IT STARTS WITH A BOY…

A German boy. My husband Daniel first came to Ottawa to help his friend Tobi with a little startup called Shopify. Yes, that Shopify. He loves Canada, but there’s one thing he really missed from home: Berlin döner — Germany’s #1 street food that we’ve somehow never heard of. The first time he took me to Germany, he hyped it up so much I thought it could not possibly live up to expectations. Then I had my first taste… it was love at first bite. I wolfed it down.

But when we got back home I craved it. Bad. Like real bad. Over dinner with Shopify CEO Tobi (also a German döner lover) we kept saying “We need döner in Ottawa!” They joked that they’d invest whatever was needed “Someone just needs to do it!” Finally it hit me. I got this!

Just one small problem: I had no idea what I was doing. Like zero restaurant experience. But I had a plan! And off I went to Berlin, where I wolfed down 3 döners a day for 5 days straight on my taste test mission. I carefully analyzed every element: bread, meat, veggies, sauce… in my head designing the ultimate döner.

Next stop was Los Angeles. Why LA? Years ago I discovered a döner shop there called Berlin’s. That’s how I met Mathias. Fast forward to Wolf Down and guess who’s the first person I call? Mathias kindly agreed to help — suggesting I come to LA for a hands-on crash course. I couldn’t ask for a better training ground.

We opened our first ever Wolf Down in Ottawa in May 2019. Since then, we have also partnered with REEF to open ghost kitchens in Toronto & Calgary. The response has been overwhelming and people from all over started begging us to bring Wolf Down to their cities. But I knew I couldn’t do it alone...

And so, Wolf Down franchising was born.