When one of Canada’s top restaurant companies joins forces with Toronto’s leading entertainment company, it’s hard to imagine a more perfect pairing.
Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants (O&B), founded by Peter Oliver & Michael Bonacini in 1993, has produced such fine-dining stalwarts as Canoe, Jump and Auberge du Pommier in Toronto. And Ink Entertainment, founded by Charles Khabouth, encompasses an entertainment empire that includes Toronto’s Guvernment, Weslodge, La Societé and Patria.
“It’s rare to have two groups that are extremely different, yet similar, willing to come together and say, ‘We are better together than we are apart,’” says Andrew Oliver, president of Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants. “We can leverage both companies’ expertise and create something no [company] individually could. And I don’t think that happens very often. Between the two of us, we’re creating a business that is unique, innovative and moves things forward.”
The companies first came together last summer, when Ink tapped O&B to handle foodservice at its Cabana Pool Bar (pictured, left and right). “[O&B] pulled through when it came to detail and execution, so we said, ‘Look, there are lots of other opportunities that get offered to us [both],” says Tony Longo, director of Operations and Development at Ink Entertainment. “‘Maybe we should look at doing other larger scale projects together.’”
So, in September 2013, O&B announced its first “concept collaboration” with Ink: a 7,500-sq.-ft. restaurant, 4,000-sq.-ft. lounge and 20,000-sq.-ft. event venue at Hudson Bay Company’s (HBC)flagship store in Calgary. O&B and HBC first partnered in 2011 to launch Bannock (pictured, left), a restaurant at the Bay store on Queen Street in Toronto as well as for the re-launch of Arcadian Court. “Because of the success we’ve had with the various businesses with the Bay, we were approached to work in the Calgary market,” says Oliver. “Since we were changing the scope of what we were going to do, we approached Ink.”
In December 2013, O&B and Ink announced another collaboration: they were taking over the foodservice and entertainment operations at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Toronto. O&B and Ink now share management responsibilities of the property’s restaurant, bar and lounges, event spaces and in-room dining.
The two are in the midst of rebranding and remodelling Trump Hotel’s Stock Restaurant Bar & Lounge (pictured, bottom left) and Suits Lobby Lounge, with the teams collaborating on everything from the establishments’ new names, to the fabric. “This partnership is like a marriage,” says Longo. “It has to be very open and transparent. Everybody needs the chance to speak and everybody needs to listen, and we have a good team of people on both sides who do that very well.”
As for future collaborations, management from both companies predicts new and exciting organic partnerships. “As long as things continue to make sense, and we continue to work well together, then we can collaborate more and push things forward together,” says Oliver.
