Paese and L-eat Catering, the still successful catering company from which the former was born, are the longtime professional preoccupations of Loschiavo. The Paese team cleave to a handcrafted approach that’s Italian-inspired, with a made-in-Canada twist. The distinction is critical: Paese chefs use traditional Italian techniques to create dishes with modern, local-area appeal. “Every Italian restaurant says it’s ‘authentic’ and ‘traditional,’” says Christopher Palik, executive chef for the L-eat Group. “But, we’re not in Italy, so that’s impossible.” Instead, Palik tells the world that Paese (meaning “town” or “village”) is “an Italian restaurant in Canada.”
Loschiavo founded L-eat (a play on “elite”) in 1983, when he was 21; at the time it was a sandwich-delivery business that serviced hairdressers in Toronto. Eventually, it grew into a full-service catering operation, but finding staff was tricky since catering is such a weekend-focused enterprise. So, when a neighbouring pizza joint dropped its lease, Loschiavo bit. “If I opened a small restaurant, I could build a stronger culinary team.”
The 860-sq.-ft. Paese Pizzeria, located at Bathurst Street and Wilson Avenue, was opened in 1989 with 32 seats and insufficient equipment. The under-counter dishwasher was so slow management had to buy more dishes to avoid washing plates during service. “It made for a long night,” says Loschiavo, whose CV includes stints at former Toronto hotspots Noodles and Fenton’s. Paese’s customer-following took shape when Loschiavo realized he had to differentiate the restaurant from the competition. So, he went to George Brown and studied wine under lead sommelier Jacques Marie. The wine cellar in which he subsequently invested was among the largest Italian collections in the city (and remains impressive). At one point, Paese had nearly 600 labels on its wine list, including 70 Amarone wines.
The original Paese restaurant now has 80 seats on the ground floor and two second-floor private dining rooms. The clientele is mostly neighbourhood regulars who often linger over their meals and possess a fierce loyalty. “Whenever we change our menu on Bathurst Street, we get a huge
kickback from our clients,” says Loschiavo. Favourites include ricotta gnocchi ($18) and margherita pizza ($15).
Meanwhile, Paese King Street, which opened in 2010, is a haven within Toronto’s theatre district. The restaurant has a heated patio, a 10-seat bar with foodservice and an exposed-brick-and-butcher’s-block-table-adorned dining room for 90. The clientele is transient and includes a lot of tourists. Accordingly, the dishes are more current and prone to experimentation. The menu includes extras such as hand-rolled cavatelli ($16) and wild boar orecchiette ($19).
Interestingly, Loschiavo struggles when asked what makes his restaurants exceptional, casting about from comments about food to wine to fresh takes on attracting customers. Recently, Paese shifted its focus from traditional advertising to marketing initiatives that benefit customers more directly. On Bathurst Street, new clients get a 250-mL bottle of olive oil, adorned with Paese’s logo and contact information. Then there’s Loschiavo’s commitment to a mere $25 markup on its wines, a sliding scale that means a bottle that retails for $20 may cost $45 at the table, but one that retails for $300 is only $325. And, uniquely, the restaurant offers free corkage Sunday to Friday. Guests bring their own stash, and Paese staff accommodate with the appropriate Riedel stemware and decanters. “The other day a regular comes in with his son,” Loschiavo regales. “They’ve brought a $400 bottle of Quintarelli Amarone for dinner. But their bill with us was just $65. That’s awesome.”
Lately, the food focus has been about updating the menus to make them more health-conscious, with low-carb, no-carb and gluten-free options. Many of the ingredients are local, sustainable and organic, but they’re not terms Loschiavo favours. “You have to put food first,” he qualifies. “Food has to do with flavour and presentation — organic doesn’t always deliver that and local and sustainable almost never do. The only vegetables in my garden today are rhubarb and bok choy. I have no potatoes, and God forbid you ask me for a squeeze of lemon.”
But, it’s the garden that makes this restaurant special. A block from the Bathurst Street restaurant, chefs tend to a 3,000-sq.-ft. space with some 40 different plants. It’s here that Loschiavo’s parents’ original Italian seeds continue to bear fruit.
And, to combat the increasing operational challenge of finding capable staff, Loschiavo has redoubled his focus on training. Once a week, the sommelier opens a couple of bottles of wine and lectures about the product; similar lessons are conducted in the kitchen, where ongoing training exposes young chefs to new trends. And, every month, Paese hosts a competition for its cooks and sous chefs, which is centred around one ingredient. “To be a chef, you have to be really creative,” says chef Miheer Shete, who’s worked at the King Street Paese for three years. “This [competition] inspires and really motivates [employees].” The prize? Bragging rights and cookbooks, of course.
The efforts are paying off. Last year, the revenue at the King Street location was $1.8 million, while the Bathurst Street location topped $1.6 million, and the parent catering business drew another $5 million. Palik credits these results to Loschiavo. When the cook became executive chef for the L-eat Group six years ago, he was grateful for the opportunity to work “under an old-school restaurateur.” As much as ambiance and quality of food can carry a restaurant, he believes it’s Paese’s one-on-one service that sets it apart. “I don’t have to take things up five flights of stairs to a guy sitting at a desk who has lost touch with his customers.”
Innovation has always been paramount. After all, Paese was a pizzeria before pizza swept Toronto, it offered wine excellence before the competition, it was home to a cocktail program and a gifted cocktail manager when the demand struck, and, during the recent resurgence of “rustic Italian,” well, Paese was already on point. What’s more, the team at the King Street location recently introduced a late-night meatball menu that spins creative versions of this Italian staple to customers from theatres down the street.“We’re constantly changing,” says Loschiavo. “That’s the trick.”
image courtesy of Margaret Mulligan
