Elora restaurant owner fesses up to unpaid wages amid labour probe

ELORA – A well-known Elora restaurateur has admitted to stiffing former employees of their wages, and says he’s intent on settling up as he leaves town to check in to rehab.

“I did not pay these people on time, and I fully own up to that from day one,” said Geoff Wild, who owns downtown Elora restaurants The Badley and The Wild Tart.

Seven former employees are owed around $20,000 as of Jan. 29, according to Wild.

That’s down from the 17 claims he said were originally opened against him in recent years with the Ministry of Labour.

The ministry declined to comment, but confirmed there is an ongoing investigation.

Several past employees have told the Advertiser Wild still owes them unpaid wages and tips dating back years.

“I’ve never withheld money from people,” Wild said, blaming his failure to pay up on unforeseen circumstances, including a downturn in business and a “heavy” cocaine addiction.

Jennifer Clark said she worked as a pastry chef at the Wild Tart between September and December of 2023, and again from April 2024 to January 2025. Clark claims she’s owed $3,500 in unpaid wages and tip outs.

When she returned to work for Wild in 2024, she said she noticed the restaurant was no longer thriving.

“It just got worse and worse,” Clark said, adding there was “less and less business.”

Clark said staff would occasionally be paid late – “Then it escalated to just not being paid at all.”

Pregnant at the time, Clark entered a maternity leave earlier than she wanted to.

“It was very stressful not to be paid,” she said.

Clark eventually quit in January 2025, she said, and then got the ministry involved.

Former Badley bartender Ashley Hurst also opened a claim with the ministry after $814 in tip outs went unpaid, she said.

Hurst, who worked the bar from May to August 2025, Hurst also claims she’s owed severance pay after she was forced off the schedule.

All in, Hurst estimates she is owed around $1,200 in tips and severance.

Melanie Bolzan, who said she worked as a Badley server from August 2023 to May 2024, began noticing problems in late 2023.

Bolzan said sometimes tip outs wouldn’t be paid, but in January 2024, she claims she wasn’t paid at all.

Bolzan sent messages to Wild, reviewed by the Advertiser, asking to be paid.

Wild emailed employees in January and April 2024 acknowledging missed payments and saying there were problems processing payroll.

Wild arrived in Canada from the Cotswolds of England to help Pearle Hospitality open the Elora Mill in 2018.

Prior to the move, he managed hotels across the world, including the UK, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar and South Africa.

It was in Bahrain he met his wife, Dominique. They had a son, born in England, and later, a daughter born here.

The couple has stayed in Canada on work permits, but call Centre Wellington home, and continue seeking residency status, according to Wild.

Wild stopped working at the Elora Mill, got a $1.25-million bank loan, bought 61 Metcalfe Street, and opened the Wild Tart there in late 2019.

In 2021, Wild got another loan – this one for $250,000 from Community Futures Development Corporation of Wellington Waterloo – leased the former Metcalfe Restaurant and Elora Diner at 59 Metcalfe Street next door, and opened what would become The Badley in mid-2022.

Katie Shewen, a veteran of the local restaurant industry, helped Wild run an outdoor barbecue and bar in the summer of 2020 and 2021.

She was later the front-of-house manager at The Badley from its opening day until she quit in early 2023. Signs of trouble showed early on, Shewen said.

Paydays would pass without a deposit, she said, and suppliers wouldn’t get paid.

“It’s a weird industry, and we put up with a lot more than probably we should put up with,” she said.

Wild said there were “isolated incidences” when staff weren’t paid on time prior to 2024.

The Advertiser spoke with eight former employees, most of them off-record, who said problems coalesced that year.

Wild said the bank wanted its money back, a newly opened Chuck's Roadhouse was putting a dent in business, and a cocaine habit had grown out of control.

In late 2024, a pipe burst flooding The Badley, according to Wild.

“We were out-of-pocket a huge chunk of money,” Wild said. “Our cashflow was just destroyed.”

Wild said he was using greater quantities of cocaine during this time.

“There was a lot of people ... that were also partaking,” he said.

"There would be nonsense all over the place, which was really causing a problem.”

In a January 2025 email to staff, reviewed by the Advertiser, the Wilds wrote the businesses were insolvent, and that creditors and wages would be paid from the sale of the Wild Tart building.

Property records show Kat Florence Canada purchased the building from Wild’s hospitality business, Wild Peanut Group, in February 2025 for $1.95 million.

Records show Wild was to receive a total of $1.27 million from the sale, of which a $565,000 portion would be paid back to Wild in monthly instalments.

But Wild claims there’s little left over after loan debts were settled.

Attempts to reach Kat Florence Canada president Kristy Hillis, or her husband, Don Kogen, for comment were not immediately successful.

Wild said in hindsight he may have bitten off more than he could chew opening The Badley soon after The Wild Tart.

“What I underestimated was how much the back end of it and the administration eats up all of your life,” he said.

The Badley has been closed since Jan. 1, with a reopening hinging on how Wild fares at a 42-day addiction treatment program at the GreeneStone Centre for Recovery in Muskoka.

Meanwhile, Denis Craddock, a former Brew House on the Grand manager and a current Centre Wellington councillor, is managing The Wild Tart.

Craddock, who became involved with The Badley when it rebranded to a steakhouse last fall, said he hasn’t committed to managing The Wild Tart beyond a month.

“I’ll revaluate my role when he’s finished,” Craddock said.

Wild said his wife is leaving town to stay with family after the couple became the subject of a “vindictive social media campaign aimed at shutting down the business.” Dominique declined to comment.

Asked whether his family would remain in Elora, Wild said, “I did a lot of wrong. If the community doesn’t want us here, it is what it is.”

He added, “We will make our judgment on whether we feel there’s still a future for us when I come back.”

On Jan. 29, Wild told the Advertiser he was trying to secure a loan, with his Fergus home offered as collateral, to settle outstanding claims before he planned to leave for rehab Friday.