Meet the Innovators: Spinnakers' Paul Hadfield
Your Foodservice Manager, March 2006
Location, location, location: Paul Hadfield, an architect by trade with a background in economics, knew it would be a critical factor in launching a pioneering brewpub on Canada’s far west coast in the early 1980s. “I’d seen all the statistics proving that waterfront establishments had by far the highest survival rate,” he explains from his favorite window seat at Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub, the winter sun reflecting off the calm waters of Victoria’s Inner Harbour. “To actually find a relatively inexpensive character home facing south on the ocean? Well, I knew we had the foundation for something special.”
Hadfield and his original partners were on a crusade to bring hand-crafted lagers and ales to a Canadian public weaned on the bland, fizzy, mass-produced products churned out by the national breweries. Opening in May, 1984 with just 65 seats, Spinnakers immediately became a mecca for beerhounds in search of a real, European-style buzz. Its early success inspired the likes of C’est What in Toronto, the Granite Brewery in Halifax and Le Cheval Blanc in Montreal. Now dozens of second-generation brewpubs nation-wide continue to revolutionize the pub experience with a heady blend of ambience, quality food and fine drink.
Rightly billing itself as Canada’s oldest brewpub, Spinnakers has held true to its core mandate while refreshing itself constantly with architectural upgrades and philosophical rethinks. “At the root of what we do is world-class beer brewed under our own roof,” says Hadfield. “But that alone has never been enough to keep us motivated. We’ve always looked around for new avenues while never forgetting what got us here in the first place.”
Brewmaster Lon Ladell still utilizes the same core micro-brewery gear imported from Manchester 22 years ago, but otherwise Spinnakers has evolved dramatically. The restaurant has become a two-tiered, light-filled showpiece that seats 125 patrons. Upstairs, where the hops and grain were originally stored, is a warm, inviting pub that often hits its 110 capacity as night unfolds. A heritage guesthouse, just a minute’s walk away, opened for the B&B trade in 1996. The front-of-house staff are kept jumping at a retail counter that sells exceptional baked goods and chocolates (all made by a resident pastry chef with the delightful name Crystal Duck). Popular lines of beer – Mitchell’s Extra Special Bitter and Doc Hadfield’s Pale Ale, among a half-dozen other staples – are brewed on the premises, served on tap and bottled with designer labels. And in a recent twist that will likely lead to other outlets in Victoria, Hadfield, his wife Mary and brother Ian have opened a boutique store filled with rare beers, wines and spirits unique to the market.
Riding repeatedly through cycles of good and lean times, Hadfield has learned that diversification is key to Spinnaker’s continued health. “All of us in this business are at the mercy of the overall economy, but we’ve managed to become less vulnerable.” The restaurant and pub generates about $4 million in sales per year, he estimates, while revenues from Spinnakers Spirit Merchants Liquor Store should top $3 million in 2006. The guesthouse adds a further $425,000 to the annual bottom line.
The greatest challenge of the last five years, says Hadfield, has been the switch from a more typical pub menu to the kind of sophisticated regional cuisine that has allowed Spinnakers to brand itself a “gastro-pub” in the fashion of the celebrated new wave of U.K. gourmet pubs.
“In the early days we offered oysters, wings, chowder – a basic 10 items that are standard fare now but were pretty unique when bar food meant a bag of chips,” he says with a laugh. By the turn of this decade, however, Hadfield had become fascinated by a Slow Food movement that championed organic produce and the family farm. Returning from one of the first Slow Food conventions in Italy, Hadfield was fired up enough to reinvent his kitchen. An “old-school” executive chef was hired and local growers were approached in a process of demand-and-supply that has developed to the point where 90 percent of the menu now comes from Vancouver Island sources.
“After three months I could not believe how much we were losing,” reveals Hadfield with a grimace. “We’d made a bunch of changes that sent our labor and food costs sky high. And we were pissing off our regulars because the menu was too pricey.” He soon parted ways with the chef, secured a fresh line of credit and tried again. “It took two years of frustration until we got the staffing and price points right.”
Nowadays head chef Ken Hueston steers clear of heavy sauces in favor of fresh, simply prepared dishes like wild salmon fettuccine, jerked pork tenderloin with yam fritters and multiple schools of smoked fish. Chicken wings get their kick from a beer bbq sauce, while the burgers are made from local highland beef cattle raised on spent grains from the brewery.
“We print a large fresh sheet each Wednesday and seasonally change the main menu,” explains sous-chef Alison Ryan, who helped run the kitchen late last year while Hueston took a four-month sabbatical. (“The only way to avoid burn-out in a business that’s this much fun is to take serious breaks,” testifies Hadfield, who works six-day weeks but regularly recharges himself with month-long overseas vacations.) A highlight of Ryan’s day is greeting shaggy organic farmers from nearby Metchosin and the Cowichan Valley. “The characters I meet are fantastic. They’re wonderful people and incredibly passionate about the food they grow.”
Adopting a light, rustic touch with food means that as many as 700 patrons can be served by a relatively small kitchen over the course of a peak summer day. Groups of 10 or more diners are offered large sampler platters assembled at the prep table away from frontline kitchen operations. “There was a time we couldn’t accommodate large groups without hurting our standards,” says Hadfield. “But these paysan-style sharing dishes are low impact on us and a real boon for business.”
While Spinnakers periodically operates with a general manager, the current organization features a trio of front-of-house managers in Andrew McNeil, Mark Wilson and Rob Haynes. “All of us relish the extra responsibility,” says McNeil, who handles human resources for the 95-employee operation. “It requires a lot of communication, but the department heads meet once a week and we stay on the same page.” McNeil’s knowledgeable wait staff are routinely given mini-seminars on seasonal beers and the latest fresh sheets, allowing them to inform customers about the back story behind certain menu favorites – such as the golden-hued mussels, harvested on Cortes Island, B.C. and prepared with garlic, sautéed onion and a dash of Belgian ale brewed in Spinnakers’ own stainless steel vats in 2004.
Hadfield enjoyed exactly that dish for lunch a few hours prior to his YFM interview, and it’s this kind of regional fare that excites the fiftysomething businessman most these days. “I’m at an age where it’s all about quality not quantity,” he says, smiling broadly and taking a modest sip of copper-coloured ambrosia. “There are many horizons ahead of us, but in the end the satisfaction lies in what emerges each and every day from the kitchen and the brewery. Provided we stay sharp and innovative in those areas, everything else will take care of itself.”
Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub & GuestHouses
308 Catherine Street, Victoria, B.C. V9A 3S8
(250) 386-2739
http://www.spinnakers.com/
Your Foodservice Manager, March 2006
Location, location, location: Paul Hadfield, an architect by trade with a background in economics, knew it would be a critical factor in launching a pioneering brewpub on Canada’s far west coast in the early 1980s. “I’d seen all the statistics proving that waterfront establishments had by far the highest survival rate,” he explains from his favorite window seat at Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub, the winter sun reflecting off the calm waters of Victoria’s Inner Harbour. “To actually find a relatively inexpensive character home facing south on the ocean? Well, I knew we had the foundation for something special.”
Hadfield and his original partners were on a crusade to bring hand-crafted lagers and ales to a Canadian public weaned on the bland, fizzy, mass-produced products churned out by the national breweries. Opening in May, 1984 with just 65 seats, Spinnakers immediately became a mecca for beerhounds in search of a real, European-style buzz. Its early success inspired the likes of C’est What in Toronto, the Granite Brewery in Halifax and Le Cheval Blanc in Montreal. Now dozens of second-generation brewpubs nation-wide continue to revolutionize the pub experience with a heady blend of ambience, quality food and fine drink.
Rightly billing itself as Canada’s oldest brewpub, Spinnakers has held true to its core mandate while refreshing itself constantly with architectural upgrades and philosophical rethinks. “At the root of what we do is world-class beer brewed under our own roof,” says Hadfield. “But that alone has never been enough to keep us motivated. We’ve always looked around for new avenues while never forgetting what got us here in the first place.”
Brewmaster Lon Ladell still utilizes the same core micro-brewery gear imported from Manchester 22 years ago, but otherwise Spinnakers has evolved dramatically. The restaurant has become a two-tiered, light-filled showpiece that seats 125 patrons. Upstairs, where the hops and grain were originally stored, is a warm, inviting pub that often hits its 110 capacity as night unfolds. A heritage guesthouse, just a minute’s walk away, opened for the B&B trade in 1996. The front-of-house staff are kept jumping at a retail counter that sells exceptional baked goods and chocolates (all made by a resident pastry chef with the delightful name Crystal Duck). Popular lines of beer – Mitchell’s Extra Special Bitter and Doc Hadfield’s Pale Ale, among a half-dozen other staples – are brewed on the premises, served on tap and bottled with designer labels. And in a recent twist that will likely lead to other outlets in Victoria, Hadfield, his wife Mary and brother Ian have opened a boutique store filled with rare beers, wines and spirits unique to the market.
Riding repeatedly through cycles of good and lean times, Hadfield has learned that diversification is key to Spinnaker’s continued health. “All of us in this business are at the mercy of the overall economy, but we’ve managed to become less vulnerable.” The restaurant and pub generates about $4 million in sales per year, he estimates, while revenues from Spinnakers Spirit Merchants Liquor Store should top $3 million in 2006. The guesthouse adds a further $425,000 to the annual bottom line.
The greatest challenge of the last five years, says Hadfield, has been the switch from a more typical pub menu to the kind of sophisticated regional cuisine that has allowed Spinnakers to brand itself a “gastro-pub” in the fashion of the celebrated new wave of U.K. gourmet pubs.
“In the early days we offered oysters, wings, chowder – a basic 10 items that are standard fare now but were pretty unique when bar food meant a bag of chips,” he says with a laugh. By the turn of this decade, however, Hadfield had become fascinated by a Slow Food movement that championed organic produce and the family farm. Returning from one of the first Slow Food conventions in Italy, Hadfield was fired up enough to reinvent his kitchen. An “old-school” executive chef was hired and local growers were approached in a process of demand-and-supply that has developed to the point where 90 percent of the menu now comes from Vancouver Island sources.
“After three months I could not believe how much we were losing,” reveals Hadfield with a grimace. “We’d made a bunch of changes that sent our labor and food costs sky high. And we were pissing off our regulars because the menu was too pricey.” He soon parted ways with the chef, secured a fresh line of credit and tried again. “It took two years of frustration until we got the staffing and price points right.”
Nowadays head chef Ken Hueston steers clear of heavy sauces in favor of fresh, simply prepared dishes like wild salmon fettuccine, jerked pork tenderloin with yam fritters and multiple schools of smoked fish. Chicken wings get their kick from a beer bbq sauce, while the burgers are made from local highland beef cattle raised on spent grains from the brewery.
“We print a large fresh sheet each Wednesday and seasonally change the main menu,” explains sous-chef Alison Ryan, who helped run the kitchen late last year while Hueston took a four-month sabbatical. (“The only way to avoid burn-out in a business that’s this much fun is to take serious breaks,” testifies Hadfield, who works six-day weeks but regularly recharges himself with month-long overseas vacations.) A highlight of Ryan’s day is greeting shaggy organic farmers from nearby Metchosin and the Cowichan Valley. “The characters I meet are fantastic. They’re wonderful people and incredibly passionate about the food they grow.”
Adopting a light, rustic touch with food means that as many as 700 patrons can be served by a relatively small kitchen over the course of a peak summer day. Groups of 10 or more diners are offered large sampler platters assembled at the prep table away from frontline kitchen operations. “There was a time we couldn’t accommodate large groups without hurting our standards,” says Hadfield. “But these paysan-style sharing dishes are low impact on us and a real boon for business.”
While Spinnakers periodically operates with a general manager, the current organization features a trio of front-of-house managers in Andrew McNeil, Mark Wilson and Rob Haynes. “All of us relish the extra responsibility,” says McNeil, who handles human resources for the 95-employee operation. “It requires a lot of communication, but the department heads meet once a week and we stay on the same page.” McNeil’s knowledgeable wait staff are routinely given mini-seminars on seasonal beers and the latest fresh sheets, allowing them to inform customers about the back story behind certain menu favorites – such as the golden-hued mussels, harvested on Cortes Island, B.C. and prepared with garlic, sautéed onion and a dash of Belgian ale brewed in Spinnakers’ own stainless steel vats in 2004.
Hadfield enjoyed exactly that dish for lunch a few hours prior to his YFM interview, and it’s this kind of regional fare that excites the fiftysomething businessman most these days. “I’m at an age where it’s all about quality not quantity,” he says, smiling broadly and taking a modest sip of copper-coloured ambrosia. “There are many horizons ahead of us, but in the end the satisfaction lies in what emerges each and every day from the kitchen and the brewery. Provided we stay sharp and innovative in those areas, everything else will take care of itself.”
Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub & GuestHouses
308 Catherine Street, Victoria, B.C. V9A 3S8
(250) 386-2739
http://www.spinnakers.com/
