In business as in life, timing is everything.
Yannick Bigourdan, one of Toronto’s most influential restaurateurs, seems to have a knack for bad timing — despite his obvious success.
His first restaurant, Splendido, opened on Sept. 11, 2001.
His second, Nota Bene, welcomed guests just days before the collapse of Lehman Brothers heralded in the financial meltdown of 2008.
And then there’s COVID. Just months before the pandemic shut down the world, he opened three restaurants.
More recently, his first French dining restaurant Lucie, as well as The Social Catering & Co., both launched in 2023 just as inflation and rising interest rates raised their ugly heads.
“I thought the world was against me,” says the 51-year-old. “Now that I’m a little wiser I know that’s just the ups and downs of running a business.”
Bigourdan grew up in an apartment above a small deli his parents owned in Bagnères-de-Luchon, a French ski resort town near the Spanish border.
While he was eager to follow in the footsteps of his parents, grandfather and great-grandfather, his culinary dreams were too big for the tiny town.
After two years working in hospitality in Spain, Ireland and Germany, Bigourdan enrolled at the École hôtelière de Lausanne, a prestigious hospitality management school in Switzerland.
After graduation he landed a job at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons resort in Beverly Hills. Two years later, he took a promotion along with a transfer to the brand’s Yorkville location.
Bigourdan admits that he wouldn’t have stayed long in Toronto had he not met his future wife — though he did fall for the city, too.
“When I first arrived people still had that feeling that we were not good enough,” he says. “I’ve seen the city become mature.”
As the restaurateur behind some of the city’s most iconic establishments — Carbon Bar, The Berczy Tavern, Amano Trattoria, Michelin-recommended Lucie — Bigourdan has been more than a passive observer of Toronto’s maturation.
This summer, Yannick unveiled his latest landmark, taking over an event space at the corner of King and Spadina — Block 460 — attached to the Carbon Snack Bar, a new street-level grab-and-go shop offering coffee, salads, sandwiches, Craig’s Cookies, and Carbon Bar classics.
True to form, that venture kicked off just as U.S. tariffs went into effect.
The Star sat down with Bigourdan on the patio of the Carbon Snack Bar to chat about his latest venture, the maturity of Toronto’s culinary scene, and how hard work can overcome bad timing.
Did you always plan to go into the family business?
Not until I was 14 or 15 and saw a documentary on a very fancy hotel school in Switzerland called Lausanne. They showed managers of some of the best hotels and restaurants in the world saying it all started at Lausanne, and that’s where I saw myself.
When I looked into applying, they recommended working in the industry first, so after high school I spent two years travelling Germany, Ireland and Spain to learn the language, and work in hospitality.
I ended up getting in, and it was an incredible experience.
How did you end up in Los Angeles?
About four or five months before graduation in 1997, I went to Los Angeles for a quick retreat, and I brought copies of my resumés and a suit.
I went to the Four Seasons and introduced myself at the front desk and said I wanted to talk to somebody about a job. They said “we’re not seeing anybody today,” but I said I had travelled from Switzerland and was leaving tomorrow, so they introduced me to the general manager.
It turns out the general manager also graduated from Lausanne, and he offered me a job.
What was it like serving Hollywood royalty?
I was there for three years and ended up becoming the restaurant manager of the dining room, which is now a Wolfgang Puck restaurant. Every Friday and Saturday they had ballroom dancing, and all the old Hollywood celebrities showed up.
I served Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Larry King, Nancy Reagan, and many more. I had to learn the names of American athletes. One time Terry Bradshaw came and asked for a table, and I said he needed a reservation. I had no idea who he was.
Why did you relocate to Toronto?
They offered me a promotion in Toronto, and when they said “Canada” I thought of the Rocky Mountains, which reminded me of home.
I also thought it would be good for my career to be close to the head office. I really didn’t do any research, I just said “when do I leave?” I tend to get excited and make big decisions a little too fast.
Were you disappointed not to see mountains?
I hated my first year in Toronto. It took me a while to understand the culture and the things that make Canada wonderful. Then I fell in love with my now-wife Kris and started to understand and appreciate Canadians, and the city grew on me.
Did you always want to start your own restaurant?
I come from a very entrepreneurial family, and when entrepreneurship is in your DNA, it’s hard to work for other people.
Four Seasons was the greatest company to start a career in hospitality, but eventually you start to think about how you might do things differently. Then I got the opportunity to take over a restaurant called Splendido with chef David Lee.
I left a great job, put all my savings into the restaurant, then borrowed even more, went through months of renovations, and then finally opened — on Sept. 11, 2001.
Of course, many people lost their lives that day, and the world was never the same. That was difficult personally, and even more complicated as a 26-year-old who just opened their first business. Three years later, we were winning awards and considered one of the best in Canada.
Then I opened Nota Bene in 2008, just a few months before the financial crisis. It seems like every time I open a restaurant, something terrible happens in the world.
How do you overcome that feeling?
That’s just the reality of running a business. You have some very good days and some very bad days. Things happen beyond your control, and you just have to deal with it.
In the end, Nota Bene was a huge success because of the financial crisis. We had a great space in the middle of the city, elegant decor, but it was priced very sensibly. So, in a world where people were spending less money, Notta Bene turned out to be a winning formula.
As a French native living in Canada, why start a Southern-style barbecue restaurant?
The Chairman of Allied Properties, Michael Emory, was having lunch at Nota Bene one day and asked me if I had seen their space at 99 Queen East. It was a beautiful building with lots of history, and we started dreaming about what we could do there.
At the time barbecue was starting to intrigue a lot of chefs. There was lots of talk about what was going on in Texas, so we travelled down there and got inspired. Again, I tend to make decisions fast, which has come back to bite me a few times, but I felt Toronto was underserved in terms of barbecue.
How did all your restaurants survive COVID?
We had opened three restaurants within three months before COVID started, and we had to temporarily close all of them and let go of most of our staff. That was hard.
I downgraded my house a few times to refinance my restaurants. At first, I was very bitter, but eventually I accepted it.
How did you move on?
I just woke up one morning and decided that I had to rebuild my business and my confidence, because both were very low. At that point everything I worked on was successful, and I had to work very hard to prove to myself that I could be successful again.
Two years ago, I opened Lucie, I’ve launched a catering company The Social Catering, I’ve launched an e-commerce company called Shop the Carbon Bar, and of course, I opened this space, the Carbon Snack Bar and event space.
Lucie was named after my grandmother who took care of me when my parents were working. She died during COVID, and I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.
It was my return to the fine dining scene, and it was the most emotionally, financially and personally challenging experience of my life. The day it opened I cried the whole way home.
But the world didn’t collapse?
Not in the same way as before, but I didn’t have any partners, I put all my own money into it, and there were suddenly high interest rates and inflation and now tariffs, so just a few more curveballs.
Why expand the Carbon Bar brand at this location?
I had always dreamed about doing a pop-up called The Carbon Snack Bar, so when we got this location, I looked at the retail side and it just made sense.
Does Toronto have its own culinary identity?
Toronto is an important culinary city because of its diverse talent; whether they have created a distinct Toronto style I’m not sure, but Toronto is relatively young in its culinary life, and already we are known for that talent.
Would you do it all over again, despite the challenges?
I would, I would just tell myself that things are going to go wrong, some will be my responsibility, some not, and you just have to accept it.
I try to teach the same to my kids, but it’s not something you can be told. You must go through it yourself and be humbled by those very bad days.
