Hospitality

Her restaurant turned a profit in its first year of business

As an aspiring actress, Mooney was working in restaurants to make extra money when one of her patrons, Pacific Reach Properties president and CEO Azim Jamal, suggested she start her own establishment and offered to fund it.

By Felicity Stone /

Credit: Tanya Goehring on location at Leisure Center

Jasmine Mooney, 29

OWNER AND MANAGING PARTNER
BANTER ROOM

PARTNER AND DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND EVENTS 
HOTEL BELMONT

Life Story: Whitehorse, Yukon, is a place you either leave and never go back to or you never leave, says Jasmine Mooney of her hometown. She moved to Vancouver in 2008 to study marketing and communications at BCIT, switching the following year to Vancouver Acting School.

As an aspiring actress, Mooney was working in restaurants to make extra money when one of her patrons, Pacific Reach Properties president and CEO Azim Jamal, suggested she start her own establishment and offered to fund it. She approached her friend Ted Wilkie, then–general manager at the Parlour, to partner with her. The pair wrote a business plan, found a location on Mainland Street in Yaletown and opened Banter Room, a 90-seat restaurant with a 50-seat covered patio, in April 2017.

Bottom Line: Banter Room, which has a staff of 70, earned $4.65 million and a 22.8-percent profit in fiscal 2018. Mooney and Wilkie have repaid their investors and are looking for a second location. They’re also partners with Azim Jamal on a new venture, Hotel Belmont (a former Comfort Inn), scheduled to open in May at Granville and Nelson streets in Vancouver.

 

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