After more than 17 years running two restaurants, and with a few decades of experience as a professional chef, Queen Creek resident Blake Mastyk – owner of the popular and always busy Bistro restaurant –is hanging up the spatulas, apron, and crazy hours.
“The restaurant business is hard,” Mastyk said. “Especially when you’ve been doing it with your wife the past 14 years and then she’s not there anymore.”
Mastyk’ s wife, Nicole, developed cancer in 2018 which took her out of commission and away from Mastyk’s side at the restaurant, forcing him to go it alone and making an already difficult profession even harder.
“Since she developed cancer, she hadn’t been around too much anymore,” he said.
The good news is that her cancer is in remission and her health has improved.
But due to a combination of things, not the least of which is wanting less stress and more time with his wife, this was the time to change gears.
Mastyk survived the roller coaster ride of finding and keeping reliable employees and a pandemic that forced him to close and keep the business afloat with catering, takeout orders and mobile food delivery services.
But nothing prepared him for egg prices that went from $15 to $85 per crate recently. When combined with higher bacon prices, he was shelling out an additional $1,100 a week in expenses just to keep up those two items in stock.
While he sold the Bistro to a husband-and-wife team with decades of restaurant experience, Mastyk is not done being an integral part of Queen Creek.
He is channeling his energy into being an even bigger community service that combines his expertise as a chef with people’s ever-growing love of animals.
Together with his registered service dog, a 3-year old yellow lab named Remy, he has created the Mastyk Foundation, designed to combine his skills as a food expert and his dog’s skills as a service animal to help in a variety of situations.
“There is a whole spectrum of stuff we could do,” he said. “You’ve got a chef and a service dog so the possibilities are a pretty cool little mix.”
Mastyk is hoping to focus and build on the human-animal bond, which the American Veterinary Medical Association calls “a mutually beneficial and dynamic relationship between people and animals that is influenced by behaviors essential to the health and wellbeing of both.”
“Scientific data and common sense tell us that the human-animal bond is critical to who we are as people,” added former CEO of PetSmart Charities and veterinarian Dr. David Haworth, who worked with the Phoenix-based Translational Genomics Center. “When organizations can capitalize on the incredible powers of dogs and other therapy animals, they make us better as people, communities and society.
The Mastyk Foundation’s mission of “enhancing the town of Queen Creek with Remy and Blake’s combined skill se,” is intentionally broad, Mastyk said.
He has been taking Remy to Lakeview Assisted Living Center and Faith Mather Elementary School to give the residents and students, respectively, opportunities spend time with a dog professionally trained to provide emotional support.
“At the school there were probably 20 kids who have never petted a dog in their life,” he said. “You’re in fourth or fifth grade and they are scared or they have some level of trauma where a dog bit them or something, they can pet Remy.
“Same with assisted living. They don’t have to worry about Remy jumping up on them, that kind of thing.”
Mastyk’s goal is to eventually be of service to police officers and firefighters who may be able to put Remy to work in critical emergency situations.
“If there is a scenario where there is some kind of trauma going on and the kids are going to be stuck there for four or five hours, you know, Remy can just come hang out with them, keep their mind off whatever has happened with their family or if they were in an accident,” he said. “He is great with kids.”
For his part, Mastyk intends to bring his culinary skills to the table, making meals for people in need, charity events or first responders.
Mastyk is particularly interested in serving firefighters after seeing them at the Bistro during an especially challenging day when they might have faced multiple back-to-back calls with no time for food.
Mastyk said he can show up ready to cook in his portable kitchen with Remy “just kind of hanging out to offer support and some relaxation – kind of like the town mascot.”
Away from trauma and emergency situations, Mastyk is also planning to use his skills as a chef to create memorable events in the community, even making volunteer opportunities available for people who want to be involved.
“My time as a chef, you couldn’t pay for most stuff like that,” he said. “We could be doing five or six-course dinners. We could be doing wine pairings,” he said. “It’s not like we’re going to be dropping off Sloppy Joes to 20 people or anything like that.
“That’s where the culinary part comes in. It’s finding our niche where we can make the difference in the town. Whether it be on the food side or support side emotionally with the dog.”
Mastyk has invested $10,000 in the foundation so far, even wrapped his truck with its logo. Most of his investment has come from the money he made selling the Bistro. He is looking for support and donations from the community but is ready to put more of his own resources behind the foundation.
“I’m going to put in as much money as it takes to do it,” he said.
Mastyk hopes his time running the Bistro and The Deli before it, will help him now as he launches this new venture with Remy, scheduled to make its official start later this month.
“People have trusted us for 17 years to be part of their family, part of the community with the two restaurants,” Mastyk said. “It’s the same thing now. They can trust us for the next few years to be doing right in Queen Creek. Queen Creek is our family.”
Information: Themastykfoundationqc.org.
