Save ZenKitchen! movement gathers support
Blair Crawford & Peter Hum
Published on: May 26, 2014, Last Updated: May 26, 2014 7:54 PM EDT
ZenKitchen fans have rallied in support of their favourite restaurant, sending messages of encouragement and, in one case, launching a fundraising campaign to try to keep the popular Somerset Street West spot open.
“It is incredibly heartwarming and incredibly touching,” ZenKitchen owner Dave Loan said Monday, after the surprise shutdown of the vegan restaurant because of tax trouble.
“We’re a small business that has failed, whether temporarily or permanently. It never occurred to me that we were so important to so many people. We had customers in tears — literally. They were coming to me and saying, ‘Tell us what we can do’.”
Loan shut down ZenKitchen on Saturday, a few days after Canada Revenue Agency seized $4,000 from his business bank account over unpaid Harmonized Sales Tax. Loan admits falling behind on the HST payments, but he says he had worked out a deal with the CRA to repay the amount owed in instalments. He hadn’t missed a payment, but when CRA made the deal retroactive to January and seized the bank account, he had no option but to close.
Still it might be too early to write the restaurant’s obituary.
“I haven’t thrown in the towel,” Loan said. “I mean, I had. But I’ve been told by people knowledgeable about Canada Revenue Agency that I shouldn’t.”
Loan is considering launching an appeal to the CRA and has also had an offer of help from Ottawa Centre MPP Paul Dewar’s constituency office.
Meanwhile, ZenKitchen’s chef, Kyle Mortimer-Proulx, says he is also exploring the possibility of keeping the business going if financial backers can be found.
Mortimer-Proulx told the Citizen’s Peter Hum on the weekend that he and one of his senior cooks, David Gick, are considering buying the restaurant.
“The sudden closure of Zen, while it is crushing, is offering up a very interesting opportunity for us,” Mortimer-Proulx said, adding it would be “silly” not to consider reviving the restaurant.
“There is a huge clientele of ZenKitchen that is dedicated and supported us from the start — even before my time there,” Mortimer-Proulx said. “Dave and Caroline (Ishii, ZenKitchen’s first chef) did a tremendous job of tapping into a void in Ottawa and providing something that was long-overdue and obviously welcomed.”
On Monday, one customer started the Save ZenKitchen! crowdfunding campaign on gofundme.com (Twitter.com/#SaveZenKitchen)
“ZK is a real gem in Ottawa,” said Luis Miguel Huapaya, who with his wife, Kim, has been a regular customer for the past two years. “You don’t usually find a restaurant of that calibre in Ottawa.”
Huapaya, who is neither a vegetarian nor affiliated with the restaurant, hopes the campaign can raise $20,000. He was contacted by Loan on Monday and agreed that if the money raised can’t save the restaurant, it will be used to pay staff and suppliers who are out money because of the closing.
“We hope that enough people can come together, we can raise enough money to get ZK back on its feet,” Huapaya said. “It just seems kind of silly to have all these people out of work, just so (CRA) can seize $4,000. I’m not privy to any details, but it doesn’t seem like forcing the restaurant is in the best interest of anyone.”
The support has Loan feeling hopeful, but he cautions that resurrecting the restaurant is far from certain.
“I’m just so unbelievably touched,” he said. “I’ve never felt more a part of my community.”
bcrawford@ottawacitizen.com
http://ottawacitizen.com/life/food/s...athers-support