The Heather Hospitality Group (HHG), which has been building eateries in Gastown since opening the Irish Heather in 1997, has launched its latest venture – Rainier Provisions – but it’s not your typical restaurant. Instead, the deli/restaurant is a new concept for HHG, whose establishments include the Judas Goat and Salt Tasting Room. It combines retail with restaurant, with both dine-in and takeout options, offering licensed dining room seating as well as what is promoted as a “great cup of coffee.”
“Try to cover the bases with as many products as you can. You can’t just open a function room and hope you get functions booked,” said Sean Heather, owner of HHG.
He built Rainier Provisions with the ability to morph into what customers want. “With the bright, airy room, lunch is an easy sell. But if lunch doesn’t work, we’ve got retail. If the retail doesn’t work, we’ve got private functions.”
Rainier Provisions opened on February 22 and is filled at lunchtime. Weekends also see plenty of traffic throughout the day. Heather is waiting on the licence for the 30-seat patio and will then expand hours of operation to include dinner service.
The retail side of business has had a slower start than expected.
“We don’t know retail the way we know restaurants. So we’ve hired a retail guy that doesn’t know restaurants, and we’re going to launch it properly,” said Heather.
Partnerships with artisanal producers such as Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Moccia Urbani will also help to garner favour with discerning foodies.
Taking advantage of overlapping tastes, dining concepts and menu items flow between HHG locations: the communal table at Salt Tasting Room evolved into the tasting room at the Irish Heather; the Everything Café offers charcuterie and cheese plates from Salt; and Penn Bakeshop, a block down from Rainier Provisions at Hastings and Carrall, has existed solely to provide baked goods to all the locations, but that may change by end of summer.
“We may open to the public with a limited line of day-olds, for people in the neighbourhood that don’t have a lot of money but like baked goods,” said Heather. “Now, we give a muffin here and a muffin there, but this is our loose idea about a way to give back to the community a little better.”
Heather is driven by the desire to provide to others. The father of five children, ranging in age from six months to nine years, believes his kids are the driving force behind HHG’s constant forward motion.
“I used to be motivated by fear of failing. Now, it’s fear of failing to provide for my family,” said Heather. Working under this pressure requires a strong work ethic. “It’s not a holiday camp, this is hard work.”
He maintains sanity and ability to grow HHG by surrounding himself with a great team, and he calls his wife the first star. In addition to raising their five children, she does payroll and deals with regulatory body requirements such as licensing. Heather himself stays close to his mini-motivators, and drives the three oldest children to school every day.
“They are not a distant memory; they are the only thing.” •
