If you like to dine out in Vancouver, you’ve probably been in one of designer Craig Stanghetta’s restaurants.
Local chefs and mixologists are taking a back seat to Craig, whose design flair is bringing as much attention to dining hotspots like St. Lawrence and Botanist as respective house specialties like the venison tourtière and the Pollenator.
The secret behind his success? Storytelling.
“I don’t think esthetics for esthetics’ sake is what people respond to,” he said. In the recently opened St. Lawrence, framed photos of Chef JC Poirier with his parents, antique plates and old French cookbooks pay homage to the Montreal suburb of Saint-Jérome, Poirier’s hometown. At Botanist, hanging planters, a garden, and limestone and whitewashed wood elements complement the restaurant’s sustainability-first theme.Craig’s formal training isn’t in design, but acting. He worked in theatre in Toronto before moving out to Vancouver to pursue his career, and he credits his stage training for how he approaches his work. From the theatre, he says, he learned to trust his instincts, to listen—and to try to tell a story that is, as he puts it, “emotionally engaging.”
But he has always been interested in design and architecture.
“When I was younger, I would know my favourite modernist or classical architects and designers,” he said. “I collected furniture and curios, and building my own furniture. I didn’t know at the time that you could study commercial interiors.”
His took on his first restaurant design project eight years ago, after becoming dissatisfied with the television work he was getting (one of his last credits, according to IMDb, is simply “addict,” on a 2010 series called Shattered). The project was Chinatown’s Bao Bei.
“I got to know the owner (Tannis Ling), and we had a certain similar sensibility,” he said. “She had met a few designers and had a hard time communicating her ideas, which were more story-based, and about experiences, or memories of her family or meals they’d shared growing up.” Craig and Tannis guessed, correctly, that embodying those experiences and memories—including black-and-white photos of Ling’s family—in the restaurant’s design would resonate with people. Upon opening in 2010, Bao Bei immediately began collecting awards, including Best New Restaurant honours.
Last year, Craig—along with Ste. Marie, the firm he founded in 2013 and named after his hometown of Sault Ste. Marie—helped conceptualize Ling’s Kissa Tanto, a Japanese-Italian restaurant. Meat & Bread, Stackhouse, Pizzeria Farina, and Clough Club are also among his previous clients.
Craig’s philosophy hasn’t changed much since that first design. “Typically, we’re looking for people whom we believe in, in terms of their ability to carry off their idea. A lot of our restaurants are a function of that.”
Besides St. Lawrence, other recent Stanghetta/Ste. Marie projects include Umaluma, a vegan gelato spot with what Craig describes as a Brazilian-modern design on East Pender.
All of this activity doesn’t leave much time for entertaining at home. Anyway, he’s got his own restaurant now for hosting get-togethers—last year, he opened the casual Kingsway eatery Savio Volpe.
Not everyone has the luxury of opening their own hosting centre. But more and more, he believes, people are turning to restaurants as what he calls “ad hoc living rooms.”
“The restaurant world has become the gathering place for families, friends and communities,” Craig said. “I think that’s why we’ve been able to get a toehold. We’re making places where people can gather. At the same time, there’s something fun and exciting about introducing friends and family to restaurants they hold dear, or are interesting from a design standpoint.”
