Me & My Toronto: Conviction Restaurant

chef Marc Thuet

Conviction Restaurant

Owner Staffs Conviction Restaurant with Ex-Cons
[TorontoSun.com - May 09]

According to a recent front page of the Vancouver Province, Devon Sims is one of the top-10 car thieves wanted in British Columbia.

But right now, the 25-year-old former drug addict and criminal can be found in a chef's smock preparing steak tartar for diners at Conviction, a King St. W. restaurant that opened over the weekend to give ex-cons a second chance.

"It's like going to the zoo, let's go see the criminals," the affable redhead says with a smile. "Then they'll taste the food and have it be great and they'll be coming back."

The bold experiment is being cooked up by celebrity bad boy chef Marc Thuet and his wife -- and the restaurant's owner -- Biana Zorich. With every challenge and crisis documented by a film crew for an upcoming reality show on Citytv, the couple has spent the last few months interviewing 84 former criminals, choosing 24 for the project and then whittling them down to seven servers and six kitchen cooks to work alongside their regular staff in time for Saturday night's public opening.

But while they may be big hearted, not every kind of criminal was invited to apply.

"I couldn't have murderers, rapists or child molesters," explains Zorich, 33, as her husband nods at her side. "We're parents, as well. We couldn't give people like that a second chance. But most of these guys are just lost people who needed a straight road."

Adds Thuet: "If you put on a CV that you were in prison, nobody calls you back. It's a very tough go. They are fantastic people with great hearts."

All except for one, that is. On their first day of shooting, one of the 24 threatened to kill Zorich for making a remark about his hair. "I had security for two weeks here," she says with a shrug. "I've been threatened before when I worked as a bartender and that was by regular people."

HIS OWN ISSUES
The 45-year-old Thuet has battled his own drug issues and says his past helped him connect with these ex-cons.

"Everybody has their demons. Definitely, I had mine. I was dealing with addiction for 25 years," says Thuet, who coincidentally marked his fourth year of sobriety on the night Conviction opened. "I'm like a warden, but a nice one. I told them, 'If you want to learn, there's a lot I can teach you. If you don't, you can get the hell out.' "

Hours before opening, the couple's restaurant, formerly called Bite Me!, is in controlled chaos, with new ovens just being installed, the wood floor being washed and Zorich still in curlers. A sense of nervousness and excitement fills the air.

"I'm hoping customers are not going to be judgmental and take this new concept and open their hearts to it," Zorich says.

"People are always going to think they belong to the loser part of society," Thuet says of his felon staff. "We're not here to change people. What I care about is helping these guys."

Guys like Sims. The career criminal has been in and out of jail for boosting dozens of cars, yanking ATMs out of buildings and trafficking in drugs. He had started to turn his life around but went off track again when his fiance and baby daughter were killed last year by a drunk driver in Vernon. What ensued was a month-long crime spree so out of control that even he knew it had to end. "It was fun times but it was crazy s---. I'm glad it's in the past. I talked to my five-year-old daughter and she put it into perspective. I lost one child, I don't have to lose another."

One January morning he picked up his brother Brad Lambert, a fellow partner in crime and drugs, and together they drove their stolen Hyundai Elantra across the country to find a new life. It took them nine days to get here, with the first few spent in painful withdrawal as Sims detoxed from his $1,000-a-day drug habit.

"I've been clean for four months," he says proudly.

They found out about Conviction while staying in an Oshawa shelter and with his past experience as a jailhouse cook, Sims made the cut as a chef, while his brother is working for the first time as a server -- though he'll be wearing long sleeves to cover all his prison tattoos.

Sims admits he's never heard of half the ingredients he's now using, but he's a quick study and has been under far more pressure in a prison kitchen than he imagines he'll ever face in a high-end one. "When you're cooking for 450 inmates, it has to be on time and it has to taste good or," he says with a grin, "you're going to have a riot."

He's hoping he and the restaurant will be here long after the TV documentary ends. He can see a future now and he's promised his daughter that he will bring her out to live with him very soon.

"At first I thought this was just a publicity stunt, but Chef and Biana, they're the real deal. They genuinely care," Sim says before heading back into the kitchen. "This is the opportunity of a lifetime, I'm totally stoked. To have someone trust you, it makes you want to do good for them."

His mentor chef insists diners have no need to hide their steak knives. "Don't be scared," he says of his parolees. "We're giving them a second chance. Open your hearts and do the same."
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Petite Thuet

The 800 square-ft boite across from Summerhill LCBO (how convenient) that is reminiscent of Parisian boulangeries/patisseries.
These were the pastries on display the afternoon I stopped by. I wanted a croissant. [flickr.com]

New location at 1 King St. W.

Review
Cozy bakery-cafés are a dime a dozen in the east and west ends, but they are hard to come by in the downtown core—until now. Chef Marc Thuet, one of Toronto’s favourite French imports, brings his signature baked goods to the business crowd at King and Yonge. A rustic oasis with leather armchairs and pantry shelves lined with preserves, soups and bread, Petite Thuet is a welcome contrast to the hubbub that surrounds it.
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