RESTAURATEUR TANNIS LING
Photos by Daniel Burke.
I first met Tannis Ling before my trial shift at Bao Bei, her restaurant in Chinatown. While I hustled to fill waters, I watched her move gracefully through the restaurant, running dishes to tables or jumping behind the bar to make a cocktail. By the end of the evening, I knew I wanted a part in this wildly fast-paced fun place she had created.
Since then, Tannis opened a second restaurant, Kissa Tanto, which has been flooded with accolades (En Route awarded it Best New Restaurant in Canada). She divides her time between both places and it's evident there's no signs of slowing down any time soon. I sat down with Tannis to learn about her fantasy of opening a restaurant, what lured her into bartending (it might have something to do with the movie Cocktail) and how she stays level-headed through it all.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WORK IN RESTAURANTS?
“I knew I didn’t want to go the professional route. My mom’s a dentist; my dad’s an architect; my brother is an engineer. It’s cliché, but I watched Cocktail too many times. Bartending was a world I never got be included in, it looked so glamorous. I tried other things – photography, interior design. I knew I wanted to do something creative but didn’t have the patience or ambition to stick it though. I hated school so much.”
DID YOU ALWAYS KNOW YOU WANTED TO OPEN YOUR OWN PLACE?
“My first bartending job was in the Cayman Islands, on a sunset cruise and pirate ship, making rum punches and doing the Macarena every night at sunset with a bunch of tourists. Friends I worked with say they remember me talking about it since I was 20 years old. But at that time it was really just a fantasy.”
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
“I proud both restaurants are busy. We get overwhelmed and we’re like, ‘Oh my god, it’s so crazy!’ But when you take a step back and realize they’re two of the busiest restaurants in the city, it feels good. I’m also proud of the way both places look. Well, kind of everything. I’m proud of the food and the people that work for me because everybody is amazing.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT VANCOUVER’S RESTAURANT SCENE?
“Vancouver has a tendency to borrow ideas from other places, and it’s very obvious to people who are familiar with the restaurant industry. We’ll see something and say, ‘Oh that’s a blatant copy of a restaurant we went to in L.A.’ I think that’s cheating.”
"If you’re going to open up a restaurant, it should come from your heart. People can tell when it means something. JC Poirier at St. Lawrence is epitome of that - it’s inspired by his home in Quebec and it’s unique. Nobody is doing that cuisine here. Whereas there’s like 10,000 poke places in Vancouver."
WHY DO YOU THINK YOUR RESTAURANTS HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL?
“When I think about where I want to eat, I don’t just think about the food or the way the place looks, I think about how it feels. Maybe it doesn’t even look that great, but there’s something right with the music or the lighting, or the service is really good or it just looks half hazard like they didn’t even try. Like the Guu on Thurlow Street: it’s a weird room, the tables are oddly shaped and there’s special with the interior – but it just feels good in there.”
HOW DO YOU CREATE THAT FEELING?
“I think with that Guu it just happened by accident, but it also has a lot to do with the culture of Izakaya: they yell and they’re playing loud music in there. A lot of the things I learned about restaurants, I learned about from living in London. They’re a bunch of fun-loving people. Every place we’d go to, there was so much attention to detail: music, drinks, well-dressed people, the server was wearing a cool uniform. That really impressed on me that the atmosphere is so important, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere that didn’t have that."
”At Bao Bei, we’ve always played music loud, it’s dark and there’s stuff everywhere, which makes you feel comfortable when you can look at everything. With [Kissa Tanto], it’s a different vibe. We wanted to do this dark, moody supper club where we play jazz. In the winter we have the curtains closed, it’s dark and snowing outside and we hike up the heat to make it cozy. There’s candles everywhere. People feel like they’re somewhere else.”
HOW DO YOU FIND GOOD STAFF?
“Something I learned from Karri and Nico (from Chambar) is that you treat your staff well. You make them feel like they’re your equals. You do nice things for them, give them nice staff parties and they are happy to work for you. I also don’t keep anyone around who I don’t think I could be friends with, because anybody who sticks out in that way or has a difficult personality is not going to get along well.”
WHAT WOULD YOU TELL SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO OPEN A RESTAURANT?
“I think the reason both restaurants are successful is because I spent 10 years in the business. I worked my way up from the bottom and did every position. I went to cooking school even though I was pretty sure I didn’t want to be a chef, but that was invaluable because now I understand how the food is cooked, how the kitchen works, how costing works and how back of house runs. If I had a blind spot in that sense it would be not as good for me. Having a good understanding of every aspect of the business is imperative.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?
"I think we’ll probably open another restaurant. I love opening up a place. The other thing would be to consult, help somebody who has a great idea but doesn’t know how to execute it. That would be my dream job. Because I could help with all the creative stuff and with operations but then I wouldn’t have to sit there answering emails all day. Get the ball rolling and then set them loose."
