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People Pleaser
By Shayne Stephens
June 28, 2011
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Whether you’re the Prime Minister of Canada in search of lunch between campaign stops, or celebrating the Royal Wedding in style, Felipe Gomes has a table for you
Felipe Gomes likes to make people happy. It’s the reason he got into the foodservice industry. The reason he insists on being actively involved in numerous charity, education and mentoring endeavours. The reason why, quite frankly, he gets out of bed in the morning.
It also just so happens that thanks to his genuine charisma, and a mother who modeled the importance of taking care of others, making people happy is Gomes’ specialty. From a business perspective this has paid off in spades, because his wildly popular London, Ont.-based restaurant, Aroma, is a pillar of success.
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“It’s funny because you really do have to be a good businessman to do well in this industry,” he says. “Money is a good motivator. But I believe that success is better measured by the gratitude received from those you serve and by remembering the less fortunate. And I have always made it a priority to have people see that Aroma isn’t just a business. It’s so much more. We never turn anyone away with an empty stomach, whether you have a reservation or if you’re homeless and happen to wander in.”
Originally from Portugal, and the 11th of 17 children, Gomes is the quintessential self-made man, starting out as a dishwasher at the five star Le Meridien hotel in Lisbon and working his way up to banquet department supervisor in no time. While there, he met his wife, a Canadian exchange student who knew that his knack for learning languages - at the time he knew Portuguese, French, English and German - would give him solid footing in Canada.
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With the help of a Finance and Administration degree from Cornell University, Gomes eventually found himself as the general manager at the Hilton in London, where he spent five years honing his craft and networking. But he saw a seismic hole in London’s bustling culinary scene: it was missing a great Mediterranean restaurant. And voila: in 2001 Aroma was born.
What has made Aroma the success it is today is, quite simply, Gomes’ focus on the front of the house.
“It all comes down to this,” he explains. “You need to walk through your restaurant as if you were a client. For that time, you aren’t simply the owner, you are the client’s ambassador. Is the temperature right? Is the sound level of the music right? Is the wall dusty? Is the person answering the phone polite? All these things matter. And your expectations need to be high - if they are higher than your customers’ you know that you will deliver. Remember, people judge the cleanliness of your kitchen by what they see out front, so the front always needs to be impeccable. It always pays off.”
And it certainly did recently when Gomes had a very special surprise visitor. “I have been lucky enough to serve all of the Prime Ministers since 1987,” says Gomes, “but I was able to serve Prime Minister Harper just a few weeks ago for lunch. It was a surreal experience. He showed up with no reservation and with only 20 minutes notice and stayed for an hour. So the lesson is, and I tell this to my staff all the time, is to always be prepared. You never know who might show up!”
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