Peter Mazzotta first cooked up the idea of a magazine dedicated to Toronto’s restaurant community way back in August 1987, shortly after taking a production job at the now defunct retail agency Gray O’Rourke Sussman.
An Italian immigrant whose family arrived in Canada in the mid-60s, Mazzotta’s life has revolved around food since he was a young boy. He learned to cook at nine years old, while it wasn’t uncommon for dinners at his boyhood home in London, Ont. to last for four hours.
The idea for what would become LEO magazine (the name is an acronym for “Let’s Eat Out”) first took shape during a whirlwind tour of Toronto eateries in Mazzotta’s first week at Gray O’Rourke Sussman more than 26 years ago.
“Every day in that first week I was taken out to lunch by various departments,” he recalled. “I was just in awe – it was amazing. That’s when the letters LEO were just emblazoned in my head.”
The idea got put on the backburner as his career progressed, but resurfaced when Mazzotta left his job as vice-president of production services for Havas Life in 2009. “My career got the best of me: One year turned into five, five years turned into 10. I look over my shoulder and 15 years have gone by,” he said. “You get in this comfort zone doing what you’re doing.
“In 2009 I was given the golden handshake and I was ecstatic,” he added. “I knew I could finally do what I wanted to do.”
He began working fulltime on the independent publishing project last year, with the first issue of LEO finally debuting in August. The publication is entirely self-funded (“It’s not cheap, I’ll tell you that,” he said), but Mazzotta has been calling in favours from the printing companies he worked with during his agency days. “The willingness to help has been overwhelming,” he said.
His Toronto firm, Sandbox Publishing, is producing about 5,000 copies of the monthly title, with research suggesting a readers-per-copy number somewhere between eight and 11.
The first two issues of LEO were distributed free in Toronto-area restaurants, but Sandbox has secured a distribution deal with retail giant Chapters-Indigo that will see the third issue carried in GTA stores, bearing a $6.95 cover price.
LEO is attempting to make a name for itself in a publishing arena more crowded than a hot boîte on a Saturday night. City magazines like The Grid and Now and Toronto Life (not to mention several daily newspapers) all devote ample space to the city’s crowded restaurant scene. Mazzotta said LEO is distinguished by its sole emphasis on restaurants and its “celebratory and promotional” approach to editorial.
A full-page, one-time ad in LEO costs $1,450 while the company is also selling restaurant listings in the back of the book for what Mazzotta described as a “nominal” fee. LEO currently has 632 listings for Toronto restaurants.
