January
22, 2007
Presenting: Mary Lee from Spiaggia Restaurant
– A Hospitality Entrepreneur with a Heart for the Arts
One restaurant I have wanted to check out for a long time is Spiaggia
Trattoria ("spiaggia" is Italian for “beach)
at the eastern end of the Queen Street strip. Local Beach expert
Glenn Cochrane had mentioned that
the owner, Mary Lee, was an interesting person and recommended that
I interview her. To catch her before the busy evening hours at her
establishment I met her at 5:30 and we sat down in a quiet corner
at the back of the restaurant.
Mary Lee indicated that she and her husband John moved into the
Beach in 1989. Before the couple moved to this neighbourhood h they
used to live in an apartment at the Sutton Place Hotel. When she
noticed my surprise Mary Lee explained that the 19th to the 31st
floor of this famous hotel in Toronto were set aside for rent-controlled
residential apartments. Even today some of the apartments are still
occupied by the original tenants. I had never known that there were
private apartments in the Sutton Place Hotel. You never stop learning
about your own city…
Mary Lee
Prior to becoming restaurant entrepreneurs, Mary Lee was an interior
designer while her husband worked as an architect at the Bank of
Montreal. Spiaggia was not their first foray into the hospitality
ownership; the couple had owned restaurants in Oakville and on St.
Clair Avenue in Toronto. In 1990 they bought the building that the
current restaurant is located in; it housed five apartments and
the small Spiaggia..
Mary Lee and her husband immediately set about renovating the property
and when the demolition work started, they found newspapers in the
wall dating back to 1902. Throughout the entire renovation process
they continued to operate the existing restaurant, and the patrons
enjoyed watching the stucco work being performed on the building,
right through the front windows.
The room at the north end of Trattoria Spiaggia
Today the second floor holds a beautiful apartment – Mary
Lee took me briefly upstairs and I saw a spacious apartment with
an unusual layout with lots of angles and a gorgeous light-coloured
decorating scheme, obviously the results of her interior design
talents. She took me out on the rear balcony and mentioned that
she can see all the way to Toronto’s City Hall from this location.
The couple spent three years overhauling the building and dealt
with the glitches along the way. One local regulation required that
they keep the old plumbing intact while they were installing the
new pipes. As a result, the building today has two sets of plumbing
throughout, of course only the new plumbing is being used.
A view of the bar
Mary Lee's real estate investment and renovation skills as well
as her protective sentiments about the neighbourhood became evident
when a video rental store across the street was being converted
into an adult video store. Concerned about the impact on the neighbourhood,
the couple bought the property and turned it into an art gallery.
The adult video store relocated further west on Queen Street outside
of the Beach neighbourhood.
When her husband passed away in 1998, Mary Lee closed down the art
gallery since she did not have enough time to manage both businesses.
A graphic design business now occupies the space. Mary Lee mentions
that during the difficult time around her husband’s death
her loyal restaurant customers took care of her. Their support and
the higher workload she was carrying by herself now helped her get
through a difficult transition period.
Mary Lee with picture by local photographer John
Dowding
We started talking about Spiaggia
and the unique features of this fine dining restaurant. Spiaggia
is open seven days a week in the evenings from 5 to 11 pm. It has
two sitting areas and the area on the north side of the building
can be booked for private meetings. Often this room holds special
events for up to 20 people.
The cuisine at Spiaggia includes seven different types of pasta
dishes, fresh fish, seafood and veal dishes. Spiaggia is part of
Eat Smart! - Ontario's Healthy Restaurant Program, an exclusive
program that awards Ontario restaurants that meet high standards
in food safety, nutrition and non-smoking seating. Mary Lee added
that guests are able to get customized meals that are prepared right
in front of them in the open kitchen. Guests always enjoy healthy,
fresh food at Spiaggia.
Daily specials at Spiaggia
As we were sitting there Mary Lee told me a couple of humorous
stories: in late December she got an out-of-town reservation with
a credit card from a prospective restaurant patron in the US. They
called a week ahead to reserve a seat for Spiaggia’s New Years
Eve dinner event. Mary Lee was wondering what had happened when
these customers did not show up. A few days later she got a phone
call from a woman in West Virginia who said she was not able to
locate Spiaggia’ on Queen Street, but was finally able to
find it on Michigan Avenue – in Chicago!
Apparently she had found information about Spiaggia
on the Internet and planned to have a nice New Year’s Eve
dinner in Chicago, but ended up making the reservation with Spiaggia
Trattoria in Toronto!
Even more humorous and unusual is the story behind Mary Lee’s
espresso machine. In the 1970s she travelled to Florida with her
husband in their Corvette. On the way back home John spotted an
unusual object in a shop window in Fort Lauderdale. He made an immediate
U-turn and went into the store to inquire about this interesting-looking
item.
Mary Lee with the (in)famous espresso machine
It turned out that the object was an espresso machine made in Italy,
but the 1970’s was an era before fancy coffee concoctions.
When Mary Lee’s husband inquired as to what the object was,
the man simply responded in a southern drawl “it makes coffee”.
John had to have the espresso machine and ended up buying it for
$21,000, which 30 years ago was more money than what he had paid
for the Corvette.
He simply had to buy this espresso machine, and because there wasn’t
enough space in the car for both Mary Lee and the espresso maker,
he dropped her off at the airport and drove home with the espresso
machine strapped into the passenger seat sticking out of the roof.
Mary Lee laughed and said “I am the only broad who has ever
been dumped for an espresso machine”. Today the machine is
still used to make coffee.
A colourful appetizer
Mary Lee told me about her attachment to the Beach neighbourhood.
She said she loves the area and enjoys taking walks on Queen Street
or on the Boardwalk. It is a neighbourhood with a very high quality
of life, one of those Toronto neighbourhoods that even have a busy
street life on Sundays. She chuckled when she mentioned a popular
local saying: “you can’t live in this neighbourhood
unless you have a dog or a stroller.” The Beach is indeed
very popular with dog owners and young families.
A very delicious Vitello alla Balsamic
Unfortunately international events have had an impact on the Beach.
The restaurant owners in the Beach and Toronto in general have really
been affected by the slow-down of American tourism in Toronto. In
2003 Toronto was hit by the SARS crisis and more recently travel
between Canada and the US has become more difficult due to passport
requirements and terrorism prevention measures. Mary Lee has noticed
a significant decrease in American customers over the last few years.
In addition, the popularity of the Beach as an entertainment area
has raised rents for many merchants which makes doing business in
this neighbourhood more difficult. Mary Lee indicated that she is
fortunate since she owns Spiaggia’s building.
Gorgonzola Carbonara
MaryLee explained that she has about 14 full-time and part-time
staff members working at Spiaggia.
Her chef Jacobo Guerra is originally from Ecuador and has been in
Canada since 1979. He started in the hospitality industry 16 years
ago after completing a chef’s course at George Brown College.
In addition to his culinary education Jacobo also has a talent for
arts and took a fine art program at the Ontario College of Arts.
Jacobo’s assistant Victor hails from India and came to Canada
in 2001. He has been working at Spiaggia for almost three years
now and says he has learned everything he knows from the expert,
Jacobo.
Some members of the Spiaggia team: Jacobo, Brittany and Victor
Art is a common theme at Spiaggia: Brittany
Ross works part-time as a waitress at the restaurant and she
owns her own photography and web design business. (She designed
the Spiagga website.)
During my visit I also had a chance to sit down and chat with John
Dowding, a renowned local photographer and photography teacher,
who regularly participates in the Beach Studio Tour. John has an
interesting event coming up in early February: a photo tour to Havana,
he and I were going to arrange a one-on-one
interview so I would have a chance to learn more about one of
the many artists in the Beach.
John Dowding, a well-known photographer in the Beach
John indicated that Mary Lee is an active sponsor of the Beach
Studio Tour and is always available to help if the artists need
something. He commented that over the years he has enjoyed a great
friendship with Mary Lee and loves to come here for a good dinner.
After my interview with Mary Lee and my conversation with John Dowding
I had a chance to sit down and sample some of Spiaggia’s cuisine
myself. Spiaggia’s menu is extensive with many mouthwatering
choices, and a prix-fix menu including a starter, a main course
and a dessert, is available at the reasonable price of $25.95 .
Tira Misu: my favourite!
I decided to go for the prix fix menu and had a Caesar salad to
start followed by an extremely tasty “Vitello alla Balsamic”
– a delicious arrangement of grilled veal, mushrooms, sun
dried tomatoes, with a leeks balsamic Dijon sauce and garlic butter
capellini on the side. I am not usually much of a meat eater, but
the tender veal accompanied by an interesting array of vegetable
flavours was scrumptious. My dinner partner had the Gorgonzola Carbonara
and commented that it was fabulous as well. After a delicous tiramisu,
my favourite Italian dessert, Mary Lee treated us to a sampling
of the famous chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce. All I can say
I was glad I had finally made the trek down to discover Trattoria
Spiaggia.
And I had a chance to meet Mary Lee, a gifted interior designer,
a restaurant owner committed to serving high quality fresh and healthy
food and an entrepreneur with a big heart for the arts…
A taste of chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce...
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