Central stands out because of the significantly smaller and more intimate ambiance and edgy decor,” says L’Heureux. “We’re seeing a real desire for more of this style of restaurant with a laid back atmosphere, incredible culinary menu, cocktails and spirits all at reasonable prices.”
Designed by Way of Normal, Central Ossington in Toronto will open in early 2025 and boast a vibrant, street-style grunge aesthetic. The 3,000-sq.-ft. space will feature a wrap-around bar, glass block and concrete finishes, greenery, artwork and murals, drawing inspiration from iconic musicians. The exterior will include a large year-round patio with 518 sq. ft. of seating and a fire table.
Central Marda Loop in Calgary is set to open in the spring of 2025 and will feature a colourful, mid-century modern aesthetic with a 360-degree bar, vintage light fixtures, artwork and greenery. This 4,411-sq.-ft. space, Central’s first ground-up building, includes a 2,256 sq. ft. rooftop patio designed by Modern Office of Design + Architecture (MODA), bringing the total seating capacity to 269.
Central Burrard in Vancouver will span 3,500 sq. ft. and embrace a modern industrial vibe. The space will feature abundant natural light, vibrant colours and a circular bar. The exterior will offer a 2,000 sq. ft. all-season dining area.
The team involved in the certification process, including GM Erin Cassels; Julia Canton, director of Sales & Marketing and Sustainability manager; executive chef Onille Pitogo; and restaurant manager Jan Smikal.
OPEN for BUSINESS
Data shows Canada boasts a robust market for restaurant growth
BY VINCE SGABELLONE
Over the last two years, many U.S. foodservice brands announced their entry or expansion plans for Canada, a robust market where visits are growing year over year. Our CREST consumer-tracking data shows Canada’s traffic growth is among the fastest across the 12 countries we track. It’s also one of only three markets that have reached 2019 traffic levels. Inaugural locations for expanding brands have opened with great fanfare, long lineups, and excitement among resident foodies.
It will take time before these new entrants make a measurable impact. In the meantime, Canadian restaurateurs are not sitting back to cede the market to these upstarts. Looking at our latest ReCount restaurant census data, the industry added 343 net new locations in 2023, in a landscape with 62,000 locations. Unit counts have grown in each of the last three years despite the challenging economic environment, reinforcing the attraction for new brands.
But what comes first, unit count or traffic volume? It’s hard to say as both are evident. Our CREST data for the 12 months ending May 2024 shows traffic grew three per cent, or two points more than unit counts. Consider next, chains make up 57 per cent of the total locations and grew one per cent, while independents fell by about half a per cent. This moved counter to traffic, revealing independents advanced nine per cent, about
four times the rate of the chains. And finally, unit growth is attributed entirely to the QSR segment, while FSR was flat, but our data reveals FSR traffic growth is outpacing QSR.
As the industry continues to re-set following pandemic unit retraction, and the cost of borrowing comes down, expect to see continued expansion into areas of the market where the traffic is growing the most.
If you’re a regular follower, then you know I have frequently mentioned the rise of global cuisine. When it comes to this subset of the market, our ReCount and CREST data align. QSR Mexican and QSR other global (mostly Mediterranean) are among the fastest-growing sub-channels in ReCount, with growth concentrated in small chains and independents. These small subsets of the market are contributing to the discrepancy mentioned earlier, as the corresponding segment of the market in CREST grew by double digits.
These new cuisines represent the future of foodservice in Canada. They’re preferred by younger demographics who seek new and bold flavours, as well as by immigrants looking for cuisines from their home country — or opening restaurants if they don’t find what they are looking for.
Some evidence shows the established brands are ceding their place in the market, a bit. The nine largest brands with more than 500 units each, representing 13,000 units collectively, added just 31 doors in 2023 and have effectively remained flat since 2019. As a result, they have lost two points of traffic share to the smaller brands. Don’t expect this situation to continue as these brands defend their well-earned territory fiercely, against each other and the newer arrivals. In the meantime, the next time you see an empty restaurant with an opening-soon sign in the window, expect a small chain or independent to move in. FH
Vince Sgabellone is the director of Client Development and a foodservice industry analyst at Circana. He can be reached at vince.sgabellone@circana.com
The Dynamics of DISPUTE RESOLUTION
Operators need to know how to manage legal disputes
BY ALLAN D. J. DICK
Disputes affecting businesses in the hospitality industry commonly include employment issues, problems with commercial leases, disputes over supplies, customer complaints, social-media concerns, regulatory charges, shareholder/partnership/franchisee fights, insurance claims, purchase and sale matters, occupier’s liability, construction problems and myriad other categories of disagreements. This article will provide a number of useful considerations for how to prevent disputes and, if a dispute arises, how to get to resolution. Before doing so, it is helpful to canvass the following four adages, which should be kept in mind if you find yourself facing a potential or existing dispute:
Problems cost money. These costs take the form of the human and financial capital that are normally earmarked for advancing a business’s commercial objectives, but which must be diverted towards managing the dispute. This consideration, which should always be factored into your dispute resolution strategy, necessitates a cost-benefit inquiry.
It takes two parties to settle, but only one to fight. The only way to resolve a dispute is for all parties to reach an agreement that is more favourable to them than the alternative.
When seeking to resolve a dispute, whose pocket are you looking into? In connection with the previous adage, many disputes are prolonged by one party believing that the other party is or should be more motivated to resolve the matter. By contrast, the principle of “BATNA” (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) re-directs the inquiry inwards, and involves an assessment of the value to you to get the problem resolved.
Five different adjudicators may come to five different results. Litigation and arbitration are simply mechanisms whereby a dispute, which could not be resolved by the parties, is decided by an independent third party who will rule on who is legally right and who
is legally wrong. Judging, however, is not an objective exercise, and the ultimate ruling may be contingent, in part, on who is conducting the hearing of the dispute and writing the decision.
With these concepts in mind, let’s start the journey.
FAILING TO PREPARE IS PREPARING TO FAIL
With every business decision, it is prudent to consider what would happen if your plan does not go as expected. Often framed as “risk analysis,” this consideration requires that business owners formulate a plan to deal with potential failed expectations and consider whether something can and should be done to militate against the risk of that occurring. From a dispute-resolution standpoint, this can be achieved in several ways. For example, a business owner can secure insurance products that may shield them financially against the consequences of an adverse finding on liability. Similarly, prudence may dictate that the concern be negotiated in advance, despite the prospect that negotiations over a “what if” concern might scuttle the deal. Conducting risk analyses and taking proactive, preventative and protective actions guided by those analyses are critical to preventing and mitigating the effects of disputes.
PURCHASE VALUE FROM YOUR LAWYER
If you establish a relationship with a lawyer who values that relationship, you should always feel that you get value from the work and the advice you receive. With that in mind, you should never be afraid to ask your lawyer what you should do to avoid or resolve disputes because of the perceived legal cost of obtaining that advice. Strategic guidance and an estimation of the cost to implement that strategy are two key pieces of information that a trusted legal advisor should be willing to provide you for a fee that you feel is appropriate for the value of the advice received.
KNOW THE DEAL “ON BOTH SIDES”
From a transactional perspective, it’s critical to have a mutual under-
standing with the other side about the parameters of your deal. Disputes between contracting parties frequently arise because of misaligned expectations. When those misunderstandings are identified after the parties have a firm deal and performance has begun, one side may believe, rightly or wrongly, that the other side is trying to change the deal. If this misunderstanding crystallizes into a dispute, an adjudicator will look for the “best evidence” of the terms of the parties’ agreement. Knowing this, to mitigate potential disputes, parties should take steps to clarify contractual ambiguities, document their positions and confirm that their views are mutually held before the deal is acted upon.
FIRST STEPS
Roughly 98 per cent of litigation settles prior to trial. Those cases can be broadly divided into two categories. The first is where one party, for strategic or financial reasons, seeks to delay a potentially negative result for as long as possible. Resolution happens, but typically after significant time and money has been spent. The other is where both sides have a genuine interest in resolution, but they do not agree on what that resolution should look like. The key is to figure out as quickly as possible which of these categories your dispute falls into.
KNOW YOUR OPPONENT
In practice, the nature and timing of a resolution will be dictated less by the issues than by the individual making the decisions. When dealing with a legally represented party, sometimes, but not always, that person is opposing counsel. No athlete starts competing without identifying and preparing for their competition. That should be no less true when handling a business dispute.
ALL ABOUT TIMING
Every minute that a dispute remains unresolved is another opportunity to try to resolve the dispute. This axiom is built into Ontario’s litigation process, which is designed to promote settlement. For example, with respect to most types of disputes, litigants are required to attend a mandatory mediation session before they can proceed to trial. What is remarkable about mediation is that the parties will often go to great lengths to assemble a mediation “brief” for the mediator to try to persuade him or her of the merits of the party’s position.
However, mediation is a party-driven process and the mediator does little more than assist the parties to try to get to a resolution at a juncture in the proceeding when both sides should be aware of their respective litigation risks. A mediator will decide nothing. There’s little value in trying to persuade a mediator that you are right. Ironically, mediation negotiations are often conducted at a time when parties have become entrenched in the rightfulness of their positions, and are often fuelled by considerations that have little to do with the merits of the case and the parties’ likelihood of success at trial. Given this, parties should appreciate that it is a fairly rare day that concerted efforts to achieve a resolution at the outset of a dispute could not have brought about a similar resolution months, if not years, earlier, and with huge costs savings to both sides. It therefore behooves any party to a dispute, with or without a lawyer present and with or without a mediator, to try to settle their dispute in earnest and as early as possible.
A WORD ABOUT COSTS
Ontario is what is known as a “loser-pays” jurisdiction. A successful party in litigation is usually awarded a portion of their costs to be paid by the losing party. The percentage is roughly 60 per cent. Plaintiffs can recover more through the strategic use of formal settlement offers. However, costs are rarely paid when matters settle, except in insurance and sometimes in employment disputes. It is therefore prudent to expect that, when embarking on litigation that you hope will conclude in a negotiated resolution, your costs will in all likelihood be borne by you.
PARALLEL PROCESSES
The goal of dispute resolution is to convince the other side, as early in the dispute as possible, of the lack of merits in their case and their comparatively higher likelihood of losing if the matter is adjudicated. In many cases, this requires you to invest in building your case early on. If you are successful in persuading the other side of the validity of your position, the other side will be inclined to settle on terms favourable to you without both parties having to incur all of the concomitant costs of litigation. If you cannot get the other side to see it that way, then the litigation process must be directed to trying to convince the ultimate adjudicator that your position is the meritorious one. Your efforts at building your case early on can be re-purposed to advance the proceeding. In this way, the negotiated dispute-resolution process and litigation are parallel processes. Parties, however, are leery of spending money in litigation when what they really want is a negotiated solution. The worst type of dispute to get into is one where litigation is commenced or defended, it isn’t resolving itself early on and one or the other party becomes unwilling to invest in the dispute to allow its interests to be advanced. The matter starts collecting dust and the entire investment in the dispute to that time becomes wasted.
LITIGATION OR ARBITRATION?
This decision turns on many factors and whether the right choice was made can often only be determined in hindsight. The only point being made here is that parties to a dispute should at least consider whether arbitration is worth exploring, and whether a mandatory arbitration clause is worth including in its contracts at the front end.
A FINAL WORD
It is inevitable that disputes of various kinds will arise in the course of operating a restaurant or restaurant chain. An obvious factor which will make an enormous difference to a restaurant’s success is how well its owners have prepared for and manage these disputes. At their core, the development and resolution of disputes are organic, and with the right preparation, sound decision-making and trusted guidance, you can maximize the likelihood of achieving a favourable and costeffective outcome. FH
Allan D. J. Dick is a partner in the Toronto office of Sotos LLP. He has been helping clients in the hospitality industry avoid, resolve, litigate and arbitrate disputes for more than 40 years. He can be reached at adjdick@sotos.ca.
FLOUR TO FLAVOUR
THE PIZZA AND PASTA SEGMENTS ARE THRIVING IN THE CANADIAN MARKET, BUT THE TREND IS TO KEEP THE MENUS DIVERSIFIED
BY JENNY FEBBRARO
he trending consumption of ‘comfort food’ may have surged during COVID, but Canadian operators say demand has increased even more post-pandemic. The trick is to keep a diversified menu that caters to a wide variety of flavour profiles and dietary requests. Another critical factor is Canada’s growing multi-cultural sector, which has operators experimenting with global ingredients, new spice combinations and unique pairings.
“The pizza-and-pasta segment is far from plateauing,” says Kirk Borchardt, senior R&D chef at Ardent Mills. “In fact, these are segments that are experiencing rapid growth and expansion, driven by the consumer demand for healthier, innovative and global products.”
Borchardt explains that chefs need to experiment in the kitchen, citing a recent trend focused on pickle pizzas for more adventurous eaters. He points to pizza cupcakes and pizza waffles, which are also gaining popularity, as a way of offering a fun twist on a traditional recipe. This is also due to shifting demographics — millennials and Gen Z are always on the hunt for novelty combos.
“It’s also important to ensure that your menu has something for everyone,” says Reid McEachran, associate Marketing manager at Ardent Mills. “This includes tradtionalists who love authentic crusts, consumers who need gluten-free options and mindful eaters looking for more keto-friendly choices.” McEachran says the key is to provide a variety of options so that pizza and pasta can remain popular — and versatile — choices.
A recent Global Data Group report on Canadian Pizza Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics, 2021-2026, shows the pizza market in Canada grew by 4.01 per cent from 2016 to 2021 with a sales value of $1,.2 million in 2021, an increase of 3.96 per cent over 2020. Midpandemic, the market achieved its strongest performance in 2020, when it grew by 7.50 per cent over its previous year and its weakest performance in 2019, when it increased by 2.71 per cent over 2018.
The statistics confirmed the trend that Canadian restaurants had been reporting all along — Canadian consumers love their pizza.
These growth numbers led to virtually every Canadian operator attempting to tap into this rapidly growing segment. Even Tim Hortons launched its Flatbread Pizza in April of 2024 after a successful series of test-market results. These included options such as the Bacon
Everything, Chicken Parmesan, Pepperoni and Simply Cheese.
“One of the major trends is the use of experimental dough processes, such as long fermentation and sourdough,” says Borchardt. “These techniques not only enhance the flavour and texture of the crust but also improve its digestibility, appealing to health-conscious consumers who appreciate the artisanal quality of these methods.”
Borchardt says the trends demonstrate that operators need to make pizza and pasta that’s versatile. “You have to appeal to health-conscious eaters and foodies alike,” he says. “This includes unique flavours such as teriyaki, butter chicken, and chicken shawarma making their way into mainstream pizza. The possibilities are endless.”
PLANT-BASED
Today’s consumers not only care about their health, but the well-being of the planet. Sean Fleming, vice-president of Development at Toronto-based Il Fornello, says the spike in plant-based pasta and pizza orders has surprised the company. “The [number] of people that are ordering plant-forward food is just ‘wow’,” he says. “But that said, it’s a very scary time of climate change right now. All the evidence, all the science, is pointing towards the fact that the huge production of meat is a big part of that. Guests are becoming more informed of environmental causes of climate change — and that effects their ordering habits.”
Vegan and vegetarian options are also critical to feature on any re-vamped menu. And these options don’t need to mean a reduction in taste, texture, or consumer satisfaction. To stay on top of the trend, Il Fornello hired a registered holistic nutritionist and vegan chef to assist in the development of an extensive plant-based menu for the restaurant. “She
developed this incredible Rigatoni Bolognese that features a thick, rich lentil and mushroom sauce as well as a Smoked Carrot Wood-Fired Pizza with the carrot replacing the salmon,” says Fleming. Il Fornello substitutes cream sauce with a vegan version that uses oat milk and vegan butter. “Meat-eaters literally would not know the difference between the plant and meat/ fish-based options. They’re that good.”
Marcelo Melo, vice-president of Supply Chain at Pizza Pizza, also sees the potential in this segment. “At Pizza Pizza, we’re seeing what a huge growing category the gluten-free market is for us,” he says. “We’ve also increased the size of [our gluten-free pizza]. It was once only in a 10 inch, but now we are offering a 12-inch size. We’re also constantly looking into alternative crusts — similar to our current cauliflower crust.” Melo says that Pizza Pizza was the first in the market to offer cauliflower crust and is continually developing new options. “’Beyond Meat’ and plant-based menu options will continue to expand as well,” he says.
Other alternative crusts include sourdough.
“Consumers are interested in sourdough at the moment and it is trending,” Melo says. “However, we’re also experimenting with different options for crusts — and are looking to launch some new ones in the future to capitalize on alternatives to cauliflower. However, it’s still in the development phase. The gluten-free category is a very strong, growing segment for us.”
Ardent Mills has also been developing plant-based pastas, including alternative ingredients such as quinoa, chickpea, or other ‘pulse’ flours. “These not only make the dishes gluten-free, but also add unique flavours, while helping to boost the protein or fibre content,” says Borchardt, noting the Ardent Mills proprietary study, which revealed that 62 per cent of people agree they are willing to pay more for foods that have a positive impact on their health.
ARTISANAL
Gen Z and millennials — and now the rising “Alpha” generation — are more sophisticated
Marcelo Melo, VP of Supply Chain at Pizza Pizza
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consumers than previous generations. Melo notices it even within his own family. “I see my kids and their friends being more adventurous than my generation, for example,” he says. “At Pizza Pizza, we are developing more artisanal toppings, more gourmet pizzas that might have a signature sauce or perhaps a topping of roasted vegetables.”
Pizza Pizza’s artisanal pizzas include the Pesto Amore pizza, Chicken Bruschetta and Pepperoni & Hot Honey. “We’re also experimenting with gourmet cheeses, like gorgonzola, as well as a nut-free pesto sauce and a bruschetta sauce,” says Melo. “But we are also experimenting with gourmet flatbreads in artisanal crusts.”
Pizza Pizza no longer has pasta on their menu, but are developing new plans to possibly bring it back onto the menu.
“Ancient grains are particularly popular right now due to their perceived health benefits, known as the ‘health halo,” explains Borchardt. “This is a phrase used to signal a “virtuous” aspect of a food to make it appear
better for you than it actually is. So, we’ve been experimenting with heirloom grains for our pizza crusts, such as sorghum and chickpea flour.”
He adds, “any sort of fermented dough is also huge right now,” since health-conscious consumers appreciate the artisanal quality of methods such as fermentation, which also aids digestion.
Boston Pizza has also expanded its offerings to feature its own artisanal menu niche. It’s NY Sicilian Squarefooter Pizzas include a Truffled Mushroom Pizza, loaded with alfredo sauce and mozzarella on an airy, soft dough, with a crispy garlic crust. It’s then finished with a truffle aioli and fresh lemon zest. It has also developed a Bourbon BBQ Chicken pizza, which features balsamic-roasted red onions, mozzarella, cheddar cheese, bacon, and a drizzle of buttermilk-ranch dressing.
NEW PASTA-BILITIES
“We’re in a really fun era of pizza and pasta making,” says Andy Jorge, VP of Food Services of Boston Pizza. “We’ve widened our palate to include some unique options, such as Mac & Cheese with five flavours (also available in a vegetarian option) and a Spicy Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese.” Both are new additions to the pasta menu.
Its Jambalaya Fettuccini brings a tweak of Southern heat. Made with grilled chicken breast, shrimp, spicy Italian sausage, tomatoes, green peppers, green onions, Cajun seasoning, and marinara sauce, it expands consumers understanding of what pasta can achieve flavour-wise. “You are seeing that broadening of categories, so you might have a more complex pasta dish with items that are both sweet and salty,” says Jorge, adding “we’ve also developed some really unique pizzas. We have this Spicy Perogy Pizza (sour cream, bacon, Cactus Cut Potatoes, mozzarella, cheddar, green onions) that’s been a real hit.”
GLOBAL FLAVOURS
With Canada’s population welcoming more immigrants from around the world, classic pizza and pasta items are shifting to introduce more global flavours. “We’re seeing a clear trend in the rise of spicy food,” says Melo. “So, for example, we’re developing a line of Tabasco-infused items, everything from crusts to French fries.”
Pizza Pizza has also been upping its sauce game, experimenting with a variety of spicy dips and drizzles. “We have a whiskeybarbecue sauce and hot sauces made with
Reid McEachran, associate Marketing manager of Ardent Mills
says a 2023 study sponsored by Ardent Mills that showed 78 per cent of people agree that grains are good for their body. “That led to us offering ‘better-for-you’ options to keep up with the demand for healthier eating. Gluten-free pizza has become the most frequently mentioned crust style on menus, according to the report.”
Bourbon,” he notes. “Then we see a lot of global infusion on our menu, such as a Jamaican jerk sauce, a tandoori sauce and even a Korean barbecue sauce.” Other sauces include a popular mango habanero or what’s known as “Nashville’s hot sauce;” usually served on fried chicken, the regional hot sauce is concocted from cayenne pepper, brown sugar, honey and smoked paprika. Gabrielle Hebert, menu engineer at Boston Pizza, says the popular trend for global flavours with pasta is also undeniable. “We deliver on this global trend towards craving spicy in a dish like our spicy shrimp fettuccini, which gives a real hit of heat and spice,” Hebert says. “From our perspective, it’s really about taking those classic items on our menu and then infusing them with new trends or new items to introduce global flavours – but within a dish that a customer might already recognize.”
But with pasta such a staple of the Canadian diet, Hebert explains consumers venture out to restaurants to try something new, with ingredients they wouldn’t have in their own pantry. “Canada is a really diverse country and we’re continuing to become even more diverse,” he says. “When people come to a restaurant, it’s almost like an experience of culinary tourism. It’s a chance to explore global flavours — and not suffer the cost of a plane ticket.” FH
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Feeling Pinch the
The global economy is having profound effects on Canadian restaurants
BY MORAG MCKENZIE
It’s a small world.
That’s a phrase we hear all the time as technology, the media and our interconnected supply system combine to make it smaller every day. Our ever-shrinking world means the global macro-economy and events, including inflation, interest rates, immigration and geopolitical unrest, impacts Canadians — and Canadian restaurateurs.
INFLUENCED BY INTEREST RATES
Central banks around the world, including in Canada, have kept interest rates high to try to slow down the demand side of the economy so the supply side could catch up. “As we see inflation begin to slow down, the Bank of Canada (BoC), Federal Reserve and other countries’ central banks will lower interest rates, which will lead to stronger economic growth and will result in stronger foodservice sales,” explains Chris Elliott, Chief Economist
and VP, Research for Restaurants Canada. “That’s why it’s so relevant for all restaurateurs to understand what’s happening in the macro economy as it directly impacts both the demand and supply side of their business.”
Higher interest rates have also led to a slowdown in new restaurant construction and expansion. “We’re seeing a greater focus on merger and acquisition of existing business versus new development in the restaurant and brewery sectors. Higher interest rates have
also led to uncertainty as investors would rather realize the more immediate increased revenues from an additional existing business versus the longer time line and higher start-up costs associated with a new one,” explains Jacob Mancini AVP, Restaurants and Breweries, Canadian Western Bank.
Mancini adds, “We expect to see further consolidation in both restaurants and breweries due to the high overhead costs associated with each.”
Globally, we’re experiencing the highest inflation rates seen over the last 40 years. High inflation leads to sky-high food, energy and supply costs, resulting in less disposable income for Canadians to spend in foodservice operations. In the second quarter of 2022, inflation hit eight per cent in Canada. In 2023, Canada’s inflation rate began to come down to 2.9 per cent versus 4.1 per cent in the U.S., one of the lowest levels compared to other G7 nations.
Grocery store and menu inflation have risen, and decreased, at varying rates. “In a similar trend to the U.S., grocery inflation was much higher than menu inflation in 2022 and 2023, which had a positive effect on restaurants,” explains Vince Sgabellone, director of Client Development and Foodservice Industry Analyst at Circana. However, he says this trend has reversed in 2024, with menu inflation now out outpacing grocery inflation, a trend which requires special attention from operators.
Restaurants need to elevate the entire dining experience, including attention to menu details, atmosphere and service
food to provide customers with the fuller experience they would get at a full-service restaurant,” explains Elliott. He adds, “Coffee shops have become the number-1 place for first dates and friends to meet.”
And while some restaurant segments continue to see weaker growth, others are expanding. “Traffic at full-service restaurants (FSR) grew four per cent versus QSR’s which grew three per cent over the last 12 months ending May 2024,” states Sgabellone.
Overall inflation is projected to continue to decrease in 2024 to 2.5 per cent in Canada and 3.2 per cent in the U.S., while in Europe it’s projected to remain stubbornly high at 7.3 per cent. As many Canadian restaurants rely on Europe for both menu ingredients and supplies, this will continue to affect Canadian restaurants.
“High inflation has an enormous influence on the cost of goods and generally resulting in higher menu prices, many which have reached the maximum price the market will bear. Breweries have also been impacted as the cost of aluminum for cans and grain has soared,”
And while inflation impacts all foodservice operations, some sectors have been impacted less due to the demographic they attract. “Our core demographic is 18 to 25 (late night and university) and they don’t worry about inflation as much as their cost of living is generally lower (could be supported by parents) and yet still have high disposable income,” explains Mark Cunningham, CEO for Smokes Poutinerie, adding “inflation has affected our cost of food and equipment which has affected our pricing and new build and growth strategy.”
Global conflict can also lead to higher food and supplies prices in Canadian restaurants. The Russian invasion into Ukraine led to higher energy prices as embargoes were placed on Russian oil and grain prices soared as Ukraine is a major grain producer.
“Certain types of grains and hops can only be grown in the Ukraine or other parts of Europe, significantly impacting Canadian breweries,” explains Mancini.
While most of the supply bottlenecks have been removed, global conflict also contributes to higher prices as wars in the Middle East require ships to travel longer and more expensive routes.
IMMIGRATION
Economists agree — Canada’s significant increase in population is due to immigration. “Canada’s economy grew three per cent due to population growth from immigration,” states Elliott.
New immigrants bring new spending into Canadian restaurants as well as providing much-needed labour-and capital. “Many immigrants have money and the desire to work and/or own a restaurant. This has been particularity strong in Western Canada,” adds Mancini.
Immigration has also had a very positive affect on restaurant franchises. “Many new Canadians want to become business owners and we have had a lot of success expanding into new markets including smaller cities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta,” states Cunningham. “It has also had a very positive affect on staffing levels.”
IMPACT ON OPERATIONS
Once adjusted for inflation and population growth, there has been weaker spending across some foodservices segments. “Drinking places have been hardest hit as Canadians are generally not going out to bars and are drinking less. To combat that, bars are adding more
Much of the FSR growth is concentrated in larger urban centres, including Toronto and Vancouver. “There have been several large new upscale casual restaurants open in Toronto, including a new Earls in the downtown financial core. As many workers are only going into their office two-to-three days a week, they are not brown bagging,” explains Mancini.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Overall inflation is now within one to two per cent of Bank of Canada’s (BoC’s) target at approximately 2.9 per cent but is projected to decrease to two per cent in 2025. “We’re expecting to see the BoC lower interest rates in 2024 and additional cuts in 2025,” concludes Elliott. This same trend is projected in the U.S. and other central banks in Europe.
These lower interest rates is good news for Canadian restaurateurs, as the cost of borrowing decreases and disposable income, which can now be used for restaurant visits, becomes more available.
However, uncertainty in the global markets due to ongoing geopolitical conflicts, elections, et cetera could continue to affect Canadian restaurants. “The most immediate impact is the U.S. election, which could bring in new tariffs that would impact pricing,” states Elliott.
Restaurant growth and expansion is projected to continue in the short and long term. At its peak, Smokes Poutinerie had 12 operations in the U.S. and 120 in Canada and around the world. “Our current outlook in the U.S. and abroad, is to take a non-traditional approach to our operations. This focuses on
VINCE SGABELLONE director of Client Development and Foodservice Industry Analyst at Circana
ghost and shared kitchens, which we share with other leading brands,” explains Cunningham. The brand is also expanding into nontraditional retail locations such as Walmart, many of which offer delivery only.
Strategies to continue to grow profits include becoming an employer of choice, which decreases the cost of hiring while increasing morale and growing sales.
“Restaurants need to elevate the entire dining experience, including attention to menu details, atmosphere and service,” concludes Sgabellone, adding other strategies include exploring new markets such as nontraditional catering (smaller, niche markets) and new dayparts such as brunch. FH
Double Ta
BY DENISE DEVEAU
ake
hen And/Ore opened in December 2023, the odds should have been stacked against them. The rules say end of year is not the ideal time to launch a new concept. But the partners were never ones to follow the rules, says Abby Rubiales, general manager.
“We were nervous at first. No one wants to open a restaurant in December. But it turns out we were unbelievably busy from the minute we opened our doors. Everything was backwards but somehow turned out right.”
(L TO R) Missy Hui; Jaimie Donovan;Abby Rubiales; Kailey DeRubeis
THE BIRTH OF A CONCEPT
Rubiales is one of four female partners behind And/Ore — a rarity in the restaurant industry. Each brings a unique perspective to the business. Rubiales is a talented mixologist in addition to her management talents. Chef Missy Hui is a familiar face in culinary circles, having been a former executive chef with The McEwan Group, instructor at George Brown College and operator of Eat Kander catering and consulting. Director of Operations Kailey DeRubeis is a seasoned hospitality consultant, while Jamie Donovan is a former mining engineer.
It took two years for the team to move And/Ore from concept to reality. “It was just a twinkle in our eyes two years ago when we started talking about the prospect of working together,” says Hui. “We didn’t even know if it would be a restaurant. We were just getting to know each other.”
They settled on developing a restaurant concept that would play to their collective strengths and creative thinking. “We always knew once we saw a space we would attempt two concepts with different menus in one building,” says Hui, adding they found the perfect venue on Queen West near Dufferin in Toronto.
UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS
While the Above Ground restaurant creates an
aura of “approachable luxury” as they call it, the Below Ground venue offers a more rustic, cave-like setting. Designers for the project include New Love Collective, Solid Design Creative and Garland Millwork.
“With Jamie’s mining background, we thought, wouldn’t it be hilarious to build a mine n the basement,” explains Hui. “We really enjoy the juxtaposition of the super ornate, elegant, pomp of the upstairs with the rustic space in the basement. It’s neat because diners can choose their own adventure.”
The 3,500-sq.-ft. main floor seats up to 90 guests in the main dining area, while a mezzanine area seats another 30. The space features a soaring ethereal hand-painted mural, antique mirrors and Victorian-inspired furnishings, creating an old-world gardenparty atmosphere.
The 560-sq.-ft. Below Ground plays off light and shadow in a rough-hewn limestone setting, highlighted a by a neon rope strung across the ceiling inspired by a photo of a mine. There groups can enjoy a customized tasting or prix-fixe menu for intimate dinners, special occasion gathers, or weddings.
SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT
The And/Ore picnic-inspired menu and cocktails feature an eclectic range of sharing, tasting and snacking menus that reflect Hui’s and Rubiales’ love for creating unique tasting
experiences that celebrate the creativity and diversity of modern Canadian cuisine. Samplings on the Above Ground menu include smoked lamb ribs with fish sauce and lime ($24); skirt steak with bitter greens and creamed onion ($29); and burnt cabbage with brown butter, togarashi and cashew ($12) — only a few examples within its extensive list of offerings. The snacking menu ranges from $7 to $16 or guests can choose a curated “Chef’s Picnic” for $60. Rubiales says the average guest check for Above Ground is $75 per person.
Below Ground, which has a higher check average at $200 per person, features a sixcourse tasting menu featuring seasonal ingredients. The tasting menu is offered at $150 per guest + tax and wine pairings are available for $80 + tax.
Its signature drinks have also taken social media by storm and have become a drawing card for even industry professionals. A runaway hit is its Gold Fashioned cocktail topped with a cloud of cotton candy. Rubiales says she created the sugary confection as a
joke. “We quickly grew from making 15 or so to hundreds and had to buy a commercial cotton-candy machine to keep up. This was a one-off idea that photographed so well, it suddenly cemented our popularity.”
And/Ore’s menu offerings and the ambiance are so popular, the team has not had to put a nickel into marketing, says Rubiales. “We trusted in the idea that if we produced something magical — the organic growth will happen. The food and the place are so picturesque it speaks for itself.”
THE PEOPLE FACTOR
The partnership has played a big part in And/Ore’s success, she adds. “Combining expertise in the hospitality industry and the corporate world brings a unique perspective to running a successful business. It’s a great partnership because we respect that each of us is competent in our own field.
“We’re kind of a funny bunch,” she adds. “We love to make jokes and bounce ideas of each other and debate
a lot about how restaurants work. Even when we have disagreements, we’re still okay at the end of the day.”
Now that they are beyond the honeymoon phase, the business is showing no signs of slowing down, in large part because of its appeal to a unusually broad demographic, from young foodies to retirees, from locals to tourists. “It feels like we’ve been running around with our heads cut off, but we’re always having a good time,” says Rubiales.
Transparency and taking care of their staff is a key priority. “One thing that sets us apart besides our space is that we have a team that supports each other,” says Hui. “We’ve managed to acquire some remarkable people to create an extremely welcoming environment. We lean in on our staff to bring others to recommend others. We believe that good people know other good people, so we haven’t had to do much rehiring.”
The restaurant not only provides benefits for staff, but it was also one of
the first to sign with Atlas Direct Tips, a hospitality technology solution that automates tip division, distribution and compliance, she adds. “There are a lot of negative experiences hospitality ownership that have eliminated a lot of the trust. So we set out to be as transparent as possible.”
As for the menu, “We’re still defining what our cuisine is, defining ourselves as a country,” says Hui. “We’re trying to figure out who we are and where we want to be next year. One thing I do know, we are never doing lunches. There’s a lot to structuring of staffing to maintain work-life balance. Having regular days off is important for everyone.”
GOING WITH THE FLOW
Rubiales says many things at And/Ore are still a work in progress — much like the industry itself. “There’s so much organic movement in hospitality. A restaurant is a living, breathing thing. You can plan for everything, but nothing ever goes to plan.”
Reflecting on the past few months, no one is more surprised by And/Ore’s runaway success than the owners. “We did everything wrong. We didn’t follow the rules,” says Rubiales. “We thought we would have to fight for it. But since cutting the red ribbon, we’ve never looked back.” FH
BY LAURA PRATT
JUMPINGThrough HOOPS
Quebec restaurateurs say the industry lacks government support
ITwas early June in Montreal, and restaurants were revving their engines in anticipation of a roaring summer season, not the least because the annual Formula One automobile race was in town. The Canadian Grand Prix, part of the Formula One World Championship since 1967 and a highlight of Montreal’s late spring since 1978, is among the most lucrative events on the city’s calendar, bringing in $162 million last year, including $110 million from tourists outside Quebec. Glenn Castanheira, executive director of the Montréal centre-ville business association, says the Grand Prix weekend, for many restaurants, “pays rent for most of the year.” But at 9 p.m. on the Friday of this year’s racing weekend, in the centre of the F1 Grand Prix bustle in downtown Montreal, the Portuguese fish restaurant, Ferreira Café, was rolling up its terrace and telling patrons they had to vacate its sweet outdoor vibe in response to a city official’s determination that the eatery’s Peel St. patio was not up to code.
In a stunned post on Instagram, Groupe Ferreira director of Operations Sandra Ferreira explained how members of the Service de securité incendie de Montreal (SIM) told her that all her customers had to vacate the Ferreira Café terrace or the whole restaurant would be shut down.
It’s a political move that other restaurateurs claim characterizes the current scene for restaurants operating in Quebec: having to conduct business under the watchful eyes of an unsupportive, confrontational, persnickety government. While foodservice operators doing business in this province suffer so many of the same impediments and challenges their counterparts across Canada currently do — including rising prices, scarce labour, bankruptcies, and pinched consumer purses, to say nothing of historically high failure rates and thin margins — Quebec restaurateurs are also up against a significant internal threat: their own demanding and unaccommodating government.
“There’s just not a lot of support for small businesses here,” says Renée Deschenes-O’Hagan, managing partner of Franquette, a neighbourhood bistro and cocktail bar in Westmount, an affluent municipality on the Island of Montreal. “The infrastructure seems built against restaurants and bars in Quebec. There are all these hoops we have to jump through that restaurateurs in Ontario don’t have to. Add that to the fact that we pay the highest taxes in the country, and it’s not conducive for people to have small businesses here. I understand why so many people are throwing in the towel.”
Deschenes-O’Hagan, who also cites the absence of volume discounts or any kind of conciliatory partnership with the SAQ, the Crown corporation responsible for the trade of alcoholic beverages within the province, quotes Frédéric Morin, the co-owner of Montreal’s Joe Beef Group, from a conference she attended in the spring, commenting on the state of doing business in Canada’s largest province: “The powers that be make us guilty for being restaurateurs.”
“We don’t often pull back the curtain on what’s going on because we want a guest to feel good, positive, like there are no worries,” says Deschenes-O’Hagan. “But there’s a ton of worries, obviously.”
Dyan Solomon, co-owner of Olive et Gourmando, a daytime diner that’s flourished in Old Montreal since its launch in 1998, is worried, too. Solomon, who’s opening a second location of her popular restaurant in the fall, points to the language requirements by which Quebec restaurants must abide as the biggest threat to a restaurant’s success in this province.
In January 2024, the Government of Quebec updated language laws introduced by Bill 96. Quebec restaurateurs are no strangers to language requirements, first set out in the Charter of the French Language, a foundational law in place since 1977 that established French as the official language of the province. With Bill 96, which hit the streets in 2022, the government added stricter rules around
French compliance to its language requirements, including a call for all businesses to employ predominantly French translations in their communications — or face a fine of up to $30,000. But a recent development is seeing many restaurants who already went through the changing of their signs having to change them again thanks to a new rule requiring all signs on commercial businesses, aside from the company name, to be predominately in French by June 2025.
Businesses were given one year to assign at least twice as much space on their storefronts to French as any other language as part of the government’s ongoing effort to protect Quebec’s official language.
Solomon, who has had the “language police” visit her restaurant three times in the last two years, once blasting her for including the word “homemade” on her chalkboard, calls “the language situation one of the more complicated aspects of running a restaurant here.
In addition to changes to language requirements, Quebec’s new tax laws for bars and restaurants load further obligations on participants in this province’s foodservice industry. Reflecting a broader global trend of integrating technology into governance and tax administration, the provincial government is now mandating that restaurants change the platform they use to record their sales — specifically, that they shift from physical sales-recording modules (SRMs) to a new cloudbased IT solution (the WEB-SRM). By May 31, 2025, restaurants need to produce and file all required sommaires périodiques des ventes (periodic sales summaries), including the one for the month they start using the new IT solution, to Revenu Québec, in real time.
This extra bureaucratic burden represents another cost for an industry that’s already swimming in them. “It’s going to be a couple of thousand dollars at a time when about 52 per cent of restaurants are barely breaking even or are operating at a loss,” says Maximilien Roy, vice-president of Restaurants Canada, federal and Quebec. He calls the summer of 2024 “the summer of ultimatums” for restaurants in Quebec.
These constraints kick in, he says, at a time when customers have less discretionary income and are not as confident in their economic futures as before. He points to the price of cooking oil increasing by about 40 per cent in the past year as a representative example. “So, the price of food is going up and fewer people are going to the restaurant. It’s a double hit on our industry.”
He chalks up the scene to a range of influences, including changes in customer behaviour, inflation and labour requirements that make it tough for restaurants to operate at full capacity. Of the 72,000 restaurant employment vacancies across Canada, close to 6,000 are in Quebec.
“There are just not enough employees for the industry,” says Roy, who notes that restaurants have tried to improve the scene by reducing their open hours, a tactic that also shrinks their capacity to make the necessary profit to run a business.
“There’s lots of bureaucracy, construction is out of control,” Solomon says of Quebec’s government. “There’s a lot of mismanagement of public money and, if you’re a small business owner, you don’t have the impression in Quebec that you are appreciated and helped. You don’t feel like someone’s giving you a pat on the back saying, thank you for
employing people, for running restaurants that attract tourism. It’s no, we’re going to fine you for this, there’s that permit and this rule. People always say people who run restaurants in Quebec are insane. Quebec is the end-all of bureaucracy.”
The paradox, Solomon continues, is that the government regularly hails its restaurant industry in its efforts to attract tourists to the province. “Quebec will talk a lot about the food scene as one of their main shining jewels, but there’s not a lot of support there.”
There are 22,295 foodservice businesses currently operating in Quebec, and they employ 254,500 people — 5.6 per cent of the province’s workforce. In 2023, they generated $22.1 billion in revenues. The Quebec restaurant industry is mainly composed of independents — about 60 per cent of restaurants here are independent — a defining feature that’s very specific to the province, whose residents have a preference for sitting down to enjoying a meal with one another, thus eschewing the fast food and counter-style restaurants that dominate elsewhere in the country.
But Roy doesn’t hesitate to single out a handful of positives of running a restaurant in this province, including the diversity it promotes and the way that reality is powering a re-discovery of some of the cuisine that’s typical of traditional Quebec, such as cabane à sucre favourites pea soup, cretons and maple-smoked ham. Quebeckers are proud of their culinary heritage, he states, which includes traditional recipes inherited from the French and English long before the founding of the New France, as well as recipes handed down by the First Nations and by immigrants from all over the world. Quebec gastronomy can still find novelty in its roots, he says, and that’s what’s behind this enthusiastic rediscovery. “We feel like things are turning,” he says. “Customers are feeling more confidence in the second half of 2024. They have more money and want to visit restaurants more. The outlook is positive.”
Positive too, says Deschenes-O’Hagan, are the individuals who are seeing through their dreams by opening and operating restaurants in the face of the obstacles her province throws up. “I think restaurateurs are always going to be people who are resourceful, highly intelligent, and problem-solvers,” she says, “because we literally have a million problems to solve every day. People are always finding ways to work around them; to change concepts; to make things more harmonious, easier, and more attractive to people coming into the industry.”
Solomon is also feeling a bit bullish about the future for her game — a change, she acknowledges, from the same time last year. She says the comments she shared about her industry a year ago were filled with gloom. “I told everyone all the restaurants here were going to close and that we’d all be eating at McDonald’s,” she says. “I gave a lot of interviews where I said, I don’t see the future, it doesn’t look good.”
But Solomon calls Montreal’s current restaurant scene “thriving,” and points to a recent trend of restaurant openings in that famously foodie city. “After COVID there was a lot of suffering and a lot of places closed. But just this summer in Montreal alone, there are about five top restaurants owned by respected chefs or known restaurant groups, opening up in beautiful spaces.” She says she knows it’s an unexpected observation to make, but that there’s a “strange energy” circulating in the local restaurant scene in Quebec’s biggest city right now, especially sparked by young chefs, which she finds “fascinating, amazing, and inspiring. I feel like there’s a little beacon of light shining over here in Quebec restaurants.” FH
The key to achieving the perfect pizza lies not just in its ingredients, but in the oven used to bake it. Whether it’s the traditional charm of a wood-fired oven or the high-tech efficiency of a conveyor oven, each type allows restaurateurs to tailor their pizza offerings to their unique style and customer preferences.
Neapolitan pizza, which emerged in Naples, Italy in the 19th century, is intrinsically linked to wood-fired ovens. These ovens, known for their distinctive dome shape, are designed to reach temperatures as high as 900 degrees Celsius, ensuring a blistered crust with a slightly charred flavour in approximately 90 seconds.
Drawing inspiration from
In the quest for the perfect pizza, the right equipment plays a pivotal role
BY NICOLE DI TOMASSO
the Neapolitan pizza tradition, Pizzeria Libretto opened its Ossington location in 2008 and became one of the first restaurants in Toronto to serve VPN (Vera Pizza Napoletana) certified pizza within the strict guidelines laid out by the Napoli government. Today, Pizzeria Libretto operates four locations around Toronto, including Ossington, Yonge and Sheppard,
Danforth and University.
Gas pizza ovens are a modern alternative to wood-fired ovens, providing the ability to control temperature more precisely. These ovens can reach high temperatures but with less effort in managing the heat source.
“When we first opened, a lot of customers said the pizza was burned or too soft, but a Neapolitan pizza is supposed to
have a blistered look with a soft centre,” says Rocco Agostino, executive chef and partner, Pizzeria Libretto. “If you’re looking for something crispy, a Neapolitan-style pizza isn’t going to give you that.”
Currently, the Danforth location has one wood-fired oven and one hybrid (woodgas mix) oven from Italy-based company Stefano Ferrara Forni; the Ossington location has one hybrid oven from Stefano Ferrara Forni (its original wood-fired oven had to be replaced after 15 years of service); the University location has two hybrid ovens from Stefano Ferrara Forni; and the Yonge and Sheppard location has one rotating pizza oven from Maryland-based Marra Forni.
The Stefano Ferrara Classico Pizza Oven, which is available in five sizes (110 to 150cm), features
a crown and dome made from refractory bricks, with a temperature resistance over 900 degrees Celsius. Mosaic tiles of palladiana marble make up the exterior covering.
Agostino says the ovens range between $30,000 and $50,000 depending on the oven and shipping costs, adding the group of restaurants use the 140cm model.
“The openings of the Neapolitan pizza ovens are smaller than typical ovens, which helps retain the heat better,” continues Agostino. “The Marra Forni rotating pizza oven is a bit different. We like the simplicity of it. With one or two rotations, the pizza is cooked perfectly without having to touch it.”
During COVID, Pizzeria Libretto also purchased deck ovens from Italy-based Moretti Forni to offer its New-York style pizzas, which Agostino says are baked at a lower temperature for approximately eight minutes. “The New-York style pizza has thin, golden-brown crust and holds ingredients a little better,” he says.
Overall, Agostino says customers prefer the Neapolitan-style pizza over the NewYork style, with the Margherita pizza as the top seller. On a busy day, Agostino says one restaurant location will serve about 400 pizzas.
Custom Cooking
Washington-based Wood Stone Corporation manufactures wood-fired, stone-hearth and gas commercial pizza ovens. The stonehearth ovens offered include the Bistro Line, Mountain Series, Fire Deck + FA 9660 and Traditional Series.
“The Fire Decks are workhorses,” says Dean Tryon, director of Innovation and Engineering, Wood Stone Corporation. “They’re ideal for high-volume, big production facilities. The Mountain Series has volume but it’s more customizable for a
restaurant’s needs. Bistro is a smaller, scaleddown version of all those for a smaller footprint.”
Wood Stone also manufactures the OneRev rotating pizza oven. “The OneRev is unique to
Wood Stone's Fire Deck oven at Pyro Restaurant in Alberta
PizzaForno unit in Manitoba
the restaurant industry because it can cook a pizza perfect every time with one rotation. Operators will get a consistent bake and it eliminates the need for a trained oven operator,” says Tryon. “With the non-rotating hearth ovens, operators can get the same quality but someone
needs to operate the oven, spin the pizzas, get them in and out and monitor the bake quality.”
While the hearth ovens are solid fuel or gas, the OneRev oven is gas. “The biggest selling feature [of the OneRev] is that the person building the pizza can
now put it in the oven and pull it out, so operators can technically eliminate a role in their operation,” says Tryon.
“Operators can customize the OneRev oven to their dough recipe,” he continues. “They can set the speed of the oven, as well as the top heat and the bottom heat for their dough. If an operator is baking a small pizza that’s lightly topped and a large pizza that’s heavily topped, the time is exactly the same because it uses a unique reactive cooking surface instead of storing energy and cooking with what’s in the hearth oven.”
The OneRev can cook any pizza between 90 seconds and six minutes, says Tryon, adding that operators can simply sweep off debris to clean and run the oven hotter to remove stains. The oven is also belt-driven, making any necessary repairs quick and easy.
“Hearth ovens cook more than just pizza. Anything you can cook in an oven can be done in a hearth oven as well,” says Tryon. “However, OneRev
Wood Stone's Mountain Series at Farm & Fire in Banff, Alta. (above)
was specifically designed for pizza. For operators specializing in deep dish or pan pizza, it would be easier to cook those in the hearth oven rather than the OneRev.”
OVEN EVOLUTION
The evolution of commercial pizza ovens has been significantly influenced by technological advancements.
Using technology made popular in France by ADIAL, automated pizzeria PizzaForno has built its brand on a proven food-tech platform with more than 2,800 operating in Europe.
“We found the technology about five years ago and brought it to Canada,” says Les Tomlin, co-founder and president, PizzaForno. “As we started to expand our distribution in North America to the U.S., ADIAL opened an assembly facility in Waterloo, Ont.”
Tomlin continues, “Our pizzas are all mass produced at a central commissary [just outside of Chicago] and then flash frozen. Then they’re shipped to each one of our franchisees or licensees across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The frozen pizzas are then put into a pizza box and inserted into the machine and goes through a defrost cycle to bring it to refrigerated temperature. After it’s defrosted for two to three hours and a customer orders it, it gets transferred into the dual convection oven [by a robotic arm].”
“The convection oven is critical because it bakes the toppings and bakes the last 20 per cent of the crust, which already comes
par-baked,” says Tomlin. “That allows us to bake any of our pizzas in less than three minutes. It’s not soggy and comes out as it crispy as it would out of a traditional pizzeria’s stone oven or wood-fired oven.”
Each unit can hold 70 pizzas, which are baked one at a time at 420 degrees Celsius. The unit offers six different pizzas, including Pepperoni, BBQ Chicken, Four Cheese Blend, Hawaiian, Meat Lovers and Vegetarian, however, Tomlin says the company is always working on new varieties and limited-time offers to keep things fresh. Its recently introduced Breakfast Pizza, for example, is topped with scrambled eggs, bacon, ham and red pepper.
PizzaForno recently expanded into Manitoba and currently has more than 70 operating locations and more than 100 additional locations committed in the U.S. alone, with the first 15 U.S. locations already established in California, Georgia, Michigan, Texas and Louisiana.
“The joy of the machine is it’s robotic, which makes it sound complicated but it’s actually quite simple,” says Tomlin. “It has a 99 per cent uptime rate,” adding that the technology can detect if the machine breaks down mid-cycle and will automatically refund or not charge the customer.
The world of commercial pizza ovens is vast and varied, with each type offering unique benefits suited to different styles of pizza and business models. As technology continues to evolve, the future of commercial pizza ovens looks promising. FH
Wood Stone's Fire Deck Oven
HOSTED BY ROSANNA CAIRA
Check out the Table Talk podcast to listen to conversations between Foodservice and Hospitality’s editor and publisher Rosanna Caira and industry leaders speaking about the issues impacting the dynamic foodservice industry.
FEATURED PODCAST GUESTS
E75. TAPPING INTO TRENDS
ROBERT CARTER PRESIDENT OF STRATONHUNTER
E74. A COMMON PURPOSE
SIMON MACRAE & DARCY MACDONELL PARTNERS, THE COMMON STOVE, PICNIC TAPAS & WINE, AND THE HOG AND PENNY PUB, ORILLIA, ONT.
E73. SHAPING THE MINDS OF FUTURE LEADERS
FRANK MENEZES
PROFESSOR & PROGRAM COORDINATOR, HOTEL OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, SCHOOL OF HOSPITALITY & TOURISM MANAGEMENT
GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE
E72. A LABOUR OF LOVE
JONATHAN GUSHUE CHEF & PARTNER
GUSHUE BELANGER HOSPITALITY SERVICES
JENNIFER BELANGER PARTNER
GUSHUE BELANGER HOSPITALITY SERVICES
TABLE TALK podcast episodes are available at https://www.foodserviceandhospitality.com/category/media/podcast/ or find them on and
Good Earth Coffeehouse's Butterfly Pea Flower Lemonade
I K E I T
Cretailer Muji can order their latte from Jarvis the Robot Barista; Ottawa’s Grounded Kitchen serves robot-made Java; and Toronto’s RC Coffee has nine Robo Café locations, mainly in tourist hubs and hospitals — just one indication of how our coffee and tea expectations have changed.
With the disruption of the nine-tofive office workplace, new opportunities provided by emerging technologies such as micro-roasters and pandemic-survival strategies such as lobby kiosks, “coffee consumption has increased per capita,” declares Robert Carter, president of the Coffee Association of Canada.
ICY
CONCOCTIONS, ASIAN INFLUENCES AND DRINKS THAT CHANGE COLOUR ARE HIGH ON THE BEVERAGE HIT LIST THIS YEAR
BY SARAH B. HOOD
Reunion Coffee Roasters, which supplies some of Canada’s largest café chains.
“Rather than picking up coffee on the way to work, people who are working at home will go out mid-morning or later in the day to give their day a little bit of flavour. And now that some people [can make] espresso at home, you’re seeing demand for more adventurous, cocktail-adjacent drinks.”
According to Ipsos, in 2023, 61 per cent of total visits were motivated by “the need for a craveable reward,” followed by “the need for a mental uplift” at 46 per cent.
Cold beverages are having a moment: Canadian Food and Beverage states that, for those under the age of 32, about “15 per cent of their overall
beverage orders consist of iced or frozen coffee.”
Coffee trends also apply to tea. “There’s been a huge shift to quality,” says David O’Connor, co-founder, president and “chief steeping officer” at Toronto-based ethical tea supplier Genuine Tea. “When we first started in 2015, we weren’t seeing the same level of quality as in the coffee or the beanto-bar chocolate movements. Now, tea offers foodservice establishments a higher margin because they’re able to charge $4 or $5 instead of $1.50. A tea program is low-hanging fruit because there’s so much you can do with tea or tea and juice.”
O’Connor, who places his teas “at the crossroads of innovation and tradition,” says both cafes and consumers are “always looking at the next big thing — turmeric lattes, matcha and butterfly tea flower, which starts blue and then turns purple.”
Flavoured-syrup supplier Monin is also identifying a thirst for the unusual among current beverage trends, such as its 2024 Flavour of the Year, ube, a purple yam from the Philippines. Pop culture and social media are driving consumer interest in bright colours, fresh flavours and “mashups” such as caramel whipped coffee, savoury ingredients such as turmeric and kitchen techniques such as smoking and brûléeing.
Nonetheless, Nestlé notes that vanilla remains the top coffee flavour (43.8 per cent of flavoured hot-coffee orders), followed by caramel (24.7 per cent). With iced and frozen-coffee orders, caramel is the top choice, but oat and pumpkin spice are rising.
Consumers are excited by
Starbucks recently implemented its partnerdriven Siren Craft System, designed to “elevate the partner experience” and streamline wait times. A key modification is “beverage sequencing” – steaming milk before espresso shots are pulled –which saves time without sacrificing quality.
Southeast Asian and Central American influences, such as Thai tea, bubble tea, matcha or Mexican mocha. Nestlé’s report quotes an Ipsos finding that “bubble tea is set to experience exponential growth, with the market projected to double in size by 2032,” and Monin suggests that a Golden Oolong Bubble Tea, with oolong tea, coconut milk, tapioca bobas and its own Monin Golden Turmeric Syrup, would be right on trend. Monin also reports that consumers are enjoying unique spins on retro drinks that evoke nostalgic childhood, such as a s’moresthemed beverage.
Coffee and tea chains, roasteries and independent cafés are all fulfilling the demand for these types of flavour combinations. Last March, McDonald’s introduced McCafé Cold Brew Coffee in five varieties, including unsweetened Cold Brew, French Vanilla Cream Cold Brew, Caramel Cream Cold Brew, Sweetened Cold Brew with Cream, and Cold Brew with SugarFree Syrup & Cream.
In April, Tim Hortons,
which
is turning 60, celebrated the 25th anniversary of its Iced Capps as well by launching a Caramilk Iced Capp to accompany the existing Oreo Double Stuf Iced Capp. The chain also offered a summertime Tiramisu Cold Brew with espressoinfused cold foam and is straddling the line between juice and tea with its new caffeine-fuelled Blackberry Yuzu and Mango Starfruit Infusr
Starbucks Siren Craft System
Genuine Tea Kato Matcha JOSHUA
were once criticized, but they’re evolving. Nespresso offers a professional recycling program that permits aluminum content to be reclaimed and capsules to be upcycled, and last July, Ontario became the sixth province with a Green Bag Recycling Program for Nespresso capsules when the city of London, Ont. adopted it. Muskoka Roastery this year launched compostable decaf, organic and espresso capsules for Nespresso brewers.
COMPOSTABLE CUPPA
Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. has introduced K-Rounds plastic-and aluminum-free pods made from roasted coffee beans in a plant-based coating and a mailback recycling program for K-Cup pods. Toronto-based Neighbourhood Coffee Company now offers fully compostable plant-based pods compatible with Keurig machines.
Tim Hortons is adopting wooden and fibre cutlery and fibre lids for its Loaded Bowls while testing fibre hot-beverage lids. Starbucks has introduced a cold cup with up to 20 per cent less plastic, which will keep 13.5 million pounds of plastic from landfills annually in the U.S. and Canada; in January, Starbucks became the first national coffee retailer to invite customers to use a personal cup in mobile and drive-through orders.
This spring, Good Earth Coffeehouse launched a timely collection of summer sippers, including Orange Blossom & Ruby Grapefruit Tea, topped with a slice of salted grapefruit; Grapefruit & Cucumber Spritzer with Orange Blossom tea and cucumber essence; Coconut Cold Brew with Cold
Foam; and Butterfly Pea Flower Lemonade with lemonade, Butterfly Pea Flower tea and coconut syrup. One-off outlets are also surfing these trends, such as Scenic, a Japaneseinspired brunch spot in east-end Toronto, which offers classic coffees and teas along with five entirely coffee-free lattes: kinako soy, black sesame, matcha, hojicha and lavender oat.
First Nespresso Green Bag Recycling (l to r) London deputy mayor Shawn Lewis, Nespresso Canada president Carlos Oyanguren, Circular Materials CEO Allen Langon
THE PRICE OF Popularity
Even as coffee consumption rises, global supply is challenged, and prices are rising.
“Some of the challenges in countries of origin include climate change, which is obviously having an impact,” says Robert Carter, president of the Coffee Association of Canada. “Droughts are impacting coffee cultivation overall; this is resulting in shortages and lower yields.” In the worst case, “there is a concern that by 2050 coffee could be extinct if some things don’t change,” says Adam Pesce of Reunion Coffee Roasters in Toronto. “Coffee is grown predominately in delicate ecosystems that can be thrown off very easily. If it gets too hot, the coffee doesn’t grow properly. It requires a balance of wet season and dry season.”
However, he says, “there is also a lot of interesting work being done to adapt coffee trees to hotter, drier and wetter climates.”
But for now, coffee crops are under pressure, as are the grains, nuts and seeds that go into non-dairy milks. “It’s a very challenging time for the growers to meet the demands of our customers,” Pesce says, “understanding that it’s an affordable luxury, but at the same time there is a limit to what people will pay for a cup of coffee.”
Scott Ahmed is the senior manager of Product for Starbucks Canada. He says Starbucks’ customer-centred approach to innovation allows the company to inspire innovation and respond to changing customer preferences.
“Starbucks has introduced new flavour profiles with our Iced Lavender Cream Oat Matcha and Lavender Oat Chill and met customer demand for more non-dairy options like our new non-dairy cold foams,” he says. The company has also re-imagined its Refreshers to answer the ‘swicy’ trend with Spicy Lemonade Starbucks Refreshers and introduced raspberry-flavoured popping fruity pearls for the first time.
“More than half our total beverage sales in Canada last year were for cold beverages,” Ahmed says. “Last year, we introduced our proprietary Cold Foam Blenders at stores in Canada in response to growing demand for cold foam. The new blender is portable so baristas can move freely behind the bar for a smoother workflow, while reducing the time and number of steps required.” Starbucks has also re-designed its stores to allow for larger cold-bar stations.
Despite the indulgence factor, health and wellness are also important drivers for coffee and tea consumption,
since consumers are aware that they can be calorie-light and antioxidant-rich.
“Brands like [beverage-mix supplier] Blume have done [products] like their beetroot latte, turmeric latte and golden latte [featuring organic turmeric, ginger and ashwagandha],” says Pesce. “We’ve really seen the market turned on its head in that way. People who previously wouldn’t have ordered those things now will.”
“A big trend is the nonalcohol movement,” says O’Connor, who says that consumers of all ages are happy to adopt any “easy and approachable way to incorporate more wellness into their lives. The key, he says, is “innovating new products but making sure the ingredients are something consumers are comfortable putting into their bodies.” FH
securing your digtal data
In today’s digital landscape, company data breaches are more prevalent than ever and often pose a risk of massive financial losses that cause irreparable damage to organizations’ public image. And although, most data breaches could easily have been prevented, every day there are reports of companies whose digital data has been breached and customers’ private information leaked.
Data privacy and security are top priorities for operators
BY ERIC ALISTER
“The good news is that risk management is not a difficult or mysterious affair,” says Taylor Bohn, Privacy and Information Security Advisor at the University of British Columbia. “although no business can make itself 100-per-cent impenetrable, most risks can be mitigated to a very low level by following some procedures, implementing companywide policies and educating staff members.”
Here are some tips to help keep your data safe:
Network Security: Any and all of your Wi-Fi networks should be password protected. If you provide free Wi-Fi to customers or patrons, make sure to set up a separate “guest” network to keep outside traffic off of your internal network. The next important step is making sure your entire network is protected by a firewall and an Intrusion Detection System (IDS). These features are built into all modern networks and we recommend you consult with your IT manager or administrator to check that both security features are turned on and working properly.
Network Segmentation: For bonus network points, implementing network segmentation is recommended. It sounds complicated but all it means is that you create separate networks for different departments or use cases. For example, you can create individual networks for front of house, back of house and POS systems to keep sensitive data isolated. This is all done virtually through software settings, so there is no extra hardware cost for each network you create, and you can always create additional networks down the line as your operation grows.
Encryption: One of the key methods for keeping company data secure is enabling encryption on every digital device. Encryption is built into all modern operating systems — including Windows, macOS, Android and iOS — and when turned on, scrambles all the data that’s saved to a device so outside threat actors cannot view any files without a password.
Two-factor Authentication: In additional to password protecting your data, a second critical layer of defence is two-factor authentication (2FA), which adds a second layer of security by requiring a user to enter a six-digit code that is shared via the user’s smartphone or a security token generated by a 2FA app, such as Google Authenticator. In such a setup, the username and password are the first factor and the six-digit code is the second factor, making it substantially more difficult for an attacker to access unauthorized accounts by stealing a username and password.
THE MOST COMMON CYBERSECURITY ATTACKS
Malware is a broad category of malicious software designed to disrupt, damage or gain unauthorized access to systems. The most common types of malware include viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware and spyware.
Phishing attacks involve tricking individuals into providing sensitive information, such as usernames and passwords, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity. This type of attack is most commonly administered via email, but can also come in the form of an SMS message or phone call. The two most popular forms of phishing include spear phishing, which targets specific individuals, and whaling, which targets high-profile individuals.
In a Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack, an attacker intercepts communication between two parties to eavesdrop or alter the transmitted data. This typically occurs in unsecured networks,
PCI DSS Compliance: For restaurant operators, one of the key areas of data security is in the processing and storing of customers’ payment card information. To protect this data, all operators should familiarize themselves with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and ensure full compliance with the standard in order to properly protect this sensitive data. Beyond implementing a PCI DSS compliant payment system, it is equally as important to conduct regular compliance audits to ensure all security measures remain up to date. Furthermore, check that your POS systems fully support Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) to safeguard transactions from outside attacks. Lastly, to prevent fraudulent transactions, all POS stations should have chip-enabled terminals.
Data Collection and Storage: It goes without saying that protecting customer data is essential for maintaining trust and complying with privacy regulations, but two additional steps you can take in this area are collecting as little data as possible and retaining it only for as long is necessary. This ensures that, in the event of a data breach, the volume of private data that is divulged is kept to an absolute minimum.
Employee Training and Policies: Employees play a critical role in maintaining data security. Therefore, proper training and policies can help mitigate risks associated with human error. Because, here’s the catch — regardless of the sophistication level of an organization’s security systems, cybersecurity experts consistently report that the weakest point in almost all security systems is still us, fallible humans. This is why educating your staff on cybersecurity best practices is a non-negotiable for companies big and small.
Update, update, update: Keep all software, including operating systems, applications and security tools, up to date by regularly applying security patches to fix vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers.
“You’d be surprised how many data breaches are caused by running out-of-date software,” says Bohn. FH
where attackers can capture sensitive information, such as login credentials.
Ransomware is the current most popular and devastating type of malware that takes a company’s data that the attacker has stolen, deletes it from the company’s servers and encrypts a copy of the data that’s in the attackers’ hands, which renders the data useless unless the attacker hands over the decryption key. The attackers will demand a ransom in return for the decryption key.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks aim to overwhelm a target’s network by flooding it with excessive traffic from multiple sources in order to disrupt service availability and prevent normal operations within an organization. The aim is often to place a negative financial impact on the victim by slowing down or halting regular business operations.
A FLAIR FOR TRADITION
Chef Clayton Fontaine brings the menu to new heights at The Pointe Restaurant
BY SUZANNE CHIN-LOY
Executive chef Clayton Fontaine’s culinary creations are as breathtaking as the views from The Pointe Restaurant in the renowned Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, B.C. His passion for local ingredients and innovative techniques have elevated the restaurant to new gastronomic heights, drawing from the diverse flavours and cultures around him.
Fontaine has fond childhood memories of spending time in the kitchen, cooking dinners with his father and sharing meals with his family in Abbotsford, B.C. “There was a point in my childhood when my mom worked nights. After school, my dad would be home, and we’d cook together,” he says. “Looking back, I remember always sharing food with my family. It’s something that makes sense.”
At 16, Fontaine began his culinary career at a Greek restaurant. He then worked at Earl’s before attending the Northwest Culinary Academy, a professional culinary and pastry school in Vancouver. There, he learned the value of time management. Fontaine recalls, “Those time constraints and goals were super valuable and taught me more about how to work in a kitchen.”
He would later apply these skills during his time at Savio Volpe. “I worked there for about a year. [The experience] taught me how to operate in a busy restaurant, think on your feet, and be very adaptable and fluid day to day, and that set me up for success.”
His career path led him to work at various restaurants, ranging from the remote Lake O’Hara Lodge in Lake Louise, Alta., to Canoe Restaurant and Bar in Toronto before accepting a position at the Wickaninnish Inn. “I was at the Wick for about three years as a sous chef and left for five to six months to help out a friend before returning [as executive chef] in April 2023.”
Since taking the reins as executive chef, Fontaine has meticulously sourced ingredients from local farmers, fishers, and foragers, ensuring that every dish showcases the freshest seasonal produce and supports sustainable practices. He emphasizes that “the environment and food go hand in hand” and that, combined with Canada’s
BITS & BITES
What is your ultimate culinary destination?
I haven’t been, but I really want to go to Italy. I love Italian food. I love the culture. If I had to stay anywhere, it would be Italy, and Japan would probably be next.
Favourite ingredient to cook with Mushrooms
What do you cook at home?
I eat rice, vegetables, and some sort of protein like fish every day. When I have a day off, I really enjoy pasta.
rich tapestry of cultural influences, including French, Italian, and Asian, now form the cornerstone of his cooking philosophy.
One of Fontaine’s strengths is blending traditional techniques with a modern flair by “using familiar or unfamiliar ingredients to highlight different flavour profiles and present them in both new and traditional ways. By fermenting woodruff and harvesting spruce tips that grow all over the property, [you] can base a curry around those two ingredients, [using] them to mimic and then make it make sense. It’s like presenting a little corner of the world [with] the personality of the team.”
The Pointe features two menus. The first is a threecourse Table d’Hôte with a choice of appetizer, main and dessert that changes every six weeks ($115 per person). The second option is a five-course tasting menu that changes every two weeks ($275 per person), which includes wine pairings.
Although Fontaine has elevated the restaurant to new culinary heights, he “is most proud of creating a more collaborative environment where people can feel free to learn, take risks, share ideas, and give feedback. He says, “This past year has focused on important things — creating longevity in an industry [where] people want to work in rather than fleeing. That’s what I’m most proud of.” FH
