Magari by Oca is ready to be a neighbourhood restaurant again

This article was written for Daily Hive by Chiara Milford.

Magari by Oca is not a restaurant. The bottom of your bill reads, “Questo non è un ristorante.”

It’s a place you want to hang out in, while your friends, who happen to be world-class pasta chefs, make you food (and do the dishes).

It’s the place the owners thought was missing in Vancouver’s restaurant scene.

This year, the team behind the pasta joint formerly known as Oca Pastificio had their efforts rewarded with a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

It was a moment that owner and general manager Antoine Dumont describes as, “Very good for your ego, but then you think ‘Woah where’s that gonna take us?’”

But a few months later, on July 8, their head chef and co-founder, Greg Dilabio, passed away suddenly, leading them to shut down shop indefinitely. It was a huge shock to the team.

“He was literally gifted to make pasta,” Dumont said.

“The day he left us, he had everything he wanted in his life: a restaurant with his friends and to be recognized for his pasta skills.”

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As well as the prestigious Michelin nod, Dilabio and Dumont were recognized as one of Western Living’s Foodies of the Year in 2022, and Dilabio saw Kissa Tanto become the best new restaurant in Canada back in 2016.

But Dilabio didn’t become a chef for the awards — he didn’t even go to the Michelin announcement ceremony.

“He told me, ‘I wanted a restaurant to make pasta. You wanted a restaurant to talk to people. So tonight, I’m going to make pasta and you’re gonna talk to people.’ And that was Greg,” Dumont said.

For Dumont, it’s no longer the same restaurant without his best friend. “I was giving up in August. I thought it was not worth it to reopen.”

With the encouragement of his team and Dilabio’s family, they decided to try reopening in late August. It was a long process of grieving, temporarily closing again, and refining expectations.

In a post on Instagram, the team wrote, “Our friend’s passion for food, hospitality, and life was the heartbeat of the restaurant, and his absence has deeply affected us all… We’re going to reopen under a new name, with a slightly different menu, but with the same heart and soul that has defined Oca Pastificio for all these years.”

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Now they’re about keeping Dilabio’s legacy alive through his recipes and sharing his methodical approach to cooking pasta.

Before Dilabio’s untimely death, there was talk of publishing an Oca cookbook and opening another bar. “I used to have bigger plans,” Dumont says, “but not anymore.”

Magari means “maybe” in Italian, “but it’s a maybe with a sense of hope.”

“We’re not fighting to become one of the best restaurants in Canada anymore,” he says, “I just want to go back to being a neighbourhood restaurant.”

Now Dumont hopes that the seven dudes who make up the front- and back-of-house team will become part-owners and collectively share the profits.

“It’s not about me, it’s not about him. It’s about those guys,” Dumont says.

Their new head chef, Gus Dixon, and sous chef, Robbie Barbeau, who started as Dilabio’s protégée at 19, are keeping their late friend’s legacy alive in the kitchen. “I’m really proud of them,” Dumont says.

Now they’re almost back to being as busy as they used to be, although they’re only hosting 60 guests four days a week. There’s still a lineup every day they’re open. They don’t take reservations; Dumont organizes their two seatings with a pen and a clipboard.

The kitchen is humming with joy and laughter as food is generously plated and pasta is lovingly rolled, cut and shaped with a calm choreography. There is none of the yelling or hierarchy that you might find in other professional kitchens.

This is the vibe that Dumont and Dilabio always wanted to create. It’s a place of belonging and community. The food is presented without much fuss but with profound skill and heart.

The red Michelin sign sits, unframed, on the bar, hidden by a photo of Dilabio in sunglasses.

“He’s here,” says Dumont. “He’s around.”

Magari by Oca

Address: 1260 Commercial Drive, Vancouver

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