Celebrity-spotting in Edmonton? You’re better off turning your gaze to the sky and counting comets, but last summer a few stars were spotted in downtown bars and restaurants. John Malkovich dining at Corso 32, Billy Bob Thornton and Liam Hemsworth socializing at The Common, Hemsworth’s on-again/off-again Miley Cyrus visiting him at the Matrix.
But while it induces giddiness in patrons, it comes with a host of pressures for staff, not just in terms of providing excellent service but protecting them from other customers.
“When you have somebody like that coming in, it’s a great deal of pressure because you want to make sure that you’re shining,” says chef Daniel Costa of Corso 32, whose high-end Italian fare briefly made a regular out of Malkovich while he was here to film Cut Bank with Thornton and Hemsworth. “You have the chance to represent Edmonton or Canada properly, so you should take great care and look at the details very closely.”
It’s a stress that most are honoured to take on, plus the publicity it comes with beats just about any marketing campaign. But the dilemma for restaurant staff doesn’t change: Treat celebrities like regular folks knowing damn well they’re not, or extend the red carpet to their table and risk crumbling their last semblance of normalcy?
To answer such pressing questions, Sabor Divino has its own celebrity-in-resident, maître d’ and owner Christian Mena. Locals recognize him from the once-popular Latin funk band Maracujah, but it was the six years he spent playing one of the leads in Rent – alongside Neil Patrick Harris for two of those years – that gave him a taste of stardom. “I remember Neil and I would go out in between shows and you’d turn around and there were, like, 10 girls laughing,” he says. “We were pampered all the time. I can’t say I never used the old ‘I’m in Rent‘ to get in somewhere.”
Because of the connections he made in music and theatre, artists like Metric, the Jacksons and Metallica have dined at Sabor Divino on the recommendation of others in the business. His advice is to treat them like you want to be treated, which is to say very well. “But, at some point, the ass-kissing has to stop.”