Yesterday I met with Bill McCaig at 62 East Cordova in Gastown and got a happy earful on his plans for the one-story building, which he purchased last January. It’s a huge open concept space, about 4,000 sqft in total. He’s dividing it into two properties, one for retail and one for the project of his dreams: Nicli Antica Pizzeria.
Despite the Scottish surname, Bill is Italian on his mother’s side (”Nicli” is her surname). How he got here is an interesting story. He grew up in Ontario, took business marketing at Conestoga College, and went into a line of work that was far from the restaurant trade. After a decade in the wrong trade, he decided it wasn’t for him. He dropped it all (despite success), and went back to school, this time to the Cordon Bleu chef’s school in Ottawa. He worked in hotels, moved to Calgary to work garde manger at Capo, and after dining at that city’s Pucinella pizzeria, he moved to Vancouver (2008) with plans to open one of his own.
He traveled throughout northern Italy last summer, sampling pizzas along the way with his new bride, and went down to California to take the Vera Pizza Napoletana Americas Association course – the first stepping stone in getting a pizzeria certified as a Vera Pizza Napoletana establishment. There is only one certified VPN restaurant in Canada, and that it Libretto in Toronto. I was there just a month ago, and it kicked ass on every pizza I’d ever had before.
McCaig has every intention of having Nicli certified, which would make it the first and only one of its kind in Vancouver. In my conversations with him he’s put checkmarks beside all my food-nerd queries. Will the flour be “00″ Caputo? Yes. Will the tomatoes be real San Marzano’s? Yes. Will the oven be wood-fired? Yes. It’s already been purchased and is sitting in storage in Langley – an Acunto, made in Napoli. And so on. This guy isn’t screwing around.
Our Story
By Andrew Morrison – Scout Magazine
Yesterday I met with Bill McCaig at 62 East Cordova in Gastown and got a happy earful on his plans for the one-story building, which he purchased last January. It’s a huge open concept space, about 4,000 sqft in total. He’s dividing it into two properties, one for retail and one for the project of his dreams: Nicli Antica Pizzeria.
Despite the Scottish surname, Bill is Italian on his mother’s side (”Nicli” is her surname). How he got here is an interesting story. He grew up in Ontario, took business marketing at Conestoga College, and went into a line of work that was far from the restaurant trade. After a decade in the wrong trade, he decided it wasn’t for him. He dropped it all (despite success), and went back to school, this time to the Cordon Bleu chef’s school in Ottawa. He worked in hotels, moved to Calgary to work garde manger at Capo, and after dining at that city’s Pucinella pizzeria, he moved to Vancouver (2008) with plans to open one of his own.
He traveled throughout northern Italy last summer, sampling pizzas along the way with his new bride, and went down to California to take the Vera Pizza Napoletana Americas Association course – the first stepping stone in getting a pizzeria certified as a Vera Pizza Napoletana establishment. There is only one certified VPN restaurant in Canada, and that it Libretto in Toronto. I was there just a month ago, and it kicked ass on every pizza I’d ever had before.
McCaig has every intention of having Nicli certified, which would make it the first and only one of its kind in Vancouver. In my conversations with him he’s put checkmarks beside all my food-nerd queries. Will the flour be “00″ Caputo? Yes. Will the tomatoes be real San Marzano’s? Yes. Will the oven be wood-fired? Yes. It’s already been purchased and is sitting in storage in Langley – an Acunto, made in Napoli. And so on. This guy isn’t screwing around.