There aren't too many craft breweries to be found in Seoul, admits South Korea-born Kevin Lee.
“It's all dominated by the big guys,” said the owner of the Disco Cheetah food truck, which is often planted outside Vancouver breweries like Parallel 49, Brassneck and 33 Acres.
When his wife arrived in Canada from South Korea last year, the pair decided to open a food cart serving Korean-inspired Mexican cuisine.
Lee previously worked as a sales manager at distilleries and wineries and figured it would help build his fledgling business' brand if he partnered with breweries drawing a lot of regulars.
The crowds inside the growing number of tasting lounges at Vancouver breweries, where the food selection is often limited to pepperoni sticks or doughnuts, seemed to be the perfect group to cultivate a loyal customer base.
“Our market is not international students or tourists,” Lee said. “We want to go where locals are.”
So far the biggest challenge has been finding the “right spot” to draw customers. But it appears the breweries are responsible for some of the most consistent crowds.
While Saturdays and Sundays provide steady business at 33 Acres and Brassneck, respectively, Lee said Fridays at Parallel 49 are usually the busiest for him.
Part of the reason is location. Parallel 49's brewery sits in an industrial area near the waterfront in Vancouver's east side. Not many restaurants dot the landscape.
While Lee relies a lot on isolated locations, other vendors look to gather around each other at weekend events.
Danny Fazio, brand and design director at the Arrival Agency, has helped co-ordinate Food Cart Fest Vancouver the past three summers.
He said many vendors are turned off by other events that require they pay organizers a big chunk of their revenue for the day.
“Their margins don't work at 25% because they're not using cheap cuts of meat … they're using all high-quality ingredients.”
There may be 18 to 24 food trucks competing for the attention of the big crowds, but Fazio added it makes economic sense for vendors because Food Cart Fest collects only 10% of revenue.
“We can create a revenue stream for them where they can work within that 10% margin.”
He expects the enthusiasm for food trucks will be just as great in Surrey, where the next Food Cart Fest is planned for August.
While food carts have appeared in Surrey sporadically during the last few years, the city only rolled out a pilot program in July to test the waters for expansion.
Owen Croy, Surrey's manager of parks, said city staff researched what works and what doesn't in Vancouver, Portland and even Coquitlam.
For the past month, the city has targeted pedestrian-heavy locations like the Surrey Central SkyTrain station, as well as off-street locations, including Bear Creek Park and the parking lot of the Newton Wave Pool.
Croy said it's still early but the response has been very positive from vendors and he hasn't heard complaints from nearby restaurants concerned about lost business.
“Every indication is that by picking the right sites and starting small, rather than just creating a free-for-all, that we're going to have some success here.”
