We transition from one of the oldest cities in the world to one of the biggest country in the world (2nd). We are talking about Canada of course, and in this graceful country we get to meet Shawn Soole, a personality deep in the hospitality business. Here is what he had to tell us.
First of all, tell us who you are and what’s your job.
My name is Shawn Soole and I am a Victoria, BC, Canada based Hospitality Consultant that manages a number of hospitalitycentric companies including a branding and creative house, an online bar store, a liquor distribution agency and a media company. I also do 4 podcasts a week called Post Shift Podcast and BC Spirits.
Coming to the COVID-19 crisis, how did you react humanly, psychologically at the spread of the virus and the consequent lockdown?
I think it was tough for everyone, my main goal was to try and connect owners and operators with as many resources as possibly through my podcast. Overall, I think that Covid was a huge wake up call for many people in the industry, just how fragile it all is, how stressful it can be and how we need to fix the problems with culture, systems and mentality of the industry overall.
Could you describe how is the bar scene of your country changed after the COVID-19 crisis?
We have been very fortunate in Canada, it has affected us but for a much shorter time than a lot of other cities in North America. Again, I think it has shown the governments and the industry that we need to fundamentally need to change the way our industry works to effectively counteract how hard this sort of global event affects us. This was bigger than economic downturns, terrorist attacks, literally anything that has happened to us in the past; this has or should have made us introspective on what has been known as the “norm” in our industry and now begin to change it.
In your opinion, how will it change in the future?
I still don’t think we have seen the end of this quite yet. We still have some hurdles in the future, the government needs to come to the table and realise that the industries that they constantly bail out (eg. banks, oil etc) are small in comparison to the hospitality and tourism industry. There are more people employed and more GDP per country based from the tourism and hospitality ecosystem, we realistically cannot fail, it’s a domino effect.
Could you suggest five bars in your country?
Tough one, our country is huge. I would plug my own spot, Clive’s Classic Lounge in Victoria, Botanist in Vancouver, Pablos in Edmonton, Proof in Calgary, Bar Raval in Toronto and Bar Kismet in Halifax
