Hasib Karimi migrated to Canada as a refugee from Afghanistan, so concerns about crime and social disorder downtown fail to faze the Saskatoon restaurateur.
Karimi, 34, and his younger cousin, Aman Khan, opened ChaChos Tacos a month ago in a spot along 22nd Street that was once occupied by a Subway outlet, which moved next door.
“We’ve seen some rough times,” Karimi said of life as a refugee. “I’ve been through way worse than this.”
Karimi and Khan started making tacos in their homes. The name ChaChos comes from the inability of the woman who taught Karimi how to make tacos to pronounce his name.
She called him “muchacho” instead, an informal way to refer to a male in Spanish.
“The best way to explain it is we sold a taco at a time to get here,” Karimi said. “And it took us about two years, step by step, taco by taco.”
ChaChos is open five days a week and employs 11 people.
Karimi considered other properties with lower rents, but decided downtown was where he wanted to start his business. Talking to customers of his home-based tacos helped determine the spot where he wanted to open.
He admitted the startup costs were high, but said it’s worth it.
“You can’t run away from things,” Karimi said. “I think downtown’s beautiful. I think it’s a beautiful space. There’s a lot of art everywhere.”
Karimi, who was sponsored as a refugee by a Mennonite church in Saskatoon, compares the faith the church showed in him with the belief he’s demonstrating in the city’s downtown.
Hasib Karimi, co-owner of ChaChos Tacos, cooks tacos on the grill inside his downtown restaurant. (Phil Tank/CBC)
A little more than a block away from ChaChos, Austin Sinclair, 30, opened Casa Capicola on March 19.
Two weeks after opening, the Italian sandwich shop suffered a broken window the night before Good Friday. Sinclair shrugs off the damage, since his dream venture is exceeding his expectations.
Sinclair, who grew up in Clavet, hoped to sell 70 sandwiches a day. But he’s been selling about 90 per day and hit 110 one Friday.
“The location for sandwiches, for the lunch crowd, it beats all the crime down here, honestly,” Sinclair said. “This location is perfect.”
Unlike Karimi, Sinclair was not determined to locate downtown. He found himself with time on his hands a year and a half ago after he got sober, so he started making sandwiches.
“I’m not Italian myself, I just love Italian food,” Sinclair explained. “Sandwiches are my favourite food. And capicola is an Italian meat that’s my favourite meat.”
Sinclair admitted it cost him “a hefty penny” to start up his sandwich shop on 21st Street, in the former home of Frankie’s Bahn Mi. But his venture has received a warm reception.
Casa Capicola opens six days a week and Sinclair employs two people.
“It’s been awesome,” Sinclair said. “We’ve had people lined up out the door.”
The window of Casa Capicola in downtown Saskatoon remained boarded last week after it was smashed the day before Good Friday. (Phil Tank/CBC)
As for the broken window, which was still boarded up last week, Sinclair received support from Downtown Saskatoon, the business improvement district.
Downtown Saskatoon paid the insurance deductible and also offered a grant for his restaurant’s sign.
Shawna Nelson, executive director of Downtown Saskatoon, said she’s happy to see the new restaurants, which join La Milanza, an Italian restaurant and wine bar that opened late last year in the former location of Caraway Grill on Second Avenue.
“One of the bonuses of being downtown, we’re here to support our businesses that choose to do business down here,” Nelson said.
Jim Bence, president and CEO of Hospitality Saskatchewan, said in an email the restaurants are entering the industry at “arguably the toughest [period] I’ve ever seen it.”
Bence said factors such as the rising cost of food — beef, in particular — gas and wages are creating a challenging environment.
Nelson said there are 144 restaurants that belong to Downtown Saskatoon. So far this year, three restaurants have closed, including the Tim Hortons location on Fourth Avenue, but three new ones have opened.
She said she would like to see more open for lunch. Some restaurants have adjusted their hours, likely in response to a jump in empty office space downtown.
Saskatoon bucked a national trend at the end of last year with an increase in downtown office vacancy to more than 19 per cent.
“I think downtown is going to do incredible things in the future, but we do have to slowly build our culture, just letting people know that we’re humans too and we’re building something that everybody else can enjoy,” Karimi said.
Dining and Cooking