Page 28 - 03_April-2025

Staley designed a 1970s-inspired room with vintage furniture,
But then Isaac Choi, CEO of Hoot Company,
reached out and offered Staley a job as creative
director. “I said yes because it was pretty much
my dream job and what I would have wanted to
do after finishing school,” Staley says. “I wanted
to pivot to hospitality consultation, to help
restaurants with conceptualization, design, staff
training, menu development — everything.”
While Staley did revamp the drink menus of Hoot
Company’s Dorinku Tokyo and Dorinku Osaka
restaurants, his current role is visualizing new
ideas and exploring spaces for future projects.
“I visited Ben’s restaurants (Yarrow and Alder
Room) and know Ben is a great chef,” Choi says.
“We’re both younger people in the hospitality
scene and we both want to grow Edmonton’s
cocktail scene and do something innovative.
People’s expectations (for going out) are differ-
ent now and we want to make Edmonton a good
place to be for the hospitality industry.”
Staley’s efforts led Hoot Company to take over
the space in the lower floor of a heritage
building in the Brewery District vacated by Shojo
Izakaya in 2023. “At the time, we got the space
and didn’t know exactly what we’d do with it,”
Staley says. “It wasn’t originally the plan for me
to be a partner in it, but Isaac just let me roll
with it.”
Even though Staley found his way back to the
restaurant world, he didn’t want to return to the
kitchen or open something chef-driven, like his
previous concepts. Instead, he dreamed up Next
of Kin, a cocktail bar of sorts, which he says is a
reinvention of what a neighbourhood bar can be.
28 EDify. APRIL.25