After spending years toiling in other people's kitchens, chef Erik Smith (pictured) says his eczema was at its worst.
He taped socks to his hands before going to sleep in order to prevent what he called "psychosis fits" of scratching. (Eczema causes skin irritation and extreme itching.)
To keep working, he dropped in at a wound care centre twice a week to have his hands and feet wrapped. Hoping to relieve his stress-based condition, Smith did something unorthodo he opened a restaurant.
"I needed something else in my life. With a little love, money, and a little help from a lot of places, S'wich took shape," he says.
S'wich Café is a North Vancouver lunchtime hub offering a variety of $8 sandwiches with ingredients like zucchini, goat cheese, hickory-smoked mayo, and cranberry orange confit. "The day I turned the key over was the day my skin started getting better," Smith says.
Opening a restaurant is a risky proposition in the best of times, something Smith knows well.
"The classic formula: how do you make a small fortune in the restaurant business?
You start with a large fortune," he says, laughing.
The decision to open a modest Queensbury Avenue eatery has served Smith well. "I found my groove, I found my niche, and I found exactly where I need to be in my life," he says.
Starting his culinary career as a teenager in Earl's dish pit, Smith quickly changed his career plan. "I used to want to be a veterinarian," he says. "I never knew that cooking was my calling."
That calling has taken him to Mexico and the Okanagan, where he honed his taste for fresh fruit and vegetables. Many of the ingredients at S'wich arrive from Loutet Farm, an edible garden project just off Highway 1.
As a restaurateur, one of Smith's innovations is offering salads in mason jars.
"No such thing as Styrofoam in my café," he says. The price of the salad includes a $1 deposit that's refunded when the jar is returned. "Remember you saw it here first because I just have a feeling it's one of those things that's going to catch on," he says.
As his business has increased, Smith has had to step away from his other passion: rodeo.
"I've wrecked myself a few times, that's kind of why I'm sort of tapering off here.
I didn't really go hard this year because I've sort of broken into catering," he says. "I'm not going to go to a rodeo the week before somebody's wedding in case I break my arm. I've decided to make decisions that are best for the company and the business rather than my own personal little adrenalin rush."
S'wich has been open for more than a year, something Smith attributes to his neighbourhood.
"I came in there on a severely limited budget with almost no operating capital," he says, noting customers from the neighbourhood helped him build a sign and frame it, and an electrician helped him rig up 220 power so he could install his panini press.
"It's very much the café that Queensbury built."
