OACs about WILD (Occasionally Asserted Comments)

We get questions & comments, every so often, about what we do & why we do it... we figured we'd share them - and our thoughts/responses/reactions to them. This is one way that we are kept on our toes, and also often reassured that we're doing ok.

"It's nice that you make everyone feel like they count."

This was one of the nicest comments we've ever received, and it truly warmed our collective heart. This is EXACTLY what we hope and try to achieve every day... some days it's really hard, some days it's easy... but we've both been in the category of feeling like we "don't count" at some point in our lives... different lifestyle choices that might have been a bit off the "mainstream," living well below the poverty level, not having university degrees, being single parents, there are all kinds of reasons people get treated like they don't count... and we don't want that to happen here.

"I love that you are offering a venue for local musicians."

SO DO WE!! It's always been part of our plan to be a venu for local music, and we love the way that has evolved. It's taken over a year to really become "known" as a venue, and we have Bonar Harris to thank for all that hard, dogged, determined work to make it happen. He has tirelessly coordinated our great lineups of music from the beginning, and we look forward to a long and happy relationship in that vein. We thank all the musicians, too... some of whom showed up in the early days to empty houses, or just a couple people and still played for the love of it. And the families & friends of the musicians, who came to hear them, supported them and us, and helped to build the buzz... we can't do what we do without the support of the community, and the music community is a very big part of why we do what we do.

"Why is there a cover charge for music? "

Some shows are "pay what you can" - throw what makes sense to you in the love bucket to show your appreciation.

Name acts are usually $10, big names are more (automatically added to your bill). Why? Because otherwise we'd be forced to put up menu prices to accommodate paying bands... and our theory is that you'd rather know where your money is going. 100% of door proceeds go to what's happening on stage. If we put up menu prices, they'd be up whether there was entertainment or not... and that doesn't seem fair.

If you don't want to pay the cover, we're not going to force you... we'll just let karma do what it does :D you don't work for free, and neither should the musicians... more and more often, our acts are coming from off-coast, so they have travel expenses to manage, too. On top of your contribution, the bands get fed & watered, and housed. We believe that $10 for 2-3 hours of quality live music is really pretty cheap entertainment. There is a likelihood, as well, that we'll start bringing in bigger names, which will come with a higher price.

But where else can you be so intimately involved with high-calibre musicians AND have a glass of wine & a plate of pasta for less than $35/person???

"Hands down, your place is the best to grab a wonderful lunch on the coast. Keep doing what you're doing! Let's show Gibsons how good food CAN taste! "

And we didn't even PAY this person! We're pleased to say, we hear this one a lot.

"You may want to consider a re-do on the decor. It's the ONLY reason I don't recommend this place to others, and the only reason I don't go to your Bistro more often. I agree with others that the food is great, the 'people atmosphere' is great, however it's just that the surroundings are not in keeping with everything else that you've achieved. I really want your business to succeed, and I believe you are missing out on an entire group of people like myself due to the 'look' of your place, and I think that is sad. Please consider a decor makeover. "

Hm... this one, I have to say, gave us some trouble. This was the first time anyone had commented negatively about our decor. Needless to say, we didn't rush out and buy grey paint, but it did give us pause to think about it. We won't be doing a general makeover, tho we are always working on finishing touches and upgrades/evolutions as we can afford the time & money to do so. We weren't really sure what was meant by "the surroundings are not in keeping with everything else you've achieved" - we've achieved (in our humble opinion) a fun, cheerful, friendly place to be that's affordable & relaxed, and we THINK that's almost exactly what our decor suggests. Got comments about that? We'd love to hear...

"In this day of shopping local you should be using coffee that is being roasted locally by one of the three on the Sunshine Coast. Strait Coffee, Twentyman or Just-a-cuppa."

Here's why we use Milano coffee...
a) it's excellent quality & flavour
b) nobody else on the sunshine coast serves it
c) it's roasted in vancouver(the day it's shipped to us), so we don't feel it's out of our "local" area, and they are a family-run business that support small-estate, fairly traded coffee growers in developing countries, working directly with growers
d) just-a-cuppa is now black bean roasting company, and they don't have a lot of experience yet, we prefer to ensure that the coffee we serve is consistent. our roasters have been doing it for a long, long time.
e) strait coffee is a bit ubiquitous here on the coast (which does not in any way suggest they are of lesser quality)... variety is the spice of life, as they say. we are proud to serve Milano coffee and bring a bit of european (and commercial drive) flavour to the coffee offerings of the coast
f) i was not aware of Twentyman coffee.. I believe I have seen teas by them, but we are migrating our teas over to Tiny Tea Company, who are also a local company.

"The food and coffee is great! creative and tasty! but you guys need to hide the kitchen in a more creative way. "

Now, this one, we have to admit, is one that is on our mind a lot... even long before someone commented on it. It's been a big challenge for us, as we bought this place with that huge open kitchen, and since we don't have a sugar daddy, we didn't have the budget to completely renovate. We hope we've come up with a workable solution that will be implemented before we start full time dinners. We are not going to hide/close the kitchen completely, because we find people really like to be able to communicate with the kitchen directly, but we are going to hide some of it, and put up some "blinds" (like hunters use) to visually tidy up the view and cut down the sound transfer. We keep a busy, but ultimately clean, kitchen... sometimes it does get chaotic and messy-looking tho. And noisy. We'll look forward to further feedback after we make the next round of renovations. Please stand by.

"I am used to Vancouver and the choice of lots of good but low price eateries. My friends and family ate out a lot in Vancouver because of this."

Ya, Vancouver is great, eh? And heck, with over a million people to choose from for customers, there's a lot to go around! And well, they don't have to truck their stuff over on a ferry in Vancouver either, so that probably helps keep prices low. I WISH we could even think of working on that scale, but with just over 3,000 people in Gibsons, the pool is a little smaller, and thus the volume lower. Costs are higher because we can't justify ordering a lot at once because there simply are not enough people to eat it. Every single one of our customers would have to eat every meal here, every day, for us to bring our volume up to that level. Believe me... we'd LOVE THAT! And as soon as it starts happening, you'll notice we'll be able to lower prices to match the better costs of volume buying.

 

"During the day sometimes the music in the restaurant is a bit much if you're trying to have a working coffee/lunch."

Yah, it happens sometimes... the music will get a bit loud on occasion, or the odd random song that comes up is sometimes a little more hardcore than we'd like or expect. There's an easy way to fix that, tho... if it's bothering you while you're here, simply ask us to change it. Sometimes if we've been working in it all morning, we won't necessarily notice that it's louder than usual. Just ask... we don't bite, and we want you to be happy!

"I love that you have the options of Gluten free and vegan products...but some days I would love a "gluten filled" dessert and/or muffin that's totally unhealthy too! "

Hm. We have lots of gluten-filled stuff... especially the ridiculously sinful new cinnamon buns. And well, we only have one vegan product - the date squares... tho we're gonna work on a couple more. The toffee ganache bars don't really fall into the "healthy" category...

 

"I love you guys, your food and your bistro!!! I really appreciate the new menu items with no gluten and less sugar."

Hm. We love you too! It's really our pleasure to be able to satisfy special diets... tho we realize, sometimes the offering is a bit limited for the dairy-free/sugar-free diets, we're working on options.