🔒Q&A: At Vivienne, a phoenix rises from the ashes

After opening Vivienne Coastal Mediterranean on Sept. 1 in a former bank branch in Worcester’s Glass Tower, Niche Hospitality Group was forced to close the restaurant just five days later when a wine fridge caught fire, causing $3 million in damage. Ahead of the March 26 reopening, Niche President Michael Covino opened up about the emotional and financial toll.

What went through your mind when you got the call about the fire?

It was a gut punch. It was probably one of the lowest points for me professionally. You go from the excitement of opening – building a team, training for weeks, seeing it all come to life – to getting a call at 2 a.m. about a fire. For about a day, you’re just like, “What just happened?” Then you shift into triage mode. I’ve got 70 employees depending on this place. They left jobs; they committed to us. You don’t have the luxury of sitting in that feeling.

How significant was the damage?

Between repairs, lost equipment, cleaning, and business interruption, it’s about a $3-million insurance claim. On top of the original $7-million build-out. We had to replace furniture, reupholster booths, redo finishes. Everything was covered in soot. We had been buying up specialty bottles of wine for two years ahead of the opening. Nearly all that had to be thrown out. The insurance process isn’t quick. You don’t just submit a claim and get a check. It’s months of investigation, documentation, back-and-forth. You basically have to get a Ph.D. in insurance in one day, while trying to hold your team together. It’s emotional. You’re trying to be strong for everyone, and at the end of the day, you’re processing it yourself.

What was it like rebuilding everything?

That was hard in a different way. Our contractors had finished building this beautiful place. They were proud of it. Then you call them and say, “Hey, we’ve got to put it back together.” You could see it in their faces, “Man, we just did this. Do I really want to do it again?” It’s like cooking a beautiful meal and dropping it on the floor. You don’t just go, “No problem. I’ll make it again.” You’re frustrated. But we didn’t have a choice. We had to rebuild it.

What about your restaurant staff?

We did everything we could to take care of people. We paid staff as long as we could, used insurance where possible, and placed people into our other restaurants. We retained about 75% of our team, which I’m really proud of. It wasn’t easy. We essentially inflated payroll across the company to keep people working. When we got closer to reopening, we had to hire again, about 40 people. Time had passed, and we had expanded operations with the VUE Cocktail Lounge, up on the 24th floor. All told, we needed about 90 people.

What did the experience teach you?

Going through it – with the team, with the contractors, with everyone who stuck it out – I actually think it will make us stronger. There’s a shared experience there now. People rallied. This isn’t just a restaurant to us. It’s a family. So getting back in here, seeing it full again, seeing staff back in their roles, it’s meaningful.

Vivienne reopened for dinner only. Will you add lunch eventually?

Yeah, we absolutely will have lunch here. Because of the location, it makes sense. It’s really just a matter of timing. The challenge is economics. When you add lunch, you’re adding a lot of labor, and if it’s not busy, it throws everything off. Labor is a much bigger percentage of sales now, so you can’t just open and hope it works. Post-COVID, demand isn’t the same. People don’t go out to business lunches the way they used to, so you have to be intentional. Our thinking is to build demand first – maybe start with lunch just one day, likely Thursdays – and grow from there. It’s something we look at this fall.

How have restaurant economics changed since you started Niche?

Costs are up everywhere: construction, labor, insurance, software, everything. You used to be able to build a restaurant for what we spent just on electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. That alone was about $2 million here. The old rule was kind of a three-to-one ratio: You spend $1 million, you want to do $3 million in annual revenue. That math doesn’t work anymore. We spent close to $7 million here. We’re not doing $21 million a year here. So your ROI is longer. Your structure is different.

The fire. The reopening. What does this entire experience mean to you now?

A phoenix, rising from the ashes. It’s a story we didn’t want, but it’s ours now. People will feel that when they walk in. There’s energy here. There’s resilience. We didn’t just open a restaurant. We rebuilt one. This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Editor Brad Kane.