I’m still trying to process the emotions for this. In November 2012 I left the Consulate of Japan to embark on a journey of wine as a sommelier for the restaurant Q Haute Cuisine. In 2020 just before Canada Day that journey came to an abrupt end. As I sit here and stare at my computer screen, I wonder ‘is this really how it ends?’
Sunday afternoon a few days ago, I went to the restaurant to help out for a wedding. It was for our old manager, and of course there was a lot of familiar faces in attendance. Little would I know it would be my last day there in any sort of ‘working’ capacity. The night itself was not short of drama, and in our wonderful bipolar balancing act we managed to pull off the wedding without a hitch. At 3am we all left without saying goodbye; all in a jumbled mess of being exhausted, frustrated, hungry, and concerned.
The plan was to come in Tuesday (today is Tuesday) and help clean up. I got a message from my colleague with this photo:
I called him, my first words being: “yo, what the fuck?”
In short: the restaurant is closed — finished — done. No warning, no message from the owners, no “thanks for your 8 years of service” come get your things, in fact — if this friend didn’t call me I wonder what the hell would have become of all this mess? It was approximately 2pm, I got out of my casuals and into something that is borderline appropriate to be seen in. Into my civic, not the smart car (because I had a feeling of what was going on) and took off the to restaurant.
30 minutes later I arrived at a gutted building. I was in a panic because I had some very important belongings there — they were all considerately put aside, along with a few other things which weren’t mine but were very special to me. I hugged my friend, and made a few trips down to the car with my things.
The place was a zoo. Who were all these people here taking the plates? The glasses, the frying pans, the ovens? Everything was being torn from the walls and put into moving trucks. Our wine cellar was emptied, I was in shock trying to remember what I had of value there. The manager took me to our cellar and told me to take whatever I wanted. This wasn’t the cellar which had all the amazing ($$$) bottles but there were some treasures in there, things that I will enjoy to reflect on in the future, that’s to be sure.
“Take whatever you can find value in”
It was a day of few words. I drove home, I drove back. This time I loaded up on things from the freezer: beef tenderloins, mussels, butter, things I could find value in. Coffee grinders, driftwood logs, mixing bowls. The restaurant was nearly empty at this point except the perishables. A full Honda civics worth of frozen and dry-stored foods — I can bake bread for days.
I drove home, I drove back. This time wasn’t for me. I was one of the lucky ones who had any idea what was going on. I called a colleague and asked what she kept at work and took her belongings to my house.
Sigh.. I don’t even have a freezer capable of storing all the food I took. I dropped some off at my dads and told him about the situation. Of course he had been there in his life — back in 1984. We had a long talk over a bottle of wine, a symbolic bottle that a winemaker tasted me on in the restaurant years before. Vina Falernia Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva, a wine made in the middle of goddamn nowhere in Chile — a place where it shouldn’t even be possible to make wine. Among the other topics, covid-19 this and that, I returned home. Here I am.
What a day. Manny, I am blessed to have you as my friend. COVID19 has killed both my jobs, but I am standing here (for now) in good health. My promise to the owner was never broken (I never quit Q). As someone who always had leaving at the back of my mind, honestly this is the best ending to the story which could have happened.
What’s next? In the coming days I’ll call all of the guests whom are important to me, to tell them our mutual loved restaurant is gone. Do I want to stay in the restaurant world? Do I have a choice? Should I start my own thing? Can succeed in doing that? I think before anything I should re-evaluate my life goals. My family has been on the back burner for 8 years (isn’t that fucked up to say?) — maybe it’s about time I get my shit together and start to participate at home.
So many stories to tell, so many fundamental changes in my life philosophy, so many wonderful friends I’ve made along the way. You really should hear some of these things — you’ll never believe them! But those are stories for another day~
Sayonara, Q
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