In Mexico, cats have seven lives instead of nine. This became the inspiration for the name of chef-owner Sean Riehl’s Seven Lives Tacos Y Mariscos. Like the cat that is its namesake and logo, the Kensington Market fish taco favourite is constantly reincarnating itself.
Once, the average restaurant was born out of a series of bank loans and leases, but
Seven Lives is an example of a whole new way of getting a food business started that relies on a series of community stepping stones -- of which a brick-and-mortar store is one of the final stages.
Although Riehl had logged about 10 years as a cook, when he decided to open Seven Lives, he "didn’t really know where to start." The first stepping stone was the
Toronto Underground Market (TUM), the brainchild of Hassel Aviles, who modelled it after a San Francisco food phenomenon. Launched in September 2011, TUM is an occasional incubator where ambitious small-scale food entrepreneurs can sell their wares.
Attracting a devoted following from the very beginning, TUM has quickly become a powerful force for launching food businesses. Seven Lives has made three appearances there. "The Underground Market gave us a push to get out the door. It's likely that we would still have started without it, but it definitely made us more aggressive to go out and find a place," says Riehl. "It’s a good move to do, because it’s pretty low-risk and you can test out what the customers go for. It really gave us confidence, because we were lucky enough to have a pretty good response."
TUM is also a community node that helps new business owners support one another, he says. "It’s kind of like a family. Once you’re in, the other vendors want to support you because they’ve gone through the same thing. We’ve made some good friends there."
From TUM, Riehl moved into pop-up events, including one in the lower level
Foodwares Market at The Bay’s Queen Street location. These trendy temporary kitchens have become a way to unite grassroots with glam: GwaiLo popped up in Sen5es; La Carnita parlayed its pop-up popularity into a College Street storefront and Rock Lobster Food Co. did the same at 110 Ossington; Dubon Chicken is set to pop up in Elle M'a Dit’s Baldwin street space in April 2013, while perhaps the quintessential pop-up star, Matt Basile of
Fidel Gastro, is starring in his own documentary TV series, Rebel Without a Kitchen.
"It's not imperative, but it's definitely the new way to approach it," says Basile, who worked in advertising before he decided to hone his chops in the food industry. "The old concept was to spend a lot of money in the beginning, open something and then ask people to come. There is value in trying to make a huge impact with whatever resources you have before you invest a lot of money... and then there's no turning back at that point. It's all about creating a community and creating a demand, and having those two things meet in the middle."
In September of 2012, Seven Lives moved into its first permanent location in the Latin American food court at 214 Augusta in Kensington Market -– also a supportive environment for small, new businesses. "All the store owners in Kensington are very supportive of the local economy here," he says. "For the most part it’s been really welcoming, even more than the Underground Market. It’s a real community here. It’s almost like a small town."
Riehl is able to buy much of the fish for his famous tacos from local vendors. "We have a really friendly relationship with our suppliers, we have conversations and we get to know each other. Some of the vendors actually go out together on Friday or Saturday night -- it’s like a friendship.”
But Seven Lives is already reinventing itself, this time in an independent location at 69 Kensington, set to open this month. "It's still pretty small. We're still keeping it real casual, but because we have a bigger kitchen and a bit more space, we want to add a few more things, like smoked fish plates, seafood cocktails and different kinds of ceviche," he says.
Riehl is also looking forward to being able to move towards more local fare. "With the bigger kitchen and the ease of having our own place, we’ll be able to do more local seafood, like Ontario trout. We can have more variety than just strictly Mexican food," he says.
"Right now we use all ocean fish, but once we are able to move away from doing exclusively tacos we can start using different choices. We'll be able to use Arctic char, trout and pickerel, and we’ll be able to do smoked fish; other plates that are more focused on the fish than tacos."
Riehl plans to continue with his practice of preparing small batches. "We do everything by hand, and it takes time. The smoking process is six to eight hours. We always try to plan ahead, but when it’s sold out, there’s not much we can do; you can’t run to the store and get more. With things like the ceviche, I think it’s better to disappoint some people than to throw away ten servings. When you're working with seafood, it will only stay fresh for so long, and I think that’s partly why we’ve done so well: it’s really simple and fresh."
What will the next incarnation of Seven Lives look like? "I really like keeping things small at this time in my life," says Riehl. "I’m younger and I like to work hands-on. Five to ten years from now, I’d like to have more locations in different neighbourhoods, but for now, 69 Kensington seems to be a really good spot for us."