After a busy first weekend, the Back Alley Bar and Restaurant at the Emo Inn is back and under new management, who have simple plans to keep it a local hotspot.
The bar and restaurant previously had trouble staying open due to staffing issues. This resulted in the inn having to close the doors to this side of the business last January. A new managerial style and engaging business methods that don’t give patrons a run for their money will change this, according to new owners Vivek Giri and Push Pita, a married couple who moved to Emo to run the location.
“We wanted to do this in a sustainable manner,” Giri said.
“It’s a small community. I don’t want to be too fancy with stuff and have to charge too much money.”
Giri said the current menu will run for a month or two, to allow for customer feedback on items. This method will allow them to get a feel for which items are popular and which can be discontinued in order to make inventory purchases with minimal waste. Giri also said they’re purchasing locally to support the community they are now a part of.
“If you’ve been hired as new management, you want to make sure that things are going to be done sustainably,” Giri said.
“If we tried doing everything at once, it’s not going to work. I want to get to know people and what their taste profile is, see how the palette is over here. I can’t just do something for the sake of doing it. People have their own set of tastes and preferences, so I have to adapt accordingly.”
Before making the move to the Rainy River District at the beginning of February, the husband-wife team lived in Mississauga, Ont. They had just brought a newborn baby into the world when they received the opportunity to oversee the Emo Inn and its dining establishment.
“This is something that we thought we would love to venture into, even if it’s away from the city and a different life,” Pita said.
“Since we just had a small baby, we had to make this decision right after. Nevertheless, the opportunity doesn’t come twice, so you just need to grab it when it comes.”
Both Giri and Pita agreed that the smaller towns in Northwestern Ontario provided a much healthier and safer place to raise their child than what the fast-paced urban lifestyle offers.
“When we got this opportunity, we got to reading more about Emo to see how the community is,” Pita said.
“We saw it was more community-centric. Back in the city, you don’t have a very intimate community.”
Giri shared his idea of how he envisions the business as a fun and relaxed atmosphere for everyone to enjoy together. “I want this place to be a somewhere anyone can come at any point in time,” he said. You don’t have to dress up like you’re going to a classy place. I want this to be a comfy place for everyone to come whenever they want and enjoy a meal or drinks.”
The couple also agreed that the opportunity was perfect for them to take on together as a team, given that both have strong backgrounds in business and marketing. Giri, with his master’s in business and Pita, with years of prior experience in India before starting programs in marketing at George Brown and Sheridan in the GTA. Both feel ready to take on this role, putting them in creative and practical control of the day-to-day operations at the Emo Inn and its bar in the back.
Saulteaux Consulting and Engineering, the company that owns the inn, is also confident in the duo, with Jared Bethune, the company’s business manager, saying they are excited to have things up and running again.
“We basically had to shut our restaurant down, and then we were able to find them,” Bethune said. “They moved across the country with their family, and we’ve had a lot of good response from people in the community. We’re all pretty excited, and people in the community are excited to have them here too.”
