With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/526329
C A C T U S C L U B S p e c i a l F e a t u r e dining, at multiple locations." Murphy explains. "Hiring Rob was one of the best decisions we ever made. It really changed the face of our menu," Jaffray adds. As Cactus Club prepares to open its first Toronto location, Feenie has been focused on shifting the menu once again, from western sources and influences to eastern variations on wine and ingredients. "We will have lots of local products from Ontario on our menus in Toronto," assures Murphy. The whole team, in fact, has been preparing for the Toronto opening slated for this fall. "Our HR team has been building up to it for the last year," Murphy says. Cactus Club now boasts 26 locations (20 in B.C., five in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan), and, along with its soon-to-open Toronto location, will also launch two new locations in Kelowna and Calgary this year. This growth will bring the total store count to 29 and staff count to 4,400 from 3,500. "Our growth plan is aggressive," Murphy says. "Richard's greatest strength is that he's such a driver, and he's never satisfied. He's so passionate about the business and the need to remain relevant." Jaffray believes wholeheartedly that "if you're not growing, you're shrinking," and that is one of the driving forces behind Cactus' plans to further extend its reach and influence on the fine dining landscape. To that end, Cactus Club's leadership team works with a Harvard Business School professor several times a year to cultivate its thought-leadership capacity and forward-thinking business management strategies. "Professional development is a major focus for us, and so is our test kitchen for continuously refining our food and drink menus," Murphy explains. Of course one thing that hasn't changed at Cactus Club is its liquid staple, the Bellini. But don't count on it sticking around forever. "Our food and decor are continuously evolving," states Jaffray. "As far as we're concerned, we're just getting started. Our goal is to be the number one restaurant group in Canada, and this is just the beginning.