One of the most adroit business brains in town operates beneath an anarchic typhoon of shoulder-length hair. Witold’s Brain whirs and hums behind eyes which peer through round rims.
Witold Twardowski (pronounced VEE-told) is taller, beefier — and older. But the visual effect is reminiscent of John Lennon, circa Two Virgins.
And if you’ve lived in Calgary awhile, it’s inconceivable that you’ve never put napkin to knee in a restaurant he’s owned, partnered, founded, designed or influenced. Or maybe you don’t get out much.
Since opening his first place — remember Ambrosia? — 25 years ago, Twardowski has done what he could to banish mediocrity from a downtown which was too buttoned-down, too white-bread, too doggone DULL.
His friend, Eileen Stan — president of the Victoria Crossing Business Revitalization Zone (BRZ) — admires his gift for spotting diamonds in the rough.
“We’ve been told many times, over and over . . . ‘that’s a lousy location, that’ll never work there, you can’t do that,’ ” she said.
“Well, you know what? If you do something properly, if it’s distinctive enough, and the people can’t get what you’re offering anywhere else, they will come.”
Examples? Try River Cafe.
“As a group, we saw the potential in this concrete bunker that was sitting there. Largely, I would credit Sal Howell, my (former) partner. She’s done a phenomenal job,” said Witold, no longer in that mix.
Or Teatro.
“A lotta people said we were crazy to do Teatro at that time. I’m not involved there any more, but my ex-partner’s a happy guy.”
We may not always be sympatico with Twardowski’s gothic personal tastes — check the lifesize angel-cum-candelabra standing watch over the interior of Mescalero. But you can’t argue with his personality-drenched interiors, or the food. Sure beats another steak house.
He was trained as an engineer, but seldom sounds like one.
How many engineers do you hear murmuring about a building’s patina?
No, Witold goes with his gut, his artistic instincts and his abiding respect for history.
“Take Teatro,” he said. “It had been out of service as a bank for 20-30 years. “The building was beautiful, but it was a blur in people’s minds as they went by. It’s part of having a quiet ‘listening’ to the building, then to bring it forth in a way people haven’t experienced before.”
Currently, the empire includes full or shared ownership of the Mescalero complex, Divino, the resurrected Latin Corner, Desperados (formerly Dusty’s), and the exquisite Ranche, in Fish Creek Provincial Park, conceived by the “heroic, creative Mitzi and Larry Wasyliw.”
Down the years, Witold has been an urban iconoclast, a voice crying in the wilderness of hillbilly heaven.
But at long last, the rest of town may be catching up.
Recently elected to the board of the Victoria Crossing BRZ, Twardowski is “heartened” by the new life — and private cash — being injected into the vast district from Rouleauville to the Rundle Ruins, and including Victoria Park.
He’s 100 per cent right to say this has been the city’s “shabbiest armpit.”
But Witold gets downright pumped when he scans the newly-scrubbed brick facades on 1st Street S.W., then shows you where Graham O’Connor is to re-locate his classic retail clothing business.
He applauds new blocks of high-end condos, attracting residents back to a long-time wasteland. Ditto the resuscitated urban appeal of southeast 11th Avenue, from his own Desperados, west to the fresh-looking, newly-tenanted Louise Block.
The urban iconoclast has even developed respect for the Stampede Board, which he once dismissed as “cheesy.”
“There’s a new understanding between the (Vic Park) community association, the Stampede Board, and the city. They’re working together to address land use issues in the area north of the Stampede,” he said.
“The Round Up Centre expansion is second to none — it’s an incredible facility they’ve built, and they’ve done it in a classy way. That’s not a word that has generally been associated with the Stampede.”
Then again, he confessed the Stampede “became more real for me” after opening Desperados last summer.
“We launched on the eve of the Stampede. I’ve never seen anything like it,” the hair-framed face brightened.
“Stampede isn’t necessarily good for everybody’s business, but it certainly was for ours.”
What more does any urban iconoclast need to convince him it may be time to go Western?
