When it comes to the food and drink business, Travis Talbot has done it all in a lot of spots all over North America.
He grew up in Lethbridge, where he was often shipped out to his grandfather’s farm to keep him out of trouble, before moving to Calgary during his high school years. Now, after two stints in Boston, he’s returned to the Greater Vancouver area, where he previously worked in many capacities including owning a bar and running the Commodore Ballroom, to be the director of food and beverage for Gateway Casinos.
The Burnaby-based company owns 26 properties in B.C., Alberta and Northern Ontario including the Grand Villa Casino in Burnaby and Starlight Casino in New Westminster. Grant Granger interviewed him at Grand Villa’s Personas restaurant, one of more than 60 outlets he’s responsible for.
NOW: By the sounds of it, the hospitality industry was in your DNA right from the start.
Talbot: I was working in a dish pit by the age of nine, working for my mom. I wouldn’t even say working, it was free labour back in the day. I actually spent all of my time either on the farms, or if I was in the city, even Lethbridge was considered a city, it was in the restaurants, I was working from the age of nine on. I got my first paycheque around the age of 14.
NOW: Did you fall in love with the business then, or did it take a while to grow on you?
Talbot: When you’re a kid, especially when your parents are telling you to do something, it’s always forced. But I definitely always had a passion for working with people. I always liked the energy of the hospitality scene. Even if it was a greasy spoon diner, just to see all those people coming in every day, day-in and day-out, the different stories, watching people evolve and grow up. No two days were ever alike. Ever, ever, ever. I think I was always attracted to it. I may not have been able to articulate it at a young age, but I think by the time I was a teenager and I was bartending underage at a night club behind my high school, I had definitely found it was something I wanted to do and it was something I was passionate about.
NOW: How did you get away with that (underage bartending)?
Talbot: It’s actually kind of funny. I was waitering at a nightclub (in Lethbridge) called Who’s on Third? But the nightclub also had a restaurant side. It was an old McGavin’s Bakery, and they converted it into a nightclub, a restaurant and a bistro. I started in the bistro mopping floors, and one day got into waitering because they were short staffed and you were allowed to serve (alcohol). The manager at the time assumed I was old enough to serve, so one day he was short a bartender and he asked, ‘Do you know what you’re doing?’ ‘Of course. How hard can it be?’ The next thing you know, I’m spending the next two years bartending underage.
NOW: So at what point did you fall in love with it?
Talbot: It was while I was working on Electric Avenue, the famous or infamous, depending on which way you looked at it, Electric Avenue in Calgary. I was going to university studying veterinary medicine, that’s what the game plan was because growing up on the farm that was the intent. So I was going to university working nights in the clubs, I bounced at one club, I was a bartender at one club. I was working in a kitchen at another venue, but all on the Avenue. It was pretty wild stuff. I’d go to school every day completely burned out, a complete disaster failing all my classes. I had a mentor at the time who basically said, "What are you doing? There’s a career here, and not just a job. This is what you excel at but you’re burning yourself out. You’ve got to make a choice." He kind of said, "Listen, if you want to come into hospitality we’ll teach you what it is." At the time, it was the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll world.
NOW: Those were pretty heady days in Calgary.
Talbot: Those were insane days. I was there working underage during the Olympics on Electric Avenue. Talk about energy. That was an electrifying experience, I got to work in all the best venues. The city was absolutely on fire. I was going to school, working under this mentor, and I was burning the candles at every end. I more or less decided to make the leap of faith that hospitality was where I wanted to go. I didn’t have any qualms about it. Mind you, I thought it was all going to be a rock star show for the rest of my life. But then working under a couple of guys, thank God, I got to see the business side of it.
NOW: Was there a time you realized this was it, this was me?
Talbot: We used to joke that throughout your career that if you were labelled a lifer, guys that stay behind bars for the rest of your lives. You go through some ups and downs along the way, especially when this is an industry that so many of the people you work with and you’re working to develop are transient. Or it’s a stepping stone to other careers, especially with students, single parents.
So you watch people evolve, you watch them come in, come out (of the business) and you’re constantly questioning yourself whether it’s a career or not. We used to joke around it was the hostility business, not necessarily the hospitality business. So there were many times, especially working in night clubs, you’re exposed to the darker side of life. It can get quite colourful, chaotic and it’s an intense environment and it can wear you down.
A couple of times I thought about leaving, and one time I actually did and I went to be a professional cowboy. I did bull riding and rodeo clowning for about 18 months, and I toured around with my dad who’s a livestock contractor. He provides bulls for rodeos. I figured out after some new teeth, and some joint issues that I’ll be dealing with the rest of my life, that wasn’t actually my calling.
NOW: So you weren’t the next Cody Snyder (top ranked bull rider from Medicine Hat in the 1980s).
Talbot: Oh, no. I wasn’t even picking up his tack.
NOW: You got dumped one too many times by a bull?
Talbot: Getting dumped is OK. It’s when they chase you down and bowl you over, or getting banged up in the chutes. That’s where I got most of my injuries. The (1988) Olympics was when I realized this was definitely what I wanted to do. I didn’t really know what and where. I did everything from being doorman to working in the kitchen to managing to operations and audits. It took me a lot of years what I was actually good at and what I had to contribute. Then when I got sick of the business a few times and decided to try something else then I realized it wasn’t for me on the other side. Since that rodeo stint, I’ve had no qualms at all, no reservations, no desire to do anything else than what I’m doing.
NOW: You’ve done every job in the business so you must know what it’s like for every person that works for you.
Talbot: Hopefully, that’s one of the reasons why I have something to contribute and why I’m employed. You should never be able to tell someone what to do unless you can do it alongside them or have been in those shoes. Empathy is a big part of being a good leader and a good manager in this business. One of the exciting things of coming to Gateway is I’m learning gaming, which is a whole other side of hospitality. It’s always nice to know you don’t know everything, and there’s still a learning process going on.
NOW: Did your mother’s (cancer) give you another perspective of being in the hospitality business?
Tablot: Not immediately when she was going through that struggle. We had a bunch of bedside chats. I would usually show up after driving from Calgary to Lethbridge and show up at her bedside a little bit banged up, a little worse for wear. My Chris Farley days, as my mom used to refer to them, or my Belushi days. We definitely had some heart-to-heart talks, and she had some sage insights. She never considered herself a server, she never considered herself a manager. She always considered herself a kind of community hub. She was the community counsellor. In the restaurants, bars and pubs, you’re catering to a community of all walks of life.
So her biggest thing that she always tried to impart was you’re there to be of service to people. You’re not in the servitude game, you’re there to be of service. And service can mean anything from lending an ear, to lending the last dollar in your pocket to just being available to provide food, beverage and entertainment. It took me another four, five, almost seven years before that actually resonated after she had passed on.
NOW: It took a long time to sink in?
Talbot: It took a while for me to get my act together, to clean up what I was doing. I was living the rock-n-roll lifestyle and it took a while to break out of that mould, taking inventory, taking stock of what I was doing in this industry, what do I have to offer, is this the right thing for me? I started hearing echoes in my mom’s voice.
NOW: How did you end up in Boston? It sounds like quite the circuitous route.
Talbot: It went all over North America. There was no real rhyme or reason. Originally I ended up in Boston when I was working here in town (Vancouver) with the Gibsons Hospitality Group. Roger, who was one of my mentors, owned Richard’s on Richards. His partner was part of Puccini’s back in the days. They started the Shark Club, the Georgia Street Bar and Grill. We opened up a bunch of properties called the Foggy Dews. Through the Foggy Dews I ended up teaching other operators throughout North America how to run Irish pubs. Talk about irony. There I am in New York giving a class on how to run an Irish pub, and two brothers whose family lineage was 100 per cent Irish in Boston, they liked what I had to say. The family had been running bars and pubs in Boston for 45, 50 years and they were looking for a fresh perspective.
So at the time, I was between Gibsons and opening my own club on Granville Street called Crushed Champagne Lounge. Me and a guy from the Roxy had moved over and did that project and realized quickly it couldn’t feed both of us and hospitality wasn’t as good as I thought it was. These guys (in Boston) made me an offer and said, ‘Hey come to Boston. We have a number of pubs in our portfolio and we’re looking to open a whole bunch more and we’d like someone to come in with some fresh eyes.’ It was really fortuitous and somewhat ironic because one of the venues they have is the Black Rose in Boston which is iconic. So there’s a kid from Lethbridge, Alberta in Boston working for an iconic family with an iconic brand telling them how to run Irish pubs.
That was the first stint. The second was after the (2010 Olympics in Vancouver). I decided, once again going back to what my mom (said) and some her wishes for me and some of the lessons I was supposed to learn about the business … Right after the Olympics I decided I was going to do some good and make my mom proud, and at the time I was looking at things like Habitat for Humanity for a couple of weeks, maybe working at a homeless shelter on the weekend, and my friends and colleagues laughed and said I’d never be able to leave the rock star kind of world. So I went all in. I gave everything I owned to charities. I gave up a real lucrative job at the time with a real good employer which is really hard to find. He gave me a lot of latitude and a lot of support. I decided I was going to go on the road with a backpack and a laptop for social media. The plan was to go for three or four months, but I had nothing to come back to. I was all in, and that turned out being almost six or seven years on the road. And as part of that I ended up back in Boston. I did a lot of charity work there.
NOW: What was Boston Bites Back, and how hard was it to feed 5,000 people to a fancy dinner (at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox)?
Talbot: Boston Bites Back was the brainchild of Ming Tsai and Ken Oringer, both Iron Chefs who were celebrities with well-established connections in the community. We were working with them building a restaurant for Ming at the time when the (2013 Boston Marathon) bombing happened. I was actually in the hospital (as a result) of my rodeo days. I was going through those issues with joints and so forth. Those guys came together and said this is hospitality and part of hospitality is caring and nurturing and being part of your community and reciprocating.
We had 21 days from the day of the (they came up with the idea) to the day Ming and Ken wanted to host this function. We reached out to everybody in the hospitality industry. We ended up securing 100 of the top chefs in the city. We ended up securing all the product through donation by the vendors. We put together social media, a website. We secured tens of thousands of dollars worth of in-kind gifts for online auction and then we took over Fenway. It wasn’t just the grass. We took over every kiosk, every hallway. We took over the VIP, the owners suites. Within 21 days, from day of concept to the day we were feeding 5,000 people.
I ended up attending the event on crutches with my own nursing team. It was an amazing event. An unbelievable amount of participation from chefs in the hospitality business. No one said no. They said, ‘What do you need?’ You’ve got to think when you’ve got 100 chefs and 100 restaurateurs together you would think ego management would be challenging. It was one of the most incredible events I’ve ever been a part of, where everyone was there to make a difference and to roll up their sleeves and to give back.
NOW: How much money did you end up raising?
Talbot: When everything was said and done between the online auction, the silent auction afterward, I think it was close to $940,000. (He pointed out there were no costs because everything was donated, including Fenway, and free tickets were handed out to first responders.).
NOW: Besides exhaustion, how did it feel when it was over?
Talbot: I felt good. Exhaustion didn’t hit until a couple of days later. That’s what I like about hospitality, and resonated with what my mom tried to drill, is if you’re giving it’s amazing how much gas you’ve got in the tank. The biggest thing was trying to organize an event of that magnitude in 21 days. But the rest of it, I’d do it again in a second.
NOW: Why, after making such a mark on Boston’s cuisine scene, would you come back here?
Talbot: Boston is an amazing city. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, all being in such close proximity. But at the end of the day I’m still a bit of a country boy, and you get homesick. Boston was phenomenal, I can’t say a bad thing about it. I go back frequently, as much as I can. But there was some amazing things available to me here with my friend Rob (Gateway senior vice president operations Robert Ward) with an aspect of hospitality I hadn’t been involved with before with the gaming. I lived in Vegas for a while when I was doing my charity – my Michael Landon moment as my dad calls it. But Vancouver and Alberta I have considered home and it was time to come home. There were some opportunities I couldn’t turn down.
NOW: So what opportunity does this offer to you?
Talbot: Challenge wise, it’s a big organization. It’s a multi-billion dollar company. There’s a lot of moving parts. We have 26 properties across Canada, 60-plus outlets with different concepts within those outlets. The fact we’re creating new concepts. Nothing’s a cookie cutter. Every single outlet we open has a different design, has a different feel, has a different evolution. Every Match (Restaurant) we open up is in a different community, and one of Match’s core pillars is to be a community outlet. Each one is challenging in itself. And then the amount of growth that we have, we’ve doubled in size in one year and there’s still anticipated growth on the horizon. Putting together teams. I’ve been on the road for seven years and to just walk in off the street and think you’re going to have a commanding presence is pretty arrogant. It takes time to learn the landscape, to learn the people more than anything, and at the same time trying to drive the business forward that you’re expected to from your superiors.
NOW: What direction are you looking for the company as a whole and the properties across the country, but also specifically (Grand Villa) and Starlight?
Talbot: It’s the mandate from by bosses that we want to be the biggest and the best, and being the best there’s a lot to that part. You can get fairly large fairly quick, but to still be considered to be the best or the industry leader or industry innovator, that’s a huge undertaking to absorb. The Grand Villa does a really good job of being a category leader in entertainment, gaming, definitely with food and beverage as it’s evolved over the last couple of years. Starlight, we’re headed in the same direction. With Starlight, it’s such a great offer that it’s become its own brand and we’re looking to replicate that brand in multiple markets. That’s a challenge too, to be confident in your offering to say, "OK, we’re going to replicate this" without being arrogant about it. But we would be naive to say, "Are we doing this to just replicate this or are we doing this because it resonates with our audience?"
We’re trying to be way more dynamic. An offering that appeals to a larger audience than just the gamers. Obviously we have some of the best gaming in the province, and we’re recognized for that, but now we’re trying to shift the paradigm to where we’re recognized for our (food and beverage) offerings, where we’re recognized for the talent we’re bringing into the organization that is seeking us out to join the organization. That it’s more entertainment. It’s an all encompassing entertainment package, and not just coming for one element of anything … It’s almost that Vegas paradigm.
For us, the focus is on eater-tainment and fine dining. You can literally come in here for lunch and not leave here until four in the morning because we’ve got something to keep you entertained with multiple stimulus.
NOW: Why the switch of Ebo to Atlas (Steak and Seafood) at this location?
Talbot. It was time. Ebo was a great product. It had a solid run. It definitely had a loyal following. But Atlas is our flagship brand that we’ve been working on for three years. It’s coming into its maturity, and we think the steak and seafood option, especially here on the west coast and in Alberta, is definitely attractive to the market place. It was time for a fresh outlook and a fresh venue. Atlas is definitely our flagship. That’s one of our brands that we’re going to be working on, constantly elevating where it’s going too. And for the properties Atlas is going into we’re finding a bit of a market place that is a bit more niche, a bit more affluent and discerning about what they’re looking for in a dining experience. Atlas is no able to service that.
There are different personas, so to speak, different energy levels that carry to different segments of the audience, Starlight’s a little more casual, a little more fun. Grand Villa’s a bit more of the refined, a bit more elevated. It has a clientele coming out that’s looking for a bit of a different experience. They’re different offerings all together, and they cater to different audiences.
NOW: How have you tried to implement that community consciousness in to what you do here? Do you have any plans for Burnaby and New Westminster.
Talbot: One of the things that I find amazing about Gateway is anybody in any single one of our properties can walk up to any of our (upper management) and say ‘Hey, I have an idea’ … and there’s an immediate response. It doesn’t have to go through a committee, it doesn’t have to go through an anonymous email box. It’s a sense of approachability that’s very unique. I’m trying to be a part of fostering that, making sure everyone at Gateway have got that connection to the place where they work. I would say that’s first and foremost because it’s that whole deal where community starts at home, charity starts at home. You see it in this organization.
Gateway has a whole, we have Gateway Gives. There’s a charitable arm even above and beyond what we do with (B.C. Lottery Commission) and (Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission). A lot of the revenue, a lot of the profits go back into community, goes into education, into local communities and infrastructure. All the things required of us being managed by BCLC, AGLC, the Ontario board, But we also have Gateway Gives where we have dozens and dozens and dozens of grassroots, spontaneous driven by (local employees) … All the sites got together to say ‘who do we think is making a difference in our community and how can we support them in their efforts?’ That’s pretty unique. I’ve traveled far and wide and to have an organization willing to do that and leave it to the front line staff is (different). I want to be part of those initiatives and fostering that kind of staff who want to participate in those kind of things.
NOW: Are you still involved in class+hospitality (a consulting business that published a digital magazine for the hospitality industry)?
Talbot: That’s a bit of a side hustle as they say. I’m still working on that. I’ve got a couple of partners. We shut it down, but we want to bring it up again because one of the things we want to do with the network of people that we have involved we want to do consulting pro bono to charities. The seven years I was on the road I was doing those things, but now I think I’ve got enough of a track record with Boston Bites Back, and enough exposure from organizations like Gateway that does things correctly and big business type of models, is our little group now wants to, in addition to the online magazine and online curation of social media, to say, ‘what can we do to give back?’ We’re looking at restarting it looking at charity consulting as part of what we do.
Those seven years on the road, I never got paid once. Not a good model. It was essentially being homeless for seven years. When we fire that up again it will be consulting, brand, event management, event development. All of those things that we’re all good at, but combine and almost be a kind of a SWAT team to support different initiatives at no cost.
NOW: Who, or what, is T-Bone Talbot?
Talbot: It’s not a what, it’s me. It’s going back to my cowboy days. I got that nickname from my grandfather, who was a rodeo star. He was a Calgary Stampede cowboy, he did rodeos all over the place. He did everything from chuckwagon races to all the rough stock events. He was a bit of a Clint Eastwood character. I had really bad teeth growing up, and he used to joke saying ‘That kid could eat a T-Bone off of both sides at the same time.’ And of course all of my siblings and family thought that was hilarious and it stuck. It’s a little bit of child abuse, to some extent, but it’s my grandfather making fun of me. When I got into hospitality everyone assumed (hospitality) was the tie in, but it went back to the farm and being made fun of.
NOW: Just to clarify, you did work in the kitchen?
Talbot: Yes. If you actually google T-Bone Talbot, it goes back to Boston where I did a lot of TV appearances, a lot of events, a lot of consulting in the kitchens. One of the reasons I think I’ve got a lot to contribute in the role I’m in, you talk about doing every role, I’ve done it from busboy, to being in the kitchen, being behind the bar, to the front door to now that stage in my career when I’m involved in the marketing side and business development side.
