September 2020

kitchen and it was just myself
out front. As we’ve grown in the
last eight weeks or so, I’ve made
a few changes based on being
able to grow organically and allow
for changes to be made along
the way. I’ve brought on a new
chef named Nathan Middleton,
formerly of Petty Cash, and he’ll
be running the kitchen starting
this week. He’s also going to
be a partner in the business. I
brought back one of our servers
to work the front (because we’re
just doing counter service) to
explain what [products] are to
customers, ring them up and
create that whole experience.
That allows me to concentrate
on the business side of things
and help out in the kitchen [or]
wherever I’m needed.
RC: Can you give us more
details about the concept?
SV: The bottle shop is in the
front of the restaurant as you
walk in. We’ve used the tables
where people would normally
be sitting as display counters for
the products [we’re] offering. We
have a lot of [items] — 100km
Foods has always been one of our
suppliers, so we’re getting a lot
of local [products] from them
and also trying to concentrate
on non-perishable items, such as
locally made hot sauces and jams.
We have bread from Blackbird
[Baking Co.] that we get fresh
every day, Martin’s potato buns,
local all-beef and chicken hotdogs
and we have the fridge in the
front that has cheese and charcuterie,
cold beer and wine. And
we have a little swag-shop area
with all of our Beast [merchandise]
— hoodies, T-shirts and
hats. We’re curating items you
can’t normally get in the grocery
store, such as preserved lemons,
things we’d normally use in our
day-to-day cooking at Beast that
allow people to take that experience
home. And, obviously, the
locally sourced meats we would
Beast
opened in Toronto in
June of 2010, in a small
house on a side street
in between King and
Queen West villages.
The 32-seat, full-service
restaurant (with an
additional 16 seats on
the patio) concentrates
on local cuisine with an
emphasis on nose-totail
cooking. It’s known
for its whole-animal
butchery — diners pick
the animal and the
team at Beast creates
a tasting menu using
a different part of the
animal for each course.
Due to COVID-19, Beast
had to shut down in
March and pivot to a
new concept so it can
continue operating
moving forward.
normally have are now packaged
to take home — ground venison,
wild boar, bison and 16-ounce
rib-eye steaks.
RC: Have you fully rolled this
out or are you in the process of
doing so as we speak?
SV: This was launched the first
week in May and, as each week
goes on, we see which products
are selling and what the demand
is. As people start asking for
products, we’ll bring them in. We
had a couple of weeks when we
had beautiful local strawberries
and asparagus when those were
in season. We were letting the
neighbourhood and our clientele
dictate what they’re looking for.
We’re doing some prepared foods,
hot sandwiches and items like
that people can grab to go and
now that we have a couple of tables
on the patio, they can sit down
and enjoy those on the patio. But,
the fun, unique part of the bodega
is its a relaxed atmosphere, even
though there’s no table service.
With the COVID-19 regulations,
people are able to have a nice, safe,
individual shopping experience
or same-household shopping
experience. If they choose to sit
out on the patio and enjoy they
can, but you can literally come in
and buy a bottle of wine at retail.
And, if you want to sit down on
the patio, crack open a beer and
drink it, we’re licensed out there
so you can do so as well.
RC: What has the feedback been
like from your customer base?
SV: It’s been pretty amazing.
[In the] 10 years of having this
restaurant, there’s always been
the challenge of ‘can I make it
sustainable with the support
from the neighbourhood and
as a full-service restaurant?’ We
obviously got a lot of support
from the neighbourhood, but
that also means we would see
regular customers that live in and
around the area maybe a couple
times a month or three or four
times a year on special occasions.
Whereas now that we’re more
a local neighbourhood bodega,
we’re getting the support from
the regular clientele who live in
and around the GTA (Greater
Toronto Area) and are driving in
and showing their support, but
we’re also seeing that the neighbourhood
has really embraced it.
We’re starting to see those people
who we only saw a couple times
a month now coming in two or
three times a week to do a shop
for their groceries, take a lunch
break because they’re working
from home, grab a sandwich and
pick up some cheese and charcuterie
before it’s time for them
to start cooking dinner and a
bottle of wine. You don’t have to
wait in line at the grocery store or
LCBO; you can just walk right in.
RC: Is this concept temporary or
will you keep the bodega open
post-COVID-19?
SV: [We’ll keep it] for the
foreseeable future. As long as it’s
sustainable, it allows me to have a
lot more control over my labour
costs. One of the issues I’ve had
with our restaurant industry, even
pre-COVID-19, is that I felt like
the industry was already broken.
COVID-19 just shined a light on
some of those issues that weren’t
really being addressed and one
of those is the wage inequality
between front of the house and
back of the house. The idea of
the bodega is to eliminate that
divide between the two different
pay rates of staff, allow it to
be one cohesive restaurant or
bodega and pay everybody a fair
wage, so there’s no discrepancies
while having more regular hours.
I mean, it took COVID-19 for me
to sit at home and realize, I kind
of like this. Those 16-hour days in
the kitchen, for those that really
care about the industry and care
about their livelihood, are going
to become a thing of the past. It’s
much more important for me —
and maybe it’s because I just had a
kid — to have a [small] semblance
of a life outside of the restaurant
and for my staff to as well. This
concept allows me to do that
and, in the business model of the
bodega, it allows me to expand,
whereas if I just re-opened as
a full-service restaurant, that
model’s already there and it’s kind
of difficult to expand on — now I
can concentrate on office catering,
takeout packages and business
like that.
RC: Do you think that is a
sustainable model? Obviously,
there’s fewer expenses, but do
you feel comfortable with that?
SV: I do. Only the future will
decide whether or not the
44 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY SEPTEMBER 2020 FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM