Featured in · Toronto Star
'I thought the world was against me': How this leading Toronto restaurateur navigates the ups and downs of business
Things are going to go wrong, some will be my responsibility, some not, and you just have to accept it.
The Toronto Star sat down with Yannick on the patio of the Carbon Snack Bar for a long-form portrait of bad timing — Splendido opening on September 11, 2001; Nota Bene welcoming guests days before Lehman Brothers collapsed; three restaurants opening months before COVID shut the world down.
Jared Lindzon’s piece is less about misfortune than about what twenty-five years of working through cycles teaches an operator about resilience: the difference between recovering and rebuilding, the humility that only comes from very bad days, and the conviction it takes to keep opening rooms anyway.
I thought the world was against me. Now that I'm a little wiser I know that's just the ups and downs of running a business.
— Yannick Bigourdan, in the Toronto Star
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.
— Yannick Bigourdan, in the Toronto Star
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.
— Yannick Bigourdan, in the Toronto Star