After a lifetime in the restaurant industry and more than two decades in Calgary, Chard Ares was brought on board to start a new venture with old friend and former New York restauranteur-chef Keith Luce. At the time, Chard wanted to open a combination market-restaurant that offered a sit-down dining experience, as well as an Italian market with premium imported groceries and ready-made eats and Keith had a similar vision for a venture of his own. So instead of competing with one another, Chard and Keith joined forces to open Parm.
Named after the standard Italian table cheese, “Parm” is a nod to the simple yet substantial roots of traditional Italian cuisine. “There’s always parm on the table," Chard explains. “It is something that you expect and you enjoy and you put more of it on.”
The plan was to inject the city with access to traditional hand-made Italian fare prepared simply with high quality ingredients. The clincher was that Keith and Chard wanted the food to be reasonably priced and the dining environment to be accessible. “We wanted to be approachable and affordable for everyone,” Chard says. “We knew we wanted to be fun, lively, and have really, really great ingredients without breaking the bank.”
