Cactus Club founder Scott Morison wants to encourage young investors on staff
Michael Kane
Sun
Yaletown’s new steakhouse Pinkys is designed to be attractive to women as well as men, says owner Scott Morison, co-founder of the Cactus Club. He also developed Browns Restaurant Group in which managers become owners. Photograph by : Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun
When he was building the Cactus Club Cafe chain, restaurateur Scott Morison confesses he was “very great at being greedy. I woke up every morning and it was like, ‘What can I do for me.’ “
Today he’s still opening new restaurants — the latest is Pinkys, the first steakhouse in Yaletown — but he wakes up each day more interested in creating success for other people.
“It’s a different money model that I call the ’10, 20, 30 plan’,” Morison said in an interview. “In 10 years, I want to create 10 millionaires, in 20 years 20 millionaires, and in 30 years, 30 millionaires.”
If all goes to plan, those millionaires will be young people in his business who have the heart and drive to succeed as co-owners of his restaurants.
In the case of Pinkys, which officially opens on Monday, general manager Todd Hann has one year to buy 50 per cent of the operation at cost. If the concept succeeds, Hann may find he can borrow the money from the bank on the strength of the restaurant’s cash flow.
But what hope is there for a steakhouse called Pinkys? Morison’s colleagues insist they love the name, which is derived from a traditional steakhouse called The Pink Pony in Old Scottsdale, Ariz.
Some believe Pinkys will appeal to women who may be turned off by the high-priced, big, dark room format of the traditional steakhouse. With its modest footprint of less than 3,000 square feet, prices to match a range of pocketbooks, and a casual, comfortable design by 27-year-old Jillian Harris, fuelled by upbeat lighting and music, Pinkys is not your classic carnivore castle.
Others say the name Pinkys evokes images of a roguish rum runner from the Prohibition era. You just know a guy like that would want steak on the side.
Morison confesses to second thoughts about the name at one stage when he suggested Morison’s Steakhouse would sound more masculine. “But the staff rebelled and it got very personal. All these people that I barely knew said, ‘No, you’re calling it Pinkys because we love that name.’ “
Morison didn’t get to be a wealthy entrepreneur without listening to his staff, although he recalls that by 2003, after 15 years of building Cactus Club, he no longer recognized his staff and was weary of watching multiple locations morph into cookie-cutter big -box restaurants.
Around the time he married his long-time girlfriend, Elizabeth, he realized he hadn’t been growing as a person, sold his shares to his long-time partners and mentors at Earls Restaurants, and walked away.
About nine months later he opened Browns, an anti-big box casual restaurant on Lonsdale in North Vancouver where he could see the front door from anywhere in the house.
“I call it the white-eye concept,” said Morison, 42. “When the manager stands in the room he should be able to see the whites of everyone’s eyes — customers, staff, kitchen, everyone.”
In addition to occupying less than half the floor space of an Earls or Cactus Club, Browns launched the idea of a chain where each outlet is tailored to its community and reflects the individuality of its owner-manager.
Currently there are four Browns with two more opening in late February and early March, about the time a second Pinkys is scheduled to open in Kitsilano.
Morison, meanwhile, owns the brands while enjoying “fresh adventures” designing and opening new locations, developing menus and choosing wines, working with staff, looking after customers, and once again growing as a person.
SCOTT MORISON’S CULINARY CAREER
1979 — 14-year-old dishwasher at Husky’s Car and Truck Stop in Winnipeg.
1981 — Two-year culinary program at B.C. Institute of Technology.
1986 — Leaves Earls Restaurants where he has been working as a server and manager to open Cucamongas on West Broadway with business partner Richard Jaffray.
1988 — Sells Cucamongas and partners with Earls to launch the first Cactus Club Cafe on Pemberton Avenue in North Vancouver. He and Jaffray provide the “sweat equity.”
2003 — Sells stake in Cactus Club after helping it grow into a 15-restaurant chain in B.C. with two more outlets in Calgary.
2004 — Opens first “mid-size format” Browns restaurant on North Vancouver‘s Lonsdale Avenue with operating partner Derek Archer.
2007 — Opens first Pinkys Steakhouse and Cocktail Lounge in Yaletown.