Hitting the streets
By Shelley Fralic, Vancouver Sun August 18, 2010
Michael Kaisaris offers BBQ sandwich created in his Re-Up BBQ food cart, which is available by Vancouver Art Gallery.
Photograph by: Wayne Leidenfrost, PNG
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: the Vancouver food-cart experiment has fallen a little flat, a victim of an overzealous rush job that relied on selection by lottery and the mistaken assumption that the chosen few would be ready to roll by the July 31 kickoff date.
Two weeks in, and only four of the 17 newly licensed carts are serving up their curbside nosh on city streets, with two more expected to be open for business this week.
So we understand those who are critical of the folks down at 12th and Cambie, though that vitriol might best directed at more important issues, like those ill-advised bike lanes, which are far more dangerous and inconvenient than being able to buy a divine slice of thin-crust prosciutto and funghi pizza from a truck parked at Burrard and Pender.
Besides, had city hall dithered even more, and made sure everything was perfectly in order for a summer 2011 launch, which was Plan B, we would have had to wait a whole year to tuck into one of Michael Kaisaris’s pulled-pork barbecue sandwiches.
And that, fellow foodies, would be a cryin’ shame.
It’s early Monday morning, and 28-year-old Kaisaris and his partners — girlfriend Lindsay Ferguson and barbecue cook-off master Chester Carey — are prepping for the day, working out of their commissary, which is the kitchen of the Irish Heather in Gastown.
Carey, who competes in West Coast barbecue competitions, has been up all night smoking 55 kilograms of pork butt. There is homemade sauce to whip up, and five kilograms of coleslaw to make, and special dressing for that, and a trip to the Calabria Bakery for fresh buns, and the brewing of a big urn of iced tea.
Because in just a few short hours, they’ll be lifting the walk-up window of their tiny shiny food cart, The Re-Up BBQ, sitting just off the curb beside the Olympic countdown clock at the Vancouver art gallery, and filling orders for their specialty, the only thing besides a few cold drinks that they offer: a barbecue pulled-pork sandwich.
It was just a few months ago that the three friends, mulling Carey’s lament that there was no money in barbecue contests, pondered the viability of starting a barbecue catering business.
And then the city hall food cart lottery came up, and Kaisaris submitted an application and, on Aug. 9, started selling their sandwiches, fat handfuls of tender pulled pork slathered with barbecue sauce and topped with crunchy coleslaw, all wrapped up in a big soft bun, a messy delectable $6-plus-tax meal in a little paper bag.
But first they had to find a cart, and research showed there were waiting lists at the cart suppliers, local and south of the border.
So Kaisaris, who studied English literature at SFU and has culinary training, started cruising the Internet and found one in Squamish that had been used to sell hotdogs.
It cost $17,000, and they had to buy a truck to haul it, but it was perfect, if a little small.
Impossibly small, really, a mere four by nine by eight feet, rather like a silver phone booth, but big enough to house two propane-powered warming trays, one large propane griddle and a hybrid fridge. It has a 40-litre water capacity and room for Michael and his jugs of sweet tea, and that’s about it.
The partners have invested more than $30,000 to date, including the cost of city and health permits, but say business is good, on their best day pumping out 70 or so orders. They not only intend to stay open, Mondays to Fridays from about noon to 6 p.m., but they’re committed to pulling pork through next spring, when their renewable city licence expires.
As food carts take big cities such as Portland, Los Angeles and New York by storm, they have become the new underground magical mystery tour, their menus and hours often changing. Some are open rain or shine, some weekdays only, and most rely to a large degree on word of mouth and the new media to spread the word.
The Re-Up is no different, promising barbecue chicken and ribs in the near future, but you’ll have to follow them on Twitter for updates, teases Kaisaris.
Meantime, don’t be asking for their tasty barbecue sauce recipe. All Kaisaris will divulge is that it is a tomato base infused with chocolate and chipotle and other “secret” ingredients.
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