Emma Woodward - General Manager
How many hospitality leaders do you know who can ride a bike, kick a soccer ball and drink tea at the same time?! If you answered zero, then you haven’t met Roar’s charismatic General Manager, Emma Woodward. Opening world-class restaurants in iconic hotels is a piece of cake for her; she recently oversaw the renovation and re-opening of two restaurants in the beautiful Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. After spending the last year in Australia and her native England adding to her already-impressive hospitality resume during the COVID-19 pandemic, Emma made her triumphant return to Canada specifically because she sees Roar as an opportunity to rebel against the challenges and negative connotations associated with the industry that she loves.
Why Roar? It’s the first restaurant owned and operated by Accent Inns Inc, a hospitality chain that has become synonymous with award-winning, heart-based corporate culture. Emma immediately connected with their core values: Have fun, be real, make everything better and have each other’s backs.
Emma is building her exceptional team from the ground up, with respect, diversity, adventure and fun at the forefront. She knows that her happy employees will elevate the guest experience. You’ll come to Roar to experience delicious food and amazing drinks with a unique live fire concept, but you’ll keep coming back because you love being part of an awesome, positive community.
Kaelhub Cudmore - Executive Chef
Kaelhub Cudmore, Executive Chef, is an undisputed Vancouver Island success story. As a teenager, he started washing dishes in a tiny tearoom in small-town Duncan, where he fell in love with the restaurant biz. In a beautiful full-circle career move, Kaelhub was rewriting the world-renowned tea menu and overseeing the region’s most elaborate galas at Victoria’s iconic Fairmont Empress hotel as Banquet Chef just twenty years later. What’s even more impressive is that Kaelhub has achieved his success as a chef without attending culinary school, earning his place in critically acclaimed restaurants purely based on the undeniable skills he has honed on the job.
As an “ingredient-driven chef,” Kaelhub puts high quality local ingredients at the forefront of his menu, supporting local agriculture and artisans in his kitchen. At Roar, he uses live fire cooking to enhance and showcase Tofino and Vancouver Island produce, seafood and other ingredients so that they truly shine on the plate.
Kaelhub represents the next generation of chefs as leaders who use kindness and respect to bring up their team. He is rebelling against dated power dynamics of kitchens past by creating a restaurant that is fervently devoted to respect, flinging the doors open to creativity, accessibility and above all else, really good food.
Dinah Kisil - Bar Manager & Assistant General Manager
Dinah Kisil is on a mission to revolutionize the bartending world, and given her track record, you can be damn sure she’s going to light the entire industry on fire.
Dinah was the seventh woman to bartend at The Savoy Hotel’s American Bar in London, which has won the title of World’s Best Bar, in its 125-year history. She has also contributed to international cocktail conferences and is a fierce competitor in the industry, recently named to the World Class Top 100 Bartender list in Great Britain and as one of the Top 26 Bartenders in Canada. She placed top eight in Speed Rack Canada’s all-female bartending competition three years in a row. She’s not done making history, either. Dinah advocates that the art of cocktail bartending is performative, productive and powerful. And she proves it, too, using her movement, skills and precision to whip up perfect beverages that are undeniably…art.
Dinah is here to re-sculpt a healthier and more inclusive perception of the world behind the bar, and she’s going to start with Roar. “Roar is the resistance to the status quo,” says Dinah. “We have the opportunity to foster a creative, safe space and to be fearless as we lift others up in the industry.”
Dinah is committed to telling unique stories with her daring beverage menu, including that of Canada’s largest act of civil disobedience: The War in the Woods. Roar and Hotel Zed Tofino have worked with local writers and historians to publish a record of the protests to help guests understand how they shaped the beautiful area we know and love today so that their guests can learn about the history of this special place. . It’s no surprise that Dinah is drawn to this bold act of rebellion as she herself is defying convention daily with her imaginative cocktails, her fearless ambition and her unflinching devotion to cultivating a positive workplace culture at Roar and in the bartending community at large.
