Alumni Successes

“The consensus in this city is that nightclubs are not approachable. Every place is trying to be the coolest in the city, but I’ve never heard of anyone trying to be the most enjoyable place,” says Conrad.

“We’re very hands-on. There are not a lot of places where the owners greet customers and pick garbage off the floor. We set a precedent as ownership, and that differentiates us,” adds Stefan.

And though the pandemic hit less than two years after the brothers assumed ownership of Door Three, they qualified for government relief during the lockdown and used the opportunity to revamp the establishment.

With the renovations and pandemic in the rearview, the Calabrese brothers are focused on integrating and elevating the Door Three experience for both new and repeat guests.

“There are places that are their own demise because they get too lazy or comfortable with the customer experience,” explains Stefan.

“We have multiple hours when this venue is empty, so looking at how else we can use this space functionally for activations and events – that’s what differentiates a good operator and owner, by going the extra mile,” says Conrad.

“How can we build a community that’s not just bottle service girls and liquor on King West?” smiles Stefan. “There’s more we can do with our platform.”

When Ellis (Yanyi) Luo was named to the Top 30, she was surprised, proud and flattered with the recognition. “I feel really proud to represent my company, represent my school, represent my race and ethnic background,” she said.

Now, as the university relations and recruiting manager for Marriott International, Luo gets to travel across Canada to share her passion for hospitality and tourism with youth. “I feel like I have a bigger mission, not just recruiting for Marriott, [but] to bring talent back into this industry… showing them that there are different career paths and great opportunities in hospitality. I think that has been really rewarding.”

For Kimberly Crabtree, a guest speaker in one of Chris Gibbs’ first year HTH 102 Service and Professionalism classes stuck with her through her career. “We had a gentleman come into the class who said whenever you see people working in housekeeping, that means they’re hard workers,” she explained. “I wanted to get that on my resume, to get some life experience.”

So, for one of her first jobs while still a student at the Ted Rogers School, Crabtree went to the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, to work in the rooms division, in housekeeping, where she spent 10 months. Following that, she worked at the Fairmont Royal York in the Library Bar and at the Ritz-Carlton.

“The hotel industry is a very demanding one,” Crabtree said. “It’s a 24-hour operation, so I was working a lot then going to school to finish things, and then doing it all over again.”

She graduated in 2019 with a full-time job which led her to where she is today, the director of events at Oretta Hospitality Inc.