With an empire of seven restaurants, and over a quarter century of being a tastemaker on the Edmonton culinary scene, you’d think that Chris Lachance would be able to even take a few minutes to savour the taste of success.
But you’d be wrong. With rising food costs, an uncertain economy, crime and difficulty in finding good staff — 2024 was one of the most challenging years in the history of the Century Hospitality Group.
“It’s harder than it’s ever been,” says Lachance, sitting at the rear of Birdog, the downtown jewel in Century Hospitality Group’s crown. “At 55 years old, you’d think that things would be getting easier. But there’s more sleepless nights than I’ve ever had before. I am working harder than ever before.”
While the Edmonton Chamber’s Business Leader of the Year recognizes the work Lachance has put into the city’s hospitality industry, he understands that now is not the time to sit back and simply enjoy things — it’s time to work even harder, doubling down on his mantra on how to make dining experiences even better for Edmontonians.
“It’s not enough just to have great food and great rooms,” he says. “We have to look at the people who come through our doors as guests, and not as customers. If I was selling nuts and bolts, you’d be a customer. ‘Hospitality’ is the way you make someone feel — ‘service’ is something you get from an ATM machine.
“But, even then, taking care of guests isn’t enough. The value proposition has to be there, more than ever.”
In an era where more and more people are choosing to stay at home and order in, or are worried about how to stretch their dollars, Lachance knows that when people go to one of his restaurants — whether they are sleek downtown spots like Birdog or LUX Steak-house and Bar, or neighbourhood spots like Rebel on 142nd Street or Hart’s Table & Bar on the south side — they invest their time and money. And the guests need to feel like their money is well spent.
Lachance never intended to be a restaurateur. Go back to the late 1980s, and he was focused on becoming a lawyer. And, like any dedicated student, he decided to take a job in order to help pay the bills. He started working at Trumps, on Edmonton’s south side. And he had a lot of fun.
Trumps was run by legendary Edmonton restaurateur Hans Voegeli. He pulled Lachance aside and asked if maybe the restaurant business was the kid’s true calling.
“On one hand, he was giving me shit about how I was carrying plates, and on the other it was, ‘Kid, you’re really good at this business. What do you want to do with your life?’”
Lachance rues the fact that he answered with “I’m going to get a real job.”
But it led to more discussions, and Voegeli convinced Lachance’s parents to let him take a year off from law school to give the restaurant business a try.
“The rest was history.”
In 1999, Lachance bought the Trumps location — and opened Century Grill in its place. An empire was born, even though Lachance didn’t know it at the time.
He says the key to the group’s success is based on the people who work at the restaurants, from the chefs to the servers to the hosts to dishwashers.
“I have to hire and motivate and have them take the hill with me,” he says. “It’s all about the people. We sell an experience. Let’s be honest, you can get four pizzas for the price of one and two orders of chicken wings and two-litre bottle of Coke from a competitor out there. We’re not the cheapest. We don’t build the rooms that we build and staff them with the personalities that we do, and make the effort that we do, to throw it all in a hot bag and go 20 minutes across town.”
Another of Lachance’s terms to live by is “never market to the mirror.” He warns that no one in the business should assume a concept will work based on personal preference or taste. Never trust that something will work in Edmonton because it’s a big trend somewhere else. Just because
you would love to start a speed-metal themed burger bar because you saw it in Chicago, doesn’t mean it will work in Edmonton.
And, because he’s stuck to that idea of fleshing out any concepts before he’s opened the doors on any new restaurants, Lachance has never yet had to lock up the doors and see his signage replaced by “FOR LEASE” placards. Yes, he has sold restaurants, but he’s never had one go under.
“We’ve evolved and grown. And, with that has come some changes. We’ve sold. We’ve bought. Fortunately, we’ve never had to close. But, this path has led to a very challenging past couple of years. And we can say ‘Are these stores performing the way we need them to perform?’ And the answer is that we know there is probably more. But, I don’t know if there is anything more than we can do, because it’s all these external factors.
“It’s our downtown core. It’s the economy. It’s the financial climate out there. Going to buy groceries is expensive, never mind going out to eat and drink.”
And he says he feels “violated” when he sees video footage of one of his restaurants having a window smashed, only for the thief to take a single bottle of vodka. Sadly, these are becoming more and more a regular part of being an Edmonton restaurant owner.
But, if there’s anything Lachance has shown, it’s that he can persevere. And, while times are tough, he’s going to stick to the values that have made him a business person who has made a real difference in the city.
This article appears in the Jan/Feb 2025 issue of Edify
Paid Partnership with Edmonton Chamber of Commerce
