Proprietor of popular diner in qathet seeks new owner

Magpie’s Diner in the neighbourhood of Cranberry has become an institution for residents and a destination for tourists seeking a consistent breakfast, brunch or lunch menu.

The bright, old-timey yet familiar space is in the old Wiltshire’s building that was once a lunch counter and convenience store. The popular eatery has been put up for sale. Owner-operator Margaret Thistle wants to hand over her keys to a new business owner to take over the fully licensed restaurant.

“When we walked into the building in 2014, it was my son who said ‘it is perfect,’” said Thistle. “But it needed work. We put in the kitchen and the back door; we needed two exits, but we didn’t change a lot.”

Thistle decided to keep the diner’s original colours, the unique elevated stage and the long lunch counter. She said it took some time to get the right people in the right places doing the right jobs. 

“Now I have a really great crew,” said Thistle. “We have a formula and [the restaurant] operates on its own.” 

Thistle can finally take a step back from being fully hands-on-deck at the diner to working one day a week and mostly takes care of the administration side of the business.

“The cooks I have now can handle it,” said Thistle. “It’s worked out well, because now the kitchen cook is the manager and I have a head server and she manages the front.”

Not that business has slowed down. Weekends and summer months are non-stop busy with customers and the diner can easily go through 1,800 eggs in a week.

“We look forward to September when it slows down and then in June we look forward to the summer when it gets busy, kind of a round-and-round-she-goes kind of thing,” said Thistle.

Thistle and her husband moved to the qathet region in 2008 and opened up the first iteration of Magpie’s in the plaza on Glacier Street where Iguana’s Mexican Grill used to be.

“At that time the big thing was the 100-mile diet,” said Thistle. 

“We have a great farming community here and that’s how we started: local eggs, meat and greens as much as I could.”

The restaurant was small with only five tables and 10 seats with the idea to serve customers simple, locally grown food. The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating is a non-fiction book written in 2007 by Canadians Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon about their experience only eating foods grown within 100 miles of their residence.

However, as admirable as this trend might be for the environment and for people’s health, the reality of only buying local food can be a challenge on the pocketbook. Another challenge is finding enough supply to feed large amounts of people.

“We do get our meat from the Chopping Block, but the busier we get the more we move away from local,” admitted Thistle. 

Thistle ran the restaurant and did all the cooking on her own and later moved to the Rodmay Hotel for a short while. Then she found the building in Cranberry and created what is now Magpie’s. 

“I started to bring in live music and events, we got our liquor licence and opened for dinner for a short time,” said Thistle. “But I couldn’t manage it on my own.”

Magpie’s kept its liquor licence but now opens only for breakfast and lunch. The menu selection has stayed consistent over the years offering what many would call an “elevated” diner experience. In other words, locally made sausages (qathet and Vancouver Island) and well-put-together “from scratch” meals, not greasy. Another unique aspect of the diner is its huge wall space.

At first Thistle didn’t know what or how to decorate the massive blank spaces customers would sit beside. 

“I decided anyone can come and hang their art on the wall,” she Thistle. 

Anyone who has been inside will have noticed the ever-changing art for sale on the walls of the diner.

For the longest time Thistle played every role at the restaurant: management, chef, wait staff, accountant and human resources, but now she is ready to step away.

“Last year I thought 'I can’t do this anymore, I’m tired,'” said Thistle. “I’m still full of ideas and things I want to do. I have a creative side and started doing other things.”

She moved with her family from Italy to Canada when she was 10 years old and can remember her home country and its cuisine. 

“[Some years ago] my sister and I would have a special Italian dinner event and create a menu,” said Thistle. “I’d love to do that again, but I have to get my sister up here [from Victoria] to help me do an Italian pop-up or something like that.”

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