Five-year-old Lucia Salvador may have the distinction of being Vancouver's youngest restaurant owner.
“In 2010, I found out my wife was pregnant,” notes her father, restauranteur Erv Salvador. “And as a young guy at the time, a service/restaurant guy my whole life, I'd never really believed in RRSPs, or saving money, or mutual funds, or being a grown-up. But you go through this change, and you realize that you're going to be responsible for this human person for the next 20 years of its life. So I said: 'What do I know? I know restaurants. If I'm going to ensure my daughter's future, it's going to be with a restaurant'.”
Now, five years later, Lucia owns 100 per cent of Lucy's Eastside Diner, and despite her relative inexperience, has inspired father Erv to bring East Van its very own 24-hour eatery, a place that offers tasty cocktails and classic diner grub in a retro atmosphere.
“We're not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Erv says. “We're trying to do what diners have done for decades: simple food, done as best you can, and keep it affordable so people can come back three, four, five times a week. And we get that.”