Membership Has Its Rewards
Shea Ritchie grew up in the hospitality industry, helping with his father’s food service company. When he was 12, he was a dishwasher. And it wouldn’t be completely out of the ordinary to find him in the dish pit these days, either.
It’s where he does his best not-thinking.
“It’s therapeutic,” says Ritchie. “It’s mindless work and when you’re done you have an immaculate room of clean dishes.”
But Ritchie, the owner of Chaise Cafe and Lounge on Provencher, and the newly opened Chaise Corydon at 691 Corydon Avenue has had a lot to think about away from scrubbing pots and pans.
The latest Chaise offers double the capacity of the Provencher location, which he opened six-and-a-half years ago. “I was getting bored,” he said. Opening the original Chaise was a way to prove he could put his ideas into action, after working for years with his father. “We are opposites in how we conduct business,” he said, and they would often butt heads.
Now they get along great and regularly spend time together. Ritchie also recently became a father, stopping to soothe his newborn son during our interview, which was on a busy night at the restaurant with a photo shoot of the newest menu offerings.
Ritchie said he is looking to disrupt the typical way restaurants work. For him, this means prix fixe menus of Chaise’s family-style Italian dishes, and offering restaurant memberships. For $25 at dinner, diners receive unlimited salads, apps, pasta and pizza in large sharing portions Ritchie refers to as a tour of the menu.
Chaise also offers restaurant memberships. For $100, you’ll receive 50% off food and drinks for you and a guest for a year. Food-only memberships are $65 a year. Creating regulars this way is more economical than spending marketing dollars to bring in new customers all the time, said Ritchie. “This way, we’re taking care of our regulars and rewarding them.”
Chaise’s menu is a rewarding experience on its own, with dishes including the grilled Caesar salad, made with charred romaine hearts, fried capers, toasted panko and shaved parmesan. Appetizers include risotto balls served with basil tomato sauce and arugula. The Blu-tine is a Italian-inspired poutine with blue cheese alfredo and shaved parmesan over smashed roasted potatoes. Pizzas include a fig and prosciutto, wild mushroom, pesto chicken and a pork-and-honey made with pulled pork, mozzarella, honey and chili flakes.
Photos by Claudine Gervais
