Worcester Business Journal

V ictoria Mariano and her business partner Adi Tibrewal spent $480,000 in March to buy the 140-year-old Bull Mansion, which was last used as a restau- rant that closed in 2010. The duo plan to take another swing at a restaurant in the facility, preparing with a staff of 26 to open a farm-to- table restaurant and 200-guest meeting facility on Sept. 9. It is the third entrepreneurial ven- ture for Mariano, who founded Electric Haze and Spiritual Haze hookah lounges in the city. Why choose this property downtown? I found the building by accident. I was helping a friend look for a building to do a hostel and was looking through commercial property listings. That is when I saw this. I just couldn't believe no one was doing anything here. It is just an incredible building that is completely built out, and I thought it was a shame there was nothing happening. Did you want to open a restaurant? It definitely kind of just happened. It wasn't a plan of mine to start a restaurant, but I am an entrepreneur. You never choose your ideas; they choose you. Are you concerned at all that another restaurant went out of business here? I doesn't scare me at all, as long as we did the research. Once we figured out why things failed, we knew what it would take to be suc- cessful. It is a different time for downtown Worcester. People are excited now about what is happening downtown. Why focus on farm-to-table cuisine? I'm really into the farm-to-table organic food movement, and I see Armsby Abbey and deadhorse hill opening downtown and being successful only a couple of blocks away. It is encouraging and feels safer to do something in that line. A lot of cities have those areas where you can have a lot of similar foods, like Chinatown and Italian restaurant streets. I picture this area being American-style restaurants, and we would be the third in three blocks. Is this now the sustainable food district? Absolutely. We support Armsby and dead- horse hill, and we see them as partners. Aren't you competing for customers? There is this perception that these busi- nesses are competitors, but that is not really the case. If you have a small enough city that is trying to build a scene, you need more to attract more people. If there is only one res- taurant, you will only attract 100 people, but if there are 10 restaurants you will attract more. The more scene you have, the more busi- nesses you have, the more visitors you have, the more people want to live there and the more people want to explore new places. So, until it gets to a certain point, you are not actually competitors, you are building together. Did you see that with your hookah bar? Even though I knew there were a lot of hookah smokers, I was the only bar, so there wasn't enough market. As soon as another hookah bar opened, my business tripled. Why open a hookah bar in Worcester? When I was at Clark, I didn't turn 21 until my senior year, and most of my friends were over 21. In Worcester at the time, there wasn't a single place you could go out at night if you were under 21. There might have been one club, but there wasn't much scene. Being stuck on campus is terrible. There are only so many house parties you can go to. There was great demand for places that were 18+. That was a mission of mine, to have a comfortable place for young adults. What is your mission for Bull Mansion? Worcester has this incredible building with a rich history. Let's share some food in it. It can be as simple as that. Why must it be abandoned and quiet? n THE TICKER In The File Victoria Mariano SHOP TALK $340M This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by Brad Kane WBJ editor 210,684 >> n Members that Fallon Health reported at the end of its second quarter, which was down from 221,588 at the end of the same quarter last year. Source: Fallon Health TITLE: Director, Bull Mansion restaurant RESIDENCE: Spencer EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in business management, Clark University Source: Staples n Dollars that Staples' failed merger with Office Depot cost the Framingham company. $775M Source: Fidelity Bank n Total assets for Fidelity Bank following its merger with Barre Savings Bank, making it the second largest mutual bank in Worcester County behind UniBank for Savings. n Square footage of a leasing spree completed by Northborough real estate firm Greater Boston Commercial Properties. 87,000 Source: Greater Boston Commercial Properties Bull Mansion seeks to create sustainable scene Go to WBJournal.com to watch video clips from Mariano's Shop Talk interview On WBJournal.com P H O T O / B R A D K A N E 8 Worcester Business Journal • August 29, 2016 www.wbjournal.com Victoria Mariano, director of Bull Mansion restaurant, Worcester

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