Downtown Vancouver is slated to get Canada’s first seafood restaurant that is owned by a shellfish farming company – Fanny Bay Oyster Bar.
The move follows Vancouver Island-based Fanny Bay Oysters’ parent, Shelton, Washington-based Taylor Shellfish Farms, finding success following the same vertically integrated strategy with three seafood restaurants in Seattle.
“Because we’re vertically integrated, we control the supply of the oysters served in the bars,” Taylor Shellfish Farms principal and marketing manager Marcelle Gonzalez told Business in Vancouver.
“That’s unlike any other oyster bar in Seattle and, now, in Vancouver, to be selling our own farmed oysters. I think we’ll be the first tide-to-table restaurant in Canada.”
The company has invested a six-figure sum building a 50-seat space at 762 Cambie Street, near B.C. Place, that will open sometime in June.
The management team has already been hired and Gonzalez said 20 more people will be hired before opening day.
The company has snagged former Rodney’s Oyster House staff, including Issac Martin del Campo, who will be the restaurant manager, and Chris Andraza, who will be the chef.
Phyllis Lam, who was wholesale manager at The Lobster Man will oversee a shellfish market that is attached to the Cambie Street space.
Taylor Shellfish Farms is a relatively large operation, with 550 employees based in the U.S.
It bought Fanny Bay, for an undisclosed amount from Glen Haddon in 2007. The purchase included a processing plant, trademarks, 105 hectares of beach and seabed tenures near Fanny Bay.
Fanny Bay, which is run as a separate company, ramps up to have 60 employees during peak season, not including the restaurant.
