SAY MERCY!
SAY MERCY!
WHEN COVID-19 HIT, THE JUST-OPENED RESTAURANT PIVOTED TO SOCIAL INITIATIVE
It's a few hours before dinner service on a late summer afternoon; Antonio Cayonne and Andrew Jameson are seated in their restaurant's dining room, a laptop open and chairs stacked around them. We begin talking about their early years, long before Say Mercy! even broached the horizon. The business partners—who speak to each other with clear admiration and respect—met in Toronto over a decade ago while working in the hospitality industry. It would only be a few years later when they both found themselves in Vancouver for different reasons: Jameson had family in the city and Cayonne, a talented actor and performer, wanted to further explore the West Coast film industry. Jameson had coaxed over a skilled chef named Sean Reeve whome he, his wife, and Cayonne had also worked with in Toronto—and a formidable quartet was formed.
Art deco mid-century interior design
Angel & Apricots: woodford reserve bourbon, apricot syrup, orange bitters
“Andrew, Sean, Katie [Jameson, Andrew’s wife], and I all met at La Société, which was Charles Khabouth multi-million dollar spot in Toronto,” Cayonne later wrote to me via email from the set of Mighty Ducks, where he is currently filming. “Andrew knew Sean was a special kind [of] Chef and they became friends—even hiring Sean to cook at their wedding in Kelowna!” So when Andrew decided he wanted to open his own restaurant, Reeve was his first call. “With the Chef locked down as partner, I showed up, bags-in-hand from the airport, having landed in Vancouver chasing film/television work,” Cayonne added.
Reeve's wealth of culinary knowledge and inclination to read everything within arm's reach impressed the two men. Reeve had been cooking in Italian kitchens for much of his career but was interested in exploring Pacific Northwest cuisine through the lens of French techniques. The next year, they opened their first restaurant, The Mackenzie Room. There, Reeve brought Modern Canadian plates to the table, featuring local produce and pasture-raised meats where they could. The three men brought in sommelier Eryn Dorman who had helped spearhead Vancouver’s natural wine movement, but they were careful not to make it The Mackenzie Room's defining feature. Shortly after launching, the Downtown Eastside dining room collected enthusiastic critic reviews.
Three years into running The Mackenzie Room, the proprietors realized their kitchen banter about different cuisines suggested they were ready for the next event. Reeve had always wanted to play with American barbecue and wondered what could be done if he incorporated the concept into an Italian menu; it would be something Vancouver hadn't seen before. So the hunt for a new space began. A corner perch at the junction of Fraser Street and 27th Avenue became available, so Cayonne and Jameson put the ball in motion. The room was to be fitted with an art deco mid-century aesthetic with Jameson directing the build-out, and Cayonne overseeing the internal processes (hiring, marketing, service function of the room, neighbourhood outreach, etc.)
“We literally made flyers that said 'Won't You Be Our Neighbour?' and went door to door dropping off discount meal cards for anyone in the area,” Cayonne explains of their lauded outreach efforts. After a successful Soft Opening in mid-January, Say Mercy opened and the room was in full swing.
Corn succotash ravioli: parmesan foam, chanterelles, tarragon
"We were very curious to see what it would look like to bring our product into a more residential community," Jameson tells me as we sit and reflect on the warm reception the team received from the Fraserhood community. "Railtown is a little more business, a little more tourism; here, the neighbours are our most consistent customers." This newfound kinship is precisely what the pair feel has carried them through the COVID-19 pandemic—a global tragedy that hit only eight weeks after they opened.
In March, the coronavirus decimated the industry, leading to both Say Mercy and The Mackenzie Room closing their doors. But Cayonne saw it coming. "I was pretty obsessed with what was happening worldwide. I had friends in Italy at the time so I felt like I was in constant conversation with people who were [telling me that it was] way worse than we could imagine," he explains. "So we were ahead of the curve in understanding that we were going to have to close and we were just biding our time to figure out when it was right."
Say Mercy is widely understood to have been the restaurant that pivoted itself not only the quickest but in the most meaningful way. During Phase One, they became known across the city for their “Staff Meal” initiative which offered a five-dollar meal to anyone who needed it. When the pandemic response shifted, so too did the initiative. As we sit in the olive-toned dining room discussing the global state of affairs, it's clear how compassionate both men are and how much thought they put into things beyond just their business.
"[The pandemic] meant needing to stand up and take a leadership role in terms of what we believe in," Cayonne tells me when I ask about what sparked the Staff Meal. "We wanted to make sure that our staff was looked after, so we were going to cook them staff meal every day for as long as it would take until we ran out of resources. Then we extrapolated on the idea, got further out from the centre, and realized, 'Well, we could just do that for everyone. If we can centre ourselves in the middle of a community—which we already were—we would find out what the neighbours need."
Interior by Andrew Jameson assisted by his wife Katie
Eggplant Parm: tomato, grana padano, confit garlic, watercress
The five-dollar menu option was a hit—so much so that the men couldn't keep up with all the calls and emails. They had to streamline all orders and communications through Instagram, which made sense in a work-from-home era. Soon people began offering their help: Did Say Mercy need anyone to deliver food? Could those with disposable income give more than five-dollars to help offset costs? "There are a lot of initiatives we launched that wouldn't have been possible if we weren't here," Jameson notes.
"[W]ithout that community, we wouldn't have had access to either the information or the infrastructure of people," Cayonne adds. "We had line-ups out the back door which was awesome."
Soon other restaurants began calling for ideas, so the team started consulting with anyone who needed help. "It's the economy of kindness, right?" Cayonne posits. "If I take care of one of your primary needs, you all of a sudden have a little bit of freedom on your hands. And you also have this desire to then pay it forward. And so you reach out and ask, 'What can I do for this person because now the thing that I was stressed out about is off my mind?' I would pick up the phone and say, 'This is the model, I'll teach the whole thing to you and show you how it works. It'll get your engine running and then you guys can figure out what's next and you're not beholden to us.' I don't care, I just think this is the right thing for Vancouver to be doing to get through this. This is not a time to hike the price on toilet paper. It's the time to lower it." Almost immediately, Dachi, Belgard Kitchen, and Havana began offering variations on the initiative; partnerships blossomed all over the city. It was a time of working together.
Rotating desserts. Above: strawberry, mint, custard with vanilla bean ice cream
The Mackenzie Room didn't reopen until just recently. Today, Reeve is in the Powell Street kitchen to relaunch their menu, but the proprietors were focusing on only one establishment during the lockdown. It was difficult leaving those neighbours behind, so they phoned up their friends at Belgard. "They were one of the first places we called because we weren't going to be running The MacKenzie Room but we thought that somebody should be running out of the Downtown Eastside," Cayonne says. "So we called them; he said yes immediately and we developed a very strong working relationship through COVID—and then as 2020 has served it up, we flipped into a civil rights movement."
Approachable wine list curated by Somm Meghan McDowell
Zucchini poppers: pimento cheese, fennel pollen, chili
Today Cayonne and Reuben Major are working on another initiative; one born out of big mistakes and some heavy self-reflection. When George Floyd's murder cast a solemn shadow across an already reeling world, the #BlackOutTuesday hashtag on social media was intended as an act of solidarity with Black Lives Matter. "It gave businesses something to do to express their support, which is great if you're in the right camp, but if you're sitting with skeletons in your closet, it might have been a bad [idea]," Cayonne tells. "As it would happen, when Belgard did it, former employees showed up and [said], 'How dare you co-opt this.' So Reuben [Major] found himself in the middle of something that he didn't know how to solve and I was the first person he called."
The two have been working to put together a large anti-oppression workshop for Vancouver restaurants and Cayonne tells me he respects how Major handled the public admonishment. "I say this with a lot of admiration for where Reuben's head is at. He started off asking, 'What do I do to fix my business?' and ended up asking, 'What do I do to fix my life?' And again: good on him. He started doing the work in a different way."
Tomato & shrimp panzanella salad: Sungold vinaigrette, fennel, Calabrian chili, corn bread, trout roe
Prairie florals adorn the entryway
With multiple initiatives in full swing, Say Mercy once again had to pivot when the City of Vancouver put their COVID-19 response in motion. On a Wednesday night at around 10:30 p.m., Jameson got a call from a city engineer explaining that he was reviewing the restaurant's patio application. He suggested Say Mercy open theirs along the flank of the building where the city was implementing one of their Pavement-to-Plaza programs. Not the type to miss an opportunity to change things up, the Say Mercy team got to brainstorming: What could they do with this new outdoor space? "We weren't going to be able to bring this outside," Jameson says, motioning across the elegant dining room. "We're not going to put marble tables on the sidewalk, but rather something that can withstand a bit of wear-and-tear like picnic tables. We also knew we didn't want to serve hot prepared lamb shoulders outside."
Scout Vineyard’s natural-ferment, skin-contact wine in cups at B-Side
So they got creative. Cayonne was in talks with the city about the paint colours of the pop-up plaza and they had decided on something a bit more colourful and eccentric. "So we came up with B-Side," Jameson says. "We decided to do [a] sandwich bar during the day and then offer the bar program at night. We wanted it to feel kind of like the carnival or fair with the lights canopy when you're walking around at night. So that's where the kiosk idea came from."
They admit it's been a success. At-home and construction workers often come for lunch and a new crowd comes for the natural wine program in the evenings. I ask what led to such a great—in my opinion—wine list. I was enamored with the selection of low-intervention, natural ferment wines when I came with friends earlier in the summer, but the duo explain that they never wanted to pigeonhole their menu to solely natural wines; and now that the Say Mercy dining room is also open, they can bring in a wider variety.
"With bringing Meghan [McDowell] in, the big conversation was about understanding that a wine list has to be made for everyone who walks in the room," Antonio says of their sommelier's curation. "How do you build a list that is full of integrity and full of options—and that doesn't leave anyone behind. When Say Mercy opened, Andrew came up with this idea of splitting the wine list in two, but not based on red and white necessarily; it was based on thinking and drinking. Are you in the mood for a wine that stimulates thought and has something provocative about it? Or did you have a hard day and you just want a wine to get your drink on," Cayonne says, admitting that he takes a more simplistic approach to wine. "You know natural wine, I know that I drink juice boxes," he laughs. "Meet me in the middle."
"So when B-Side opened, knowing that Say Mercy already had that kind of thesis functioning in here, we allowed ourselves to call it a natural wine bar and to fill it with things that we think are interesting, knowing still that we want a list that has flexibility and has enough integrity for somebody who doesn't know that much about natural wine."
The B-Side patio is a romantic, ethereal addition to Fraserhood. It reminded me of a summer night years ago when friends and I drove out to the Rockaways for a dance party at the beach complete with painted pink, blue, and orange picnic tables and the beach concession stand acting as DJ booth. Warm, New York summer air lingered into the star-filled night. Fast-forward to summer 2020: Vancouver was experiencing a muggy bout the first night I stopped by B-side, which added to that moment's nostalgia. It didn’t feel like we were in Vancouver and that might be what some residents need right now: a bit of escapism.
Words & photos by Tracy Giesz-Ramsay
