Worst Day on the Job: When Bobby Milheron had to keep this Vancouver restaurant’s closing a secret

In 2019, Bobby Milheron was working as the executive chef of West when he learned that the Vancouver restaurant was going to shutter. He wasn’t allowed to tell anyone—not even his team. Now serving in the role of executive chef at Wentworth Hospitality (the group behind Vancouver eateries like Homer St. Cafe and Bar, Tableau Bar Bistro, Maxine’s Cafe and Bar and the soon-to-open Folietta), Milheron reflects on the torture of keeping West’s news to himself and how that experience prepared him for the leadership role he’s in today.

I got a phone call from the powers above that said they couldn’t negotiate the lease to keep going in the space. Our last service was New Year’s Eve, 2019. I found out about four months prior, which was tricky, because I not only couldn’t tell any of the people that I was working with what was happening—because the [leadership team] wanted to make a proper announcement—but I also had to start looking for somewhere to land after.

I was actually approached by Wentworth around the same time, so it worked out fairly well in that regard, but it left me with a long lead time before I could start with the company. Eventually, we made the announcement and all the staff found out. It was pretty sad—West had been open for 20 years and it was my second time working there (I was a sous chef in 2013). It was kind of like home, you know? I spent a lot of time there, and it was probably one of my favourite kitchens to work in.

When you take over as the chef of a restaurant, the first year you’re just trying to figure it out. The second year, you’re starting to catch your pace. And then the third year, which would have been 2020, is when you can really start to make some movement forward. So I didn’t get the opportunity to push things as far as I wanted to. But I did get to build a great team. It was very important to me that their careers were still going to be headed in the right direction.

When I took the position at Wentworth, it was just Homer St. and Tableau, and then we added Maxine’s, so I was able to (not immediately, but eventually) bring a couple of people with me.

At West, I had to decide if I was going to work all the way until the end and see it through. It was upsetting and challenging to see all these changes happening that were out of my control. I definitely felt short-sighted on a lot of those things. When I took the job, I knew about the lease coming up, and I was promised that it was going to get renewed. I do understand that things happen and it’s not their fault. But I had to make that decision, and I also had to decide on taking the Wentworth job, and it was kind of a tumultuous time in the relationship I was in. So I ended the relationship and took the new job—it was everything in one fell swoop.

It was probably one of the most stressful times in my career—and I had no one to talk to about it. I spend 12 to 13 hours a day in the kitchen with these people and I couldn’t tell them what I was feeling. You have to just pretend that everything’s OK when it isn’t at all.

To the version of myself that I was then, I would probably recommend eating healthy, trying to get sleep and exercising. A lot of people in the industry revert to drinking or substances or things like that. I certainly did and looking back I think I would’ve had an easier time comprehending the whole thing without that in my life.

People are so important. Without those people that I worked with, I wouldn’t be where I am now, and I think once you put some effort and time into coaching and growing people, it’s the most rewarding part of the industry. Now I do a lot less cooking and a lot more [managing] people, and I think without those experiences and going through that rough patch, I wouldn’t be able to have the difficult conversations and be as composed as I need to be for my current role.

This interview has been edited and condensed.