3 'M' Companies: Mangia e Bevi, The Majestic, Marrakesh

3 'M' COMPANIES - Mangia e Bevi, Majestic, Marrakesh

There has been something like 100 new restaurants that have opened in Vancouver in the last several months, and yet they can by sorted into two basic categories.

There are the ones that roll out with much fanfare and all the business-like precision of a corporate expansion plan (“interior design by…, menu consultation by …, financing by …, public relations by ...�), and then there is the other type, the kind that would appear to have no other reason for coming into existence other than it has been the long cherished dream of a least one person that it should do so.

The later would seem to be the case for the soon to be opened Mangia e Bevi at 2222 Marine Drive in West Vancouver. It’s the project of Antonio Sauro and Chef Robert Parrott (both alumni of the North Shore’s popular Gusto restaurant) plus Sauro’s brother-in-law, Doug Grisdale. Sauro and Parrott have been in the business a long time. Make that 26 years for Sauro and over twenty for Parrott, yet in all that time they have toiled for someone else. This project will be the first time they have ventured out on their own as restaurant owners and Sauro’s family back in Abruzzo couldn’t be more proud. In the old country, the acquisition of one’s own restaurant is something understood to be a significant milestone of achievement in the life passage of a man.

Sauro is determined to keep that personal, heartfelt quality self-evident in all things at Mangia e Bevi, from the restaurant’s simple and traditional cuisine of pasta and seafood; to its partially open kitchen and warm, cherry wood and mustard yellow colour palate in the dining room. It is also expressed in the spirit of its name, which means �eating and drinking in a joyous, contented manner�. Even the logo of the name will be underlined in red, which as Sauro explains, represents “passion.�

The 20-employee, 100-seat restaurant (with a 60-seat patio facing Marine Drive) is due to open for businesses any day now, at first only for dinner and then later for lunch as the weather warms up. For clientele, Sauro and Parrott expect to draw on the West Vancouver customer base they have come to know personally from their years working on the North Shore. As a neighbourhood restaurant, it will be in the company of other local family-owned favourites such as La Regalade (French), Zen (Japanese), and down the street, maybe even another Italian restaurant that Chef Gianni Picchi seems to be inching closer towards completion.


Another neighbourhood restaurant in the final stages, although of a different mood entirely, is the Majestic in Davie Village. It’s a brand new “progressive�, “entertainment-driven�, resto-lounge on Davie Street that will cater to a particular mix from the area's gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender community (the GLBT). However, in billing themselves as “straight friendly� they want it also noted that they will warmly welcome guests of that other persuasion.


Last but not least, look for more news soon on Marrakesh, the new Moroccan restaurant in Gastown.