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Despite tough challenges, restaurants thrive in city Daniel Palmer Reporting
When Wayne Empey and his wife Thanh Pham purchased a tired cafe on the corner of Broughton and Blanshard streets, they knew they were wading into a volatile industry. Four years later, Caffe Teatro has come out ahead of the economic downtown by providing Vietnamese cuisine to the suit-and-tie crowd, but Empey’s upbeat persona fades momentarily as he discusses staying afloat in Victoria’s saturated food service industry. “We only manage to survive because my wife and I run the place,” he said. “The naiveté of people to open up restaurants today, I don’t know who’s opening up these new places. Where
R E N O VAT I O N S
do they get the money?” There are 534 active food service licences in the City of Victoria, including 26 new licences for 2013. Those numbers don’t include food trucks or grandfathered food cart licences. Despite dwindling tourism, the ill-fated harmonized sales tax, a chill on alcohol sales from stricter drinking-driving laws and a 24 per cent bump in payroll due to minimum wage increases, Victoria’s restaurant scene continues to thrive. “People are still satisfying that urge to go out and be social, but they’re just doing it in smaller, tangible ways,” said Bob Parotta, Victoria chair of the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservice Association. Restaurants that have closed in recent months, like Rick’s Grill and Sauce, represent a North American-wide trend of larger establishments losing out to “fast-casual” food, Parotta said. Please see: Casual eateries, Page A8
Sharon Tiffin/News staff
Caffe Teatro owners Wayne Empey and Thanh Pham with banh mi sandwiches at the popular restaurant on the corner of Broughton and Blanshard Streets. The couple is one example of independent owners who have struggled to compete in the saturated Victoria restaurant scene.