By Thomas Pigeon
As I sat at Toronto’s DaNico Restaurant waiting for my interview with famed hospitality entrepreneur Nick Di Donato, I was struck by the sense of professionalism and calm in the restaurant. The staff were laying tablecloths with meticulous attention to detail and lining up dinnerware in anticipation of the arrival of their evening’s patrons. It was a blend of military precision and creative excellence – a joy to behold and a process that few guests of this fine establishment experience before chef Daniele’s brilliance adorns their plate and graces their palate.
There’s a sense of greatness in this place – an earned response to decades of hard work and commitment to excellence that unmistakably has the Di Donato touch. Simply put, it’s a testament to the man, and his life partner, Nadia, who have a shared and unrelenting passion for excellence at every touchpoint.
Nick Di Donato floated into the restaurant with the comfort and ease of the powerful, likeable, professional he is. He’s a handsome man, always in style, and this day was sporting a stunning jacket with a classic Italian scarf as he approached my table. He was born to a hard-working Italian family in a small town in the mountains of southern Italy, and at the age of four he and his parents emigrated to Canada.
He has created an empire in the hospitality world that is frankly awe-inspiring. From his early roots at Cibo Wine Bar, to Casa Loma, Liberty Grand, Don Alfonso 1890 and DaNico, Nick Di Donato is a force to be reckoned with.
You go to any Italian home, and you’ll see they open their arms, welcome you into their homes, and want to feed you…they want to make sure you have an incredible experience at their home. That’s true Italian hospitality. And if you can convert that into a business…that will be a winning formula.
— NICK DI DONATO
Surviving the horrific impact that COVID had on the restaurant and hospitality industry and building the Liberty Entertainment Group dynasty that it is today, demands a toughness and a resilience that few possess. Often this comes with a callousness. Not with this man. Talk to any staff member that has ever worked for Nick Di Donato, and you’ll hear, “he was always kind to me”, talk to any patron that has been greeted by his ever warm and strong handshake, and you’ll hear the same.
I remember once sitting at dinner with George Bush Sr., General Norman Schwartzkopf, and test pilot Chuck Yeager; there was a commonality between these great men. Their sense of power didn’t consume them. Their humanity shone through, and their wealth took a back seat to kindness. I had the same feeling from the very first moment I met Nick Di Donato.
Nick Di Donato is likely one of Canada’s most celebrated and awarded personalities and philanthropists in Canadian hospitality. In February of 2019, Di Donato was knighted by the government of Italy and named to the order of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia, the highest civilian honour awarded by the Italian government. Di Donato received his knighthood in recognition for his ongoing service to the Italian Republic and his promotion of Italian culture abroad. Recently he was appointed to the Order of Ontario and also awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal for his impact on Canadian hospitality and tourism.
His love for, and his unique partnership with, his wife and soulmate Nadia are equally inspiring. It’s a relationship that transcends the normal boundaries of traditional marriage and sees these two titans of the hospitality industry shoulder-to-shoulder sharing the vision, the burden, and indeed of creating the world class business that has become the Liberty Entertainment Group.
I had the pleasure of recently spending some time with Nick Di Donato which gave me the opportunity to get a rare glimpse into the soul of this man.
VERAVITA: You’ve built an impressive empire in the North American hospitality arena, but I understand your career took some interesting twists and turns along the way to get here.
NICK DI DONATO: Growing up, I was always working in the restaurant industry. My dad was a restaurateur, but he always aspired for me to be a professional. I grew up in an Immigrant family, so it was important to them that I go to university, become a professional. And engineering was my route in terms of my profession. But having gone into engineering, I missed the hospitality industry, which I worked at for many years as a young man with my father. What started off as a side project ultimately became my second career.
… the one thing that was most important to me is that I had the support of my wife Nadia. She could have been one of those persons that said, ‘We have a great career, we are secure, we can stay in this (my engineering career) and do well forever.’ But she said, ‘You need to be happy.’
— NICK DI DONATO
VERAVITA: Hospitality, and arguably, Italian hospitality, seem to permeate through each of your restaurants. How does this play a part in your various venues within the Liberty Entertainment group?
NICK DI DONATO: Well, I think hospitality is within my nature, because that’s the Italian nature. You go to any Italian home, and you’ll see they open their arms, welcome you into their homes, and want to feed you. They want to give you food, they want to give you a drink, they want to make sure you have an incredible experience at their home. That’s true Italian hospitality. And if you can convert that into a business, making sure your customers are welcomed, they’re fed well, they enjoy their experience, that will be a winning formula.
VERAVITA: One of the things that has always touched me when experiencing Italy and Italians is their sense of family. How does that play out in your home?
NICK DI DONATO: My mother’s 94 years old, and to this day, one of the things I have to do, with my business schedule as it is, and, whatever things I have going on, is to have breakfast at my mother’s. I rarely get to go to a brunch at one of my restaurants because Sunday is dedicated to my mom, her home, and her welcoming the family, and now it’s three generations, almost four generations that she has in her home. She’s a great-grandmother, and it’s an important day for her, and it’s not only important for her, but also for us because at 94, her time is limited, so we don’t want to miss a single Sunday spending with her and her hospitality.
VERAVITA: The properties that you have crafted with your life partner Nadia, from Blue Bovine to Cibo to Rosewater to, Casa Loma, to Don Alfonso and DaNico all have a certain magic in them. You and your team have elevated the hospitality business to a higher standard that seems to appeal to varying levels of the demographic strata. How do you do that in a world where restaurants seem to come and go every day, but your restaurants seem to have enduring value?
NICK DI DONATO: Well, I think it goes back to the previous question in that hospitality is a core element, and just in the name of what we do, which means you must be hospitable. So, our core essence in our restaurants, whether it be a casual dining restaurant or whether it be a Michelin restaurant, is to make the guests feel welcome, make them feel at home, surround them with an incredible environment, which Nadia does incredibly well for us, and then provide them some of the greatest food. And we strive for authenticity in our Italian cuisine, and authenticity in different ways. You can talk about Italian cuisine, which is in today’s cuisine, modern, very different than what people would expect in North America when they talk to our Michelin chefs. And then there’s American-Italian cuisine, and you must understand that as well. But the idea is to be authentic to what you are aspiring to do with a restaurant, but most importantly is to make people feel at home.
VERAVITA: You and Nadia are viewed as a power couple in the industry. I can see that just watching you together. There appears to be a mutual respect between you in terms of your disciplines. How do you divide that in terms of the business itself? Do you compartmentalize what you do? Do you overlap? Do you discuss the business at home over dinner?
NICK DI DONATO: Well, I think we’re fortunate. Sometimes working with your spouse is challenging, and many people have said that. But for us, it’s a positive in that the hospitality industry is challenging in many ways. It’s a 24-7 business. Had my wife not believed in me, we would be spending a lot of time apart because weekends, Saturdays and so on I would be at my restaurants. Having her as part of my business works very well. Within our restaurants I focus on the food and our team, while she’s there focusing on the ambience, so while working together, we bring different disciplines. One of our biggest passions is traveling the world, but more importantly, it is part of our business, because when we travel, we experience restaurants. We always work together but she’s focused on one area which is, ‘What does this place look like? What’s the feeling? What’s the ambience and the aesthetics?’ while I focus on what the food and service are and how do those work. So together we are taking two disciplines and pulling it together and getting the most out of those experiences. So, it’s not just a marriage– it’s a business marriage.
VERAVITA: It’s a rare entrepreneur that doesn’t experience some level of failure (although it’s near impossible to find one in the Liberty Group portfolio). Can you describe what you feel is or are your biggest successes and naturally if you ever failed, what was that like?
NICK DI DONATO: My biggest success is being able to have endured this industry for over close to 40 years now. And it started from a small restaurant to an organization with multiple restaurants, 1,500 employees, over 600,000 square feet in brick-and-mortar property. So that’s our biggest success – achieving that in a very challenging industry. Failures… we haven’t had many failures. We have closed a couple of restaurants, but mostly by design, mostly by choice. We’ve never failed miserably, but what we did learn from the failures is that you need to endure, you need to move forward.
VERAVITA: COVID was such a difficult period for all restaurateurs, how did you manage through that period when week by week the government seemed to be changing its mind and telling you to stay open or closed? (Author’s note: A sorrowful contemplative expression comes across Di Donato’s face as he addresses the question. You can see this was a painful time for him)
NICK DI DONATO: COVID perhaps was our most difficult time. We had to close all our restaurants for 400 days, to vacate our Florida properties. We couldn’t get to Florida for two years and quite frankly the financing to support Canada and the States just wasn’t there. We learned you don’t look back and regret the failures. You look forward and say, ‘What did I learn, and how do I succeed?’ Following COVID we have grown exponentially. We’ve opened five, maybe six properties in the past two years, which is an incredible growth rate for an industry like ours, but it was because during COVID when we were shut down…I’ll share very specific examples. I did our Union Station deal which is one of our biggest restaurants with two properties: the Bovine Wine Club and Blue Bovine. I did that deal in the depths of COVID in 2020 when nobody thought we’d ever emerge coming out – and I doubled down. I said ‘I’m doing this deal because I can get the deal now because of COVID and turn a negative into a positive’.
VERAVITA: The industry is forever changing, new competitors, new players, some good, some less, and so how do you keep sharp, how do keep being the best of the best? Is it just sort of a core belief in your Italian culture and heritage that flows through your properties?
NICK DI DONATO: Well from my perspective I always try to identify where we’re going with the industry. We go to many restaurants around the world to see what they are doing well and how can we do it better. I do think it’s innate in terms of my Italian culture. In Italy, design is very important, and style. All our restaurants are created through the eye of my wife, Nadia. The style, the design – is always impeccable, and leading edge. In terms of hospitality, that’s what we do. It’s not a forced sort of job for me. This is my life and what I do. And so, we try to inspire that into all our team. You know, when we’re welcoming people, we know they’re here for a short period of time. They’re here to enjoy their experience with us. And we must do whatever we can to make sure that that’s what’s happening.
VERAVITA: You’ve built a world class team throughout your organization. I’ve eaten at and experienced many of your restaurants, and there seems to be a consistent sense of pride amongst your staff. With the scale of your organization how have you been able to do that?
NICK DI DONATO: I think the most important thing is the mutual respect for everybody you have with your team. Whether they’re a bus boy, the executive chef, or the general manager everybody is an integral part of your team. It’s almost like cogs in a wheel, you lose one cog the wheel falls apart, so whatever level they’re at you treat them with respect and you allow them to grow and learn. I’ve seen people that were bus boys moving into our management positions. I was a busboy at 15 and did that until I was 18, I washed dishes, I did everything you can think of.
VERAVITA: Your mother must be very proud of her son, the Order of Ontario, and countless other acknowledgments. These are huge accolades that you don’t frequently see in the hospitality industry, certainly in the restaurant part of the hospitality industry. How does your mom feel about that?
NICK DI DONATO: My mom’s immensely proud but her biggest thing she says is ‘you work too hard!’ And ‘you’re not eating enough!’ She wants me to be at her house every Sunday. She wants me to visit. And she says, ‘You know what? Your dad would be incredibly proud. We’re proud. Just come see me more often.’
VERAVITA: When you look back at your journey, if you could find a single proudest moment, what would it be?
NICK DI DONATO: I think it was the first restaurant I opened in 1994 (The Left Bank on Queen Street). This was a career change. I left a very secure job. I was an engineer with Imperial Oil, which was the largest company in the world at the time. It was doing extremely well. But I wasn’t happy at what I was doing. It was my mission to be able to execute and open my first restaurant, which is something I was passionate about. It wasn’t about work. It was about what I wanted to do and a career that I thought about having. And it’s one of those moments that you remember forever. I’ve opened many, many restaurants, but I still remember the day I opened my very first restaurant. And, you know, the one thing that was most important to me is that I had the support of my wife Nadia. She could have been one of those persons that said, ‘We have a great career, we are secure, we can stay in this (my engineering career) and do well forever.’ But she said, ‘You need to be happy.’ I think these are family values that are a little bit lost in society today, right? She was there right from day one supporting me. Nadia was 25, we had a kid, one child on the way. And, you know, she was fully supportive.
Author’s note: The duality of this man shows as his expression softens and a tear wells up in his eye, when he talks about the importance of Nadia in his life. As much as he is a business powerhouse, it’s the humanity and humility of this man that is most engaging.
VERAVITA: There’s sacrifice in building a business. Especially when you have a young family. What inspired your father to come to Canada and how does that belief play out through your organization.
NICK DI DONATO: I look at my dad, he comes from a small town near Napoli, called Avellino, a small mountain town with only 1200 or so inhabitants. He was doing well in Italy, but he decided to leave, because he was always looking out for ‘what are my children going to do?’ I have some team members…you know my executive chefs in the Michelin restaurants, like Davide, Davide you interviewed at Don Alfonso. He lives in Capri and was working for a two-star Michelin restaurant, had a great career and he picked up his entire family to come to Toronto and start from scratch, hopefully get a Michelin star in Toronto and to change his whole life. He didn’t do it for himself, because he was doing well, his wife was doing well, he did it for his next generation. There’s a lot of sacrifices that go on today and people don’t realize but I know all the sacrifices my team are making, like my dad did when he first came over.”
My mom’s immensely proud but her biggest thing she says is ‘you work too hard!’ And ‘you’re not eating enough!’ She wants me to be at her house every Sunday. She wants me to visit. And she says, ‘You know what? Your dad would be incredibly proud. We’re proud. Just come see me more often.’
— NICK DI DONATO
VERAVITA: I understand there’s an interesting story about your mother.
NICK DI DONATO: My mother was a trailblazer. If you can think back, she was going to University of Naples back in the 50s. And she became a midwife, because they didn’t have many, if any, women doctors at the time, so she became a midwife. And she was assigned to my dad’s town as the midwife for the town. She delivered all the babies in the town. And that’s where my dad met her. She was an older woman on a motorcycle delivering babies. And my grandmother would have nothing to do with her. She was a rebel. And they pretty well had to elope. And I’ll share this with you. I was born in my home with my mother and dad on their own because the next town midwife was nowhere near us. And so, my mother had to deliver me on her own.
VERAVITA: You know, you talk about Napoli and the region you hearken from and as the birthplace of the famous pizza margherita and reputedly the pizza itself. You talk about pizza with some reverence. I know you have a passion for this. I understand you’ve got something going on in Miami.
NICK DI DONATO: You know, one thing I always try to do in our business is aspire to be the best in class, in whatever we do. I’ve seen a movement in the pizza industry. Pizza is not just a little pizza place or a snack but has become a significant food in significant restaurants. So, I partnered with Francesco Martucci,who I would say is the number one pizza chef in the world. He is recognized as such throughout Italy. And we are doing a project together in Miami. Obviously, it’s true to traditions. But we will also start venturing outside the box, outside of Italy, we’re a global society. So, when you see Martucci’s pizzas, in our new location in Wynwood, there will be pizza with caviar, which is not a traditional pizzeria. He has a pizza tasting menu as well. It’s almost like a Michelin restaurant, which we pair with wines or champagnes or beers, He’s known for that kind of thing, so it’s taking pizza to a whole different level, which has never been seen in the United States. It’s a leap of faith, because Americans like what they do and how they do it, but for us it’s introducing something completely new, which we are sure is best in class, and I’m sure it will be successful.
VERAVITA: You talked about the importance of next generations and I assume legacy in business and life. I understand your son has joined with you and Liberty Entertainment Group.
NICK DI DONATO: My son Luca, who’s a lawyer, was with Stikeman Elliott, one of the largest legal firms in Canada, and left his profession to come to ours. He’s now our legal counsel, but also Vice President of our organization. How great is that? And it’s been incredibly fantastic to work with him the past three months that he’s been on board. You know, he was instrumental in bringing the Stadium portfolio to the table, negotiating that whole deal. This is a whole different level of negotiation than we’ve been accustomed to in terms of restaurants or facilities. We’re talking about a range from DaNico or Don Alfonso to Stadium Food…to Stadium! We’re going to change the Stadium Food culture a little bit because we will have four restaurants within the stadium, four restaurants which we will be reflecting the quality restaurants we have in our portfolio. Our chefs will all work together in terms of creating the best menu possible to deliver in these unique environments. And I would bet people are going to be surprised at what we can deliver, even in a stadium environment.
And no doubt, they will. Reimagining food is second nature to this entrepreneur. I, for one, look forward to trying a Di Donato style new-age hot dog or gourmet pizza when watching a Blue Jays game with my kids in the near future. – VV
Photography by Scott Lennon & Videography by Henry Shephard of Films First, at Nick Di Donato’s DaNico Restaurant
