David Holmes/Contributor
A great location, quality products and exceptional service have proven to be a recipe for success for Victoria’s Frankie’s Modern Diner. Located at 910 Government St., Frankie’s has been serving the Capital Region with its unique variation on Mediterranean cuisine for the past six years, but its origins began further north.
“We were originally established in Nanaimo in 2013. I was the Moxies guy, owning the Moxies franchise in Nanaimo. I had been with them for a long time, having owned the Moxies in Campbell River before that,” explained owner Frankie Naccarato.
“I had a couple of years left on my lease as a Moxies and I was losing money as there was too much of the same thing in that area. So, I thought I’d switch it up and do a take on the diner concept – a truly modern diner and that’s where it all came from.”
While the original location was viable from a business perspective, the area lacked the tourist and walk-in traffic necessary to generate the sort of growth Naccarato had hoped for.
“In 2015 my lease was up and so I closed it. I was tired. I wasn’t really making money; I was working every day and I’d just had enough. At the end of the year, I relocated it to Victoria – officially opening in June 2016.”
Establishing an eatery in a section of the city that Naccarato described as a ‘restaurant’s graveyard’ – where restaurants go to die – his experience, expansive menu and distinctive take on the diner motif paid off handsomely – until COVID hit.
“Despite the location we made it work, with 2019 being our best year ever – and then we had the pandemic,” he said.
What followed were what he described as two terrible years for the business, years when the restaurant teetered on the very brink. “But somehow, some way we persevered and now in 2022 we’re having our best year ever for sales,” he explained.
Today, Frankie’s Modern Diner, with a staff of approximately 70, is open seven days per week from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., serving a full range of breakfast, lunch and dinner options.
“We’ve had to adapt and change to accommodate the rising prices of everything. But I’m very fortunate that I have a great group of leaders who have helped me persevere through those things,” he said.
“We have a very loyal corps of staff, many of whom have been with me five or six years. It’s through them that we’ve been able to keep the engine going all this time.”
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