Calgary: La Brezza owner Mahdi Abdi dead at 59

Calgary has lost a legendary business man, restaurant owner and personality.

Marco Abdi, owner of Italian restaurant La Brezza in Bridgeland for about 30 years, died of lung cancer on Sunday in a Calgary hospital. He was 59. A public memorial service and celebration of his life is being planned.

“My father’s kind, compassionate, and strong legacy perseveres within the countless lives he touched each day he lived on this earth. His million-dollar smile and amazing personality will be greatly missed. My family and I could not have imagined a greater father, husband, friend and role model even if we tried,” said his daughter Madina.

Over the years, the restaurant has hosted luminaries including movie and rock stars, top business executive, as well as top political leaders.

Abdi came from humble beginnings. He left his home in Somalia in the late 1970s to work in Rome as a caretaker in a restaurant. He came to Calgary in 1980 and worked as a janitor in a professional medical building across the street from where his Italian restaurant now resides. At that time, he was making $800 a month and thought “it was a big deal,” he told the Herald years ago.

His big smile, which always greeted customers to his restaurant, was infectious. No matter what day it was, you were bound to hear Marco say “Merry Christmas” in a conversation with him. You could say it was his mantra.

“People wait until Dec. 25 to call you and say ‘Merry Christmas,’ ” Abdi told the Herald several years ago.

“For me, every day is Merry Christmas. My father told me that you are born with nothing and you die with nothing and every day between is Christmas. When you die you’re not going to take anything with you. My gift to you is happiness.”

He leaves behind his wife Filomena as well as children Madina, 24, Khadija, 22, and Maurizio, 13.

Besides his restaurant, Abdi also had business interests in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates in the Middle East through his connection and friendship with the Royal Family there.

Yousef Traya, of the family-owned Bridgeland Market and Tazza Deli & Grill just down the street from La Brezza, said the family met Abdi in 1981 and he became like an uncle to the children.

“That’s the personal side. On the business side, he kind of put Bridgeland on the map in the late 1980s and early 1990s,” said Traya. “All of his charity work . . . He always had that million-dollar smile. He was amazing. He could have probably opened up another La Brezza anywhere else in the city after he got big but he stuck to what he did, lived in the neighbourhood, raised his family in the neighbourhood and he was always around the neighbourhood. You always saw him. He winked and smiled at everybody when he drove by.

“He did a lot for the community. Volunteered. There wasn’t a person that he wouldn’t help out. He was the type of person that if he saw a homeless guy picking out of the garbage, he would make him a bowl of pasta . . . The odds were always against him but he always came out on top. I look at him and what he did and what he went through to do what he did, it’s an inspiration to all.”

John Gilchrist, a well-known restaurant reviewer, said Abdi’s character was one of the reasons La Brezza was so successful over the years.

“He was such an indomitable force of nature. This positive, high energy, irrepressible guy who was just out there to be of service and to give the best that he possibly could every single day,” said Gilchrist. “I never saw him without a smile on his face. Never saw him without an offer of a coffee or a glass of wine or some food. He was just the ultimate sort of restaurateur wanting to serve his clients all the time.”

One of Abdi’s last wishes was that he wanted to be buried according to the Muslim custom. That took place on Monday.

Abdi’s brother-in-law, business partner in UAE ventures and a best friend, Domenic Buonincontri, said the family is trying to decide what to do with the restaurant.

“We’re discussing that right now,” he said. “What I really wanted is that it stayed in the family but the challenge there is that Marco was such a huge part of the goodwill of that restaurant. We’re trying to get our heads around how that all works.

“It truly is a family legacy. Most of those recipes are my mom’s . . . The hard part is the actual day-to-day operations. The family is discussing the options.”

Buonincontri said Abdi’s legacy is his relationships he built over the years.

“He was very caring and very giving. He was always the first one to step up to the plate,” he said. “He always opened up his arms to anyone that needed it. He did so not expecting anything in return. He did it openly.”

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