Local restaurant owners sink their teeth into new jobs outside of the kitchen: Andrew Coppolino

A question that might be posed to Aura Hertzog is, "Which came first?"

Was her bakery business so strong that she could start another job outside of the restaurant industry? Or was it the insecurity foisted upon food operations by COVID-19 that prompted the shift?

Hertzog owns and operates AURA-LA Pastries + Provisions in Kitchener but she is also a program assistant with SDG Idea Factory, an incubator for entrepreneurs in downtown. Her previous contract was as a "My Main Street" ambassador, a program of the Economic Developers Council of Ontario, which was funded by the Government of Canada.

In what is seemingly a local trend, Hertzog – whose university degree is in human geography and political science – is one of several food-operation owners who have recently added other careers to their resume at the same time they are restaurant owners.

"I think it's a little bit of both" is the way Hertzog answers the question. COVID clobbered the food industry, and she started wondering what she would do if her bakery had to close: the time seemed right to take a new step.

"When the pandemic hit, and we had to change and pivot, the remote position for ambassador came up. We were still in COVID, and there was lots of uncertainty. It gave me the ability to manage and balance both my bakery as well as help other small businesses," she says, adding that next to baking, she is passionate about community engagement.

She also recognized that the contract positions would allow her to save her bakery because she would technically no longer be an employee.

"I was scared for my business and whether we were going to make it. Pre-orders went down 50 per cent," she says. "Working outside of the bakery gave it some sustainability."

A few minutes away at downtown Kitchener's Grand Trunk Saloon, owner Darryl Haus stepped to the side, if not out of his business, to teach hospitality and become maître d' at Conestoga College's Bloom Restaurant.

The move wasn't necessarily pandemic driven but more an instinct that an evolution was needed in the eight-year-old business that specializes in cocktails and southern U.S.-inspired food.

And Haus has, in the last few weeks, added two new owners to Grand Trunk – employees Sam Prout and SJ McLean.

"There's a point in time when a business becomes its own thing, and you have fewer ideas to offer. New partners can energize the creative process and move the business forward," Haus says.

While Haus sees to his Conestoga College duties, like Hertzog, he maintains a close connection with Grand Trunk (and his other restaurant Grand Surf Lounge), taking part in regular meetings and working on the planning and implementation of strategies.

"I don't see it as stepping away from the industry," he says. "I'm attacking industry issues from the other end now."

Uptown Waterloo's Red House is a stalwart in the local dining scene – and has been so for 10 years.

Owner Dan McCowan has been a familiar face at restaurants for much longer than that, cutting his teeth in the industry at a couple of Charcoal Group restaurants as he entered the industry.

For McCowan – recently appointed executive chef at Bloom – the shift to letting trusted staff run day-to-day operations at Red House represents a new "phase" for his career that was timed perfectly and was the right opportunity, he says.

"It was pretty much 10 years at Charcoal. It was then the right timing to move to open Red House as my own place. The same sort of vibe has happened now with Bloom."

As restaurants within a dining landscape mature – along with the owners and employees – there are greater opportunities for growth and evolution: skills are honed, the knowledge base and experience deepened and a general industry acuity and savviness is amplified.

According to McCowan, both his front-of-house and back-of-house staff have the experience and the skill to take care of day-to-day operations at Red House, though he's at the restaurant frequently to discuss menus and operations.

But as well, the work at Bloom is part of what he sees as a new dynamic in restaurants.

"I think that the industry is going to be changing and shifting dramatically. It will be interesting to see where the next wave of chefs decide to take restaurants and food service in general," says McCowan.

In downtown Preston, The Cambridge Restaurant has been operating for about 60 years, one of the oldest restaurants in Waterloo Region. For 10 of those years, Josh Hayward has owned and operated the popular venue.

Currently, Hayward is getting certification for teaching culinary and hospitality skills at secondary schools: there are a few factors that motivated him to step aside of the many duties at his restaurant that certainly started with the pandemic but also included family matters.

"We were able to get through COVID, but in the time I had family health issues. That steered me in a direction of the longevity of being able to own and run a restaurant and have something in my back pocket should I need to change one day," Hayward says.

While he questions and reflects on whether full-service restaurants will be sustainable in the future, Hayward wants to see The Cambridge Restaurant continue to thrive and ensure that his loyal and dedicated staff – not to mention his regular customers – can continue to be key parts of the restaurant's community.

"The only reason we're able to do this is the staff we have here. Cooks and waitstaff have been here 15 years and even 30 years. They're able to run and maintain it, and that will allow me to do this," he says.

Competent, dedicated employees is the refrain. While the motivations might be varied, the common thread for these food operators is that strong staff make the added career work possible to ensure the business's sustainability and that of owners like Hertzog.

"I have a really good team," she says of her staff at AURA-LA. "A sign of a strong small business is when you don't have to be there 100 per cent of the time."