A marquee list of Canada’s best restaurants has returned after a pandemic-induced hiatus, ushering with it what some hope is a revival for fine dining in this country.
The list of Canada’s 100 best restaurants has named Published on Main the No. 1 culinary place to be — the first time a Vancouver restaurant has earned top spot on the list — while Major Tom in Calgary was named the best new eatery.
“We always look at the Michelin Guide, we always look at the San Pellegrino List,” said Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson, executive chef at Published on Main.
“Having our own Top 100 list here in Canada, with restaurants that rival a lot of these international restaurants, people have to pay attention to that.”
He said he hopes Canada’s presence on those international lists will draw people’s attention to the country-specific ones.
“I think we have some of the best products in the world available to us,” Stieffenhofer-Brandson said.
Making the list — and especially nabbing the top position — serves as validation for his team’s hard work over the past few years, he said.
Published opened in December 2019, just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic forced restaurants — and just about everything else — to close their doors. Stieffenhofer-Brandson said staff worked hard to get their early momentum back when the restaurant reopened, albeit with restrictions, a few months later.
Published presents itself as a globally inspired restaurant with “Canadian roots.” The Japanese milk buns are served with bee pollen, the morel mushrooms with nettle dumplings. Many of its ingredients are sourced locally.
“We wanted the experience to be as normal as possible for our guests, and we wanted to still be able to offer everything we had intended,” he said. “So it’s really nice to have this recognition now that we’re fully open in our full capacity.”
This is the seventh edition of the list, which is chosen by 100 industry insiders and published by food writer Jacob Richler.
He said the list is populated by more new restaurants this year, so he’s also published a list of Canada’s 20 Best New Restaurants.
“That’s all very gratifying to see for an industry that we’ve been told repeatedly is very much on the ropes,” Richler said.
Among those new eateries is Major Tom, a Calgary venture from Concorde Entertainment Group that opened last summer.
It was supposed to open its doors a year earlier, but the plans were put on hold due to COVID-19, said Garrett Martin, culinary director at Concorde.
That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, he added.
“I really feel like it came together a lot better than it would have as we had originally planned, because everyone was able to spend a little bit longer just making sure it all came together the way that we saw in our heads,” Martin said.
The restaurant, located on the 40th floor of Stephen Avenue Place, puts a fine-dining twist on familiar classics. The decor leans mid-century luxe, and serves to highlight the views of downtown Calgary.
Martin said making the list may push more customers to Major Tom, but above all, he’s grateful for the signal it sends to the restaurant’s team.
“It’s mostly just a massive pat on the back for the staff that have been working tirelessly since long before we opened,” Martin said. “It’s a really cool thing for us just to get recognized for something like this.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2022.
Top 10 on the list of Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants:
Published On Main, Vancouver
Alo, Toronto
St. Lawrence, Vancouver
The Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station, Ont.
Langdon Hall, Cambridge, Ont.
Vin Mon Lapin, Montreal
Edulis, Toronto
Canoe, Toronto
Boulevard, Vancouver
River Cafe, Calgary
Top 10 on the list of Canada’s 20 Best New Restaurants
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
