With three award-winning restaurants, Stephen Beckta has been setting the bar for top-notch service for more than 20 years

By Janet Wilson

Photographs by Tim Skinner

When Stephen Beckta was 13 years old and working part time as a busser in the ByWard Market, he dreamt of opening his own restaurant and hiring staff who would become like family. Today, Ottawa’s most celebrated restaurateur owns three award-winning establishments: Beckta, Play and Gezellig.

He began working in the business at Malibu Jack’s on Clarence Street, bussing tables, cooking and dishwashing. He loved the work and atmosphere so much that he dropped out of high school, eventually working in a variety of local pubs and restaurants. During this time, he began his lifelong association with the Boys and Girls Club (BGC Ottawa), first as an attendee and later as a longtime member and chair of the board of directors, where he is now director emeritus.
Finding his path

“When I first started working in restaurants, the staff at Malibu Jack’s took me in and made me feel like part of their family. I felt very valued and respected. I knew then and there that I wanted to open my own restaurant one day, so that I could basically hire my restaurant family to be surrounded by the people I cared about.”

At age 20, after a harsh breakup with a girlfriend, he set off to backpack through Europe. After running out of money in Amsterdam, he found a job selling tickets at an American comedy club called Boom Chicago, a popular venue that helped launch the careers of comedy superstars such as Seth Meyers and Jordan Peele.

“I did well at selling tickets, but couldn’t help but notice that they were losing money on food and beverage. I told the management that I could turn that around, so after one season, they entrusted a 21-year-old with managing their food and beverage operation, a 300-seat place in downtown Amsterdam.”

After two years, he returned to Ottawa and began working at Ritz 3 on Nepean Street. At the urging of a friend, he signed up for a wine course at Algonquin College and fell in love with the concept of wine, graduating from the sommelier program with honours in 1998.

New York City experience
After attending a friend’s wedding in Virginia, he decided to visit a woman he’d met a few weeks later in New York City. While sparks didn’t fly, Stephen’s love affair with the Big Apple took hold and he spent the next four years working for some of the biggest names in the restaurant business.

“My friend, the bride from that wedding, encouraged me to bring a résumé to New York. I heard they were looking for sommeliers and ended up getting a job with celebrated French chef Daniel Boulud, opening up his restaurant Café Boulud on the Upper East Side in 1998. I learned how little I knew about wine and food and hospitality at that time.”

Stephen oversaw an extensive wine cellar, creating a wine list that won two Wine Spectator Awards of Excellence. From there, he spent two years at Eleven Madison Park working for another famed restaurateur, Danny Meyer.

“Going to New York City at age 24 was another one of those in-over-my-head experiences, where I learned so much. I was fresh on the heels of graduating and suddenly I’m working for two of the best restaurateurs in the world. It was like drinking through a firehose, for sure.”

Building an empire in Ottawa
During a visit back home to attend another friend’s wedding, Stephen serendipitously met the love of his life, Maureen Cunningham, at the reception dinner. After a brief long-distance romance, Stephen headed back to Ottawa. Determined to see his long-held dream become reality, the gutsy 29-year-old opened his flagship restaurant—Beckta Dining & Wine—in 2003 on Nepean Street, in the same Victorian townhouse where he once worked at the Ritz.

Today, the space is home to the popular North & Navy restaurant, while in 2014 Beckta moved to the beautifully restored Grant House (named for a member of Parliament and Canada’s first surgeon general) at 150 Elgin St., a stunning two-and-a-half storey tan brick heritage home, dating to 1875. Prior to Beckta, the building was Friday’s Roast Beef House for 37 years.

“When I first opened Beckta, it quickly received a lot of accolades and awards and the team kept pushing for special tasting menus. With our fine dining rooms and wine bar, it earned a reputation as a special occasion spot, but hospitality doesn’t have to be reserved for special occasions.”

Expanding horizons
Six years later in 2009, Stephen opened Play Food & Wine on a prime corner in the ByWard Market at 1 York St. The lively, contemporary restaurant boasts an open-concept kitchen and sleek bar, which quickly made a name for itself for its focus on well-designed, seasonal sharing plates and a rotating selection of cheeses and charcuteries, as well as an extensive wine list.

With a desire to own a “great local neigbhourhood spot,” Stephen jumped at the chance to open a third restaurant closer to his home. “I live in Westboro, so when a building came up and we were able to open on Richmond Road, Gezellig fulfilled another long-held dream,” says Stephen, who opened the doors in 2012.

With its soaring ceilings, upscale, welcoming atmosphere and outstanding service, Gezellig’s expertly conceived menu has made the restaurant a fixture in one of Ottawa’s favourite neighbourhoods. Located at 337 Richmond Rd., Gezellig is based on a Dutch word that describes a warm atmosphere and sense of belonging.

Challenges and resilience
While the tenacious, 51-year-old entrepreneur acknowledges that owning restaurants can be a risky business—about 60 per cent of restaurants close in the first three years of operation—he credits his staff for his success.

“Hopefully, every interaction between our staff and guests and suppliers is an overwhelming sense of hospitality and being cared for. Food and wine are merely tools in order to care for people—they’re a component of what makes an experience. But how people feel when they’re in your place is the key. At some restaurants, it’s all about the food and wine, but for us, these are viewed as delicious tools that we use to care for people.”

Known for his attention to detail, empathy and desire to see people happy, Stephen entrusts his team, especially his longtime managing partner, Clay Cardillo, for running a smooth, day-to-day operation. Clay also manages the wine list at Gezellig, while wine director and sommelier Jordan Sabourin, who has been with the Beckta Restaurant Group since 2009, oversees the wine list at

Play and Beckta. While Stephen knows the bulk of his 130 staff, he spends a bit more time at his main office located at Beckta during the week.

“When it comes to menu planning for three distinct restaurants, you hire the right people. You give them some general direction and guardrails and empower them, offering the occasional feedback and let them go with a great sense of trust,” says, Stephen, who has a 19-year-old son.

Secrets of success
Stephen acknowledges that the pandemic years were challenging as dining out was one of the first things that people cut from their budgets.

Stephen says recruiting and retaining the right staff, who have an inherent inclination to care for others, is the key to his success. “Hopefully, we create an environment where they can thrive and do the things that make them happy, be it cooking, hospitality, serving or cleaning and whatever it is they do.”

Stephen says the pandemic has left a lasting impact on his personal routines, too. After working four to five nights a week at his restaurants, he suddenly began spending hours each day shopping for fresh produce and enjoying making delicious meals for his family from scratch.

“During this time, we also started a new business called Curated by Beckta, where we created fine dining meal kits in order to be able to hire our staff back. In doing so, the kits became really popular, but none of our three chefs were comfortable going on camera. We knew that we wanted to do videos to show people at home how to finish these kits and it fell to me to record them a couple of times a week. I ended up getting pretty good at cooking because the chefs were basically coaching me how to do this. Now, I love it and cook from scratch almost every night of the week when we’re not out doing something.”

Stephen says the healthy eating has impacted him in a positive way. About eight months ago, he reduced his intake of ultra-processed foods and free sugars from his diet and his health has gotten exponentially better.

Culinary inspirations
When preparing a meal, he often refers to his current addiction—the New York Times cooking app—which boasts thousands of recipes from top chefs and home cooks. “It’s a very interactive site with thousands of comments on each recipe, so if you read those comments, you see how people adapt the recipes. It feels like you’re part of the community and you get a lot of great ideas to cook things you wouldn’t otherwise. I’ve really expanded my repertoire for cooking Middle Eastern, Asian and South American flavours and using new ingredients.”

While it’s hard to pin down a go-to wine, Stephen admits he’s got a lot of favourites. When it comes to selecting a wine for a meal, he says it depends on the day, the season, the company and the food. Stephen says his wine director Jordan has been piquing his interest in Spanish, Italian and Greek wines.

“I love French wines and some of my favourites are Vouvray, a well-known wine from the Loire Valley in France because that’s where my wife and I honeymooned. Maureen lived there while going to school, so we have special connection there. Beaujolais is probably my favourite, but I also love Canadian products, too, including Riesling and Gamay from Niagara and Pinot Noir and Pinot

Gris from Prince Edward County—there’s a lot of great stuff here.”
After earning many industry awards and accolades over the years, Stephen says the most important aspect of his restaurants is caring for the guests who choose to sit in his dining rooms.
“Of course, we look at our sales every month, but our focus has always been to achieve our mission of caring for people. We want people to rave about their experience. These things are much more important to us, including having a team that feels cohesive and operates as a family in a lot of way,” says Stephen.
Peter Hum, restaurant critic for the Ottawa Citizen, says Stephen’s success flows from his ingrained kindness and warm hospitality.
“Stephen has been a leader in the Ottawa restaurant industry for more than two decades—and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. I see that in a 2003 Ottawa Citizen profile, he was already described as ‘ridiculously kind.’ That’s why top-notch service comes so easily to him and those whom he inspires,” says Peter.

INSIDE SCOOP
WITH STEPHEN BECKTA

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I have a hot tub and love to meditate, especially in the winter. I also do yoga almost every day. My wife got me a subscription to Michael Dynie’s online yoga program, so I often try different programs. I love downhill skiing and got serious about it six years ago after taking lessons. We also did a lot of cross-country skiing at Nakkertok. But cooking is my zen place; I probably spend an hour or two cooking each day.

What’s your favourite place in Ottawa and why?

I love going to Bate Island to watch the sunset or sunrise. Nepean Point is special because we got married there.

If you could have dinner with any one person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

It would be my mom. She passed away 19 years ago and I’ve been thinking about her a lot lately. Our relationship was more as friends. We reconnected later in life after she visited me in Amsterdam. We weren’t particularly close while I was growing up, but she was always so terrific, loving and caring.

Do you have a favourite cookbook?

The NYT cooking app is my go-to, but I love the original 1999 Café Boulud cookbook that I did all the wine pairings for. I still cook out of that more than any other book. I also love Chasing Flavor by Dan Kluger, a chef I worked with in New York City, who has a few restaurants now, most notably Loring Place in Greenwich Village. Another is The Gramercy Tavern Cookbook, with recipes from my favourite restaurant in the world.

What’s been your most memorable event?

Canada’s Table in 2017 with Thyme & Again’s Sheila Whyte, as part of the celebrations for Canada 150. We served 1,000 people at a single table on a perfect August night with 20 chefs from across the country and fireworks to close off the evening. Bringing people and share our heritage is something I’ll always remember. It was a lot of work and a huge eight month commitment, but it’s a great memory.

What traits do you most admire in someone?

Kindness, curiosity, determination and perseverance. We all have big challenges in life, some more than others, but it’s our ability to persevere through the challenges that I respect.