Bill MacTavish was only 15 when he went to the University of Saskatchewan to study math and physics. He lived on his own and taught himself how to cook.

Then he headed to law school at Queen's University in Kingston, where he met a girl and stayed in Ontario.

Lucky us. Otherwise he might not have been around to save two downtown Kitchener hotspots -- Imbibe and The Boathouse.

Law school had always been his parents' dream. At age 19, and a law school drop-out, he decided that what he really wanted to do was cook. The restaurant industry was his passion.

The creativity and science of cooking appealed to his science background.  He also found a Zen-like focus when he worked in the kitchen.

MacTavish didn’t want to move home. He had met a girl at Queens, so he started to bartend to earn money while he figured out his life. He was a good bartender, but  quickly realized he didn’t want to always work for someone else.

The restaurant industry “is my forever job, but I knew I could do better on my own” MacTavish said.

He got serious and made a game plan to run his own restaurant by the time he was 30.

“Since I was 19 I took on jobs that would only better myself and prepare for my own place,” MacTavish said.

Over the next 11 years, he worked in every aspect of the restaurant business he could. He bartended, managed, worked in human resources, learned to run a café (and to make really good coffees.) He kept a list of what people wanted, and didn’t want, with their food and drinks.

He relocated to Guelph because his girlfriend, and now wife, was working on her PhD at the University of Guelph. And then the game-changer happened.

A craft brewery invited him to become a beer rep for southwestern Ontario.

MacTavish loved the job. It involved attending craft beer and food festivals, and visiting every hip bar that he had never heard of.

It let him learn a lot about beer, and slowly build a list of must-haves for his own restaurant.

“I was paid to visit the coolest bars and restaurants,” MacTavish said. “People who were buying craft beer then were way ahead of the curve.”

It was like getting paid to do market research for four years and grow his passion, MacTavish said.

His long-term business planning paid off when he visited one of his clients in downtown Kitchener in June 2012.

“At that point, I knew I wanted to open a restaurant in Kitchener, Hamilton or Guelph,” MacTavish said.

He believed those cities were on the cusp of gastronomical change, and were ready for something new, something he could offer.  He didn’t have a clear preference for any of those places. He was waiting to find something right.

Then THEMUSEUM in downtown Kitchener made MacTavish an offer he couldn’t refuse.

The M Café in THEMUSEUM was struggling. On June 14, during a site visit, MacTavish was asked if he wanted the space. The caveat? He’d have to take over by the start of THEMUSEUM’s new fiscal year, July 1, just two weeks away.

“I didn’t have enough time to give a full two-weeks notice at my job,” he said.

MacTavish took over and ran it as The M Café until the end of the summer. He then closed the place and re-opened it as Imbibe – a craft beer-focused bar that MacTavish envisioned as a living-room for people to hang out in and drink good beer and coffee.

He had no marketing budget, and when he finally opened, he had no money for payroll. He barely had any staff – only seven people dropped off resumés when he put a call out. He hired them all. He hoped customers would come.

And they did. If you visit the small, usually full, venue today – it only has 48 seats – the wait staff is likely to remember your name and order for the next time you come in.

When The Boathouse in Kitchener’s Victoria Park closed suddenly in 2013, MacTavish knew he was once again ready to seize an opportunity.

Today, after a long year of construction, setbacks and high expectations, The Boathouse has re-opened as a restaurant and live-music venue. The entire experience has been radically different for MacTavish.

Now as a seasoned entrepreneur, MacTavish knows all eyes are on him.

“When I opened Imbibe, I didn’t know what I was doing,” MacTavish said. “No one had any expectations.”

The Boathouse, which seats 110 inside and has a 100-seat patio facing Victoria Park, serves a unique take on classic pub food. (The bhadji piles are fantastic).

With both restaurants only a couple of blocks apart in downtown Kitchener, MacTavish is making the statement that he is here to stay.

“It’s been so much fun and incredibly rewarding to be a part of that [downtown] transition,” he said. “It’s exciting to see what’s happening, and to be even a very small part of that is cool.

“Three years ago, everyone asked why would I open here. Today, that isn’t even a question.”

If you visit Imbibe this week and buy lunch or dinner, you’ll receive a $10 gift card to try out The Boathouse as part of #DTKLove.

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We’ve launched a new community calendar on Communitech’s news website. If you’re a Communitech member, or hosting a Communitech sponsored event, we want you to use the calendar. For this weekend, I see and hear that…. Dear Rouge is playing at Cork Hall at McCabe’s Irish Pub, 352 King St. W., Kitchener. That happens this Friday, March 13. Doors open at 8 p.m. and tickets can be bought online for $15… As part of their After Dark program, THEMUSEUM, 10 King St. W.,  Kitchener, throws a Headphone Disco party this Saturday, March 14. The dance party is completely quiet until you put on a pair of headphones and can listen to one of two DJs playing live at the event. The dance party starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15 and can be bought online… KPL hosts a 3D printing demonstration in its digital media lab on Monday, March 16. The free events starts at 7 p.m. at the Central Library branch, 85 Queen St. N., Kitchener.

Photo: Bill MacTavish sits at the bar of the newly reopened The Boathouse in Victoria Park.