White Spot plans to open its 66th and largest full-restaurant in its chain on August 21 at the corner of Dunsmuir and Homer streets in a 100-year-old heritage building, company president Warren Erhart told Business in Vancouver August 19.
The well-known B.C. chain has been seeking a flagship downtown Vancouver location since it had to close its longtime eatery at the corner of Georgia and Seymour streets a couple years ago to make way for the Telus Garden mixed-use development.
The new 8,200-square-foot White Spot will be on two levels. Two restaurants that are both about 7,000 square feet were previously the largest in the chain, Erhart said. One of those is in Prince George and the other one is on Hastings Street at Kensington Avenue.
Other full-service restaurant expansion is set to be in Richmond at Bridgeport Road and Sweden Way on a site that used to be an IKEA.
The chain’s fast-food brand Triple O’s has 69 restaurants, including locations in Hong Kong, mainland China and Singapore.
“We opened about a month ago in the Philippines, where our franchise partners there are the Goldilocks Group,” Erhart said. He first told Business in Vancouver of those plans last summer, when the opening was set for last September.
Goldilocks' main brand is Goldilocks Bakeshop, which has nearly 200 bakeries in the Philippine archipelago.
Goldilocks also has 20 North American bakeshops including two in Canada, which are both in Vancouver: on West Broadway at Fir Street and on Main Street.
“They said when we were there that White Spot is to British Columbians what Goldilocks is to Filipinos,” Erhart said. “You ask Filipinos about Goldilocks and their faces light up.”
Goldilocks and White Spot plan to have a total of four Triple-O’s restaurants in the Philippines within the next eight months. Two of those will be franchised while the other two will be corporately owned, Erhart said.
