Capers: More Than a Restaurant
Story by Garrett Harvey
*Originally published by BoQ Region Marketing Board on May 3rd, 2019*
If you’re a Bay of Quinte native, chances are you’ve heard of Capers; if you haven’t, you’re missing out. Now celebrating their 20th year of operation, Capers has been a staple of Belleville’s downtown core, something owner Melanie Hilmi takes great pride in. Originally, it served as a lunch bar and catering business owned by Mel’s mother; but, as the downtown strip has changed, so too has Capers.
At first glance Capers is simply a restaurant and bar, but as soon as you walk through the doors you’ll discover it’s so much more. The first thing you notice is the welcoming and warm atmosphere. It’s like walking into a friend’s living room, something Mel has taken great strides to achieve.
“It’s basically like an extension of my living room — or our living room, everyone that works here, really. The good thing about this place is we have a small staff and not a high turnover rate. So, there’s usually a friendly familiar face in here and I think that’s really important to people, especially regulars.”
The thing I love most about Capers is that there are no expectations: it’s both formal and casual. A place to hang out with some friends and a place to go for a date. A place where you’ll find people both young and old.
What makes the restaurant stand out is its weekly schedule of live music. Mel has been involved in the music industry for almost 20 years of her life. When she moved back to Belleville she missed the live music scene she had loved in Toronto; when she took over, one of the first things she did was book live music.
Mel grew up in Belleville and spent some time living in Toronto. She’s been back for close to a decade now and has seen it transform from a bypass city to a place where people want to visit, and her restaurant has played a part in that transformation. She always knew Belleville had the potential to be a hot spot for creative minds, but the area lacked the outlets for those creatives to practice their art.
“When I moved back home from Toronto… one of the things I felt the most starved for was a music scene in Belleville. And being that it’s right in between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, there’s no reason why we couldn’t become a hub for stopovers for touring artists and also locally. There are a lot of incredible artists that can’t necessarily fill the Empire Theatre down the road but they can put on an amazing show for 40 to 50 people and I think that’s what we can offer artists here.”
