Victoria Island, British Columbia, Canada is home to the latest Cambro Featured Foodservice Business of the Week. The Six Mile Public House is ranked as one of the Top Restaurants in Victoria and Chef Jeff Kelland shares a bit of his and the restaurant’s story.

What inspired you to get into foodservice?

I was young and broke and had no clue about food or cooking and a room-mate taught me how to make something from nothing in our bare kitchen. I was intrigued, I was hooked, I was in…

What does he love about the restaurant?

We nourish. We nourish the guest with sustenance, and hospitality, we nourish each other with knowledge and respect, we nourish ourselves with knowledge and pride.

The most interesting thing to happen to The Six Mile Public House?

We’ve got bees! 3 years ago we embarked on a bumpy twisty ride to having our own apiary. Not only does it improve the quality of our garden crops, our hives produce some of the yummiest honey I’ve ever had.

What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve overcome?

I think the biggest challenge any of us ever overcomes is ourselves: Getting your ego out of the way, allowing yourself to listen to the guest while maintaining your own vision and learning to ALWAYS say yes. It was a struggle for us to realize that if we kept trying to ‘convince’ the guest that local and sustainable was the way to go we would continue to fail. Instead we stepped off the soap box and embraced humility and started letting our food speak for itself, changing things piece by piece, bit by bit, until we were able to get to where we are today, and bring our clientele with us.

What Cambro products help make your business work?

We have many Cambro Products that we use daily, but our biggest asset is definitely our insulated storage cabinet. It reminds me of an early scene in Star Wars, when Luke is cleaning up the newly purchased droids and says “This guy’s got a lot of carbon scoring, looks like you’ve seen some action.” The unit has been with the Pub for about a decade and has seen some action. But darn if it doesn’t still work great. We recently just executed our most successful and busiest Father’s Day Brunch ever, and that unit, despite its scars and ‘carbon scoring’ kept my entrees hot and fresh all day long, saving us much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair.

We wish Chef Kelland and the entire team and the Six Mile Public House continued success. As the business of the week selection, Chef Kelland will receive a prize package of Cambro storage products.

Links for Six Mile Public House:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

Have a great business? Nominate it to be the Cambro Foodservice Business of the Week – click here!