Canada Day Block Party And Food Cart Festival!

There’s no better way to celebrate lunch on Canada Day when you have a handful of food carts showcasing the best of their best within a walking distance from one another.
Great weather, great people, excellent food always adds up to a good time! I, personally, thought that whoever’s idea was to have multiple food carts in one lot is ingenious. I don’t often have time to venture into the downtown core where most of the carts are located, so to have them in an easily accessible compound was a blessing.
The Elite Hour was always phenomenal. I love getting first dibs and avoiding crowds and long waits! Many thanks to Robin for making this event possible. Hard to narrow down which food carts were my favourite because they were all delicious!

How to describe my anticipation for this… hmm… you know when dreaming that you are a cross between Iron Man and Batman? You’re the world’s greatest detective and the hero that Gotham deserves but armed with jet propulsion, shoulder cannons and repulsor beams from the palm of your hands. So you’re dreaming and generally doing bad-​ass shit in your dream being IronBatMan… when you wake up from getting too excited. Your first thought is ‘AWESOME!’ and then you immediately try to go back to sleep so you can resuming ambushing thugs from the darkness while flying around at jet speed… that moment when you try to fall back asleep…
… yup — that’s pretty much the anticipation I had for this event. First off, it’s the first Unilocal event that I know of that’s in legitimate East Van (being a couple blocks east of Main/​Quebec doesn’t count). I could literally stumble home from the beer garden.
And food trucks… come on. FOOD TRUCKS.
And this was my anticipation before I learned Robin set up an Elite Hour… a full hour to run around to each food truck and grab complimentary samples — before it got slammed with the public and crazy lineups. And complimentary drinks until 1PM. I mean, you have to deal with the ‘shame’ of starting your Canada Day drunkenness at 11AM — but added free food and booze to an event I’m already hyped about and you’ve got a winner.
And the sun even came out later in the afternoon. Robin absolutely murdered with this event.
Only way this event could have been better was if the ‘stage’/beer garden wasn’t so segregated from the rest of the premise. I was drinking behind a portable building… is this high school? And maybe next year, this can combine forces with music from the Livestock Canada Day Jamboree?
If we got that going on — it would be like dreaming of being IronBatMan… while eating Jolly Ranchers.

It was a fun event. It is just too bad I missed the elite hour.
I loved all the food trucks and tried the ones I didn’t try before except for the juice truck. I have had their juice before and they are super delicious.
I can’t wait for the next event!!!

Dearest Robin,
Please continue with the win.
Yours Truly,
Ben

Delicious free food. Check.
Hilarious sumo suits. Check.
Boozy sangria. Check.
All key ingredients for a memorable afternoon. Thanks Unilocal,for an awesome Canada Day!

I LOVE Unilocal.LOVE it. I love how it brings the community together to showcase some amazing local businesses. And I especially loved how it brought together some of the best food trucks in the city to celebrate Canaday Day in style. For example:
1. The Waldorf. An amazing old hotel that hosts one of the best tiki bars in the city.
2. Food trucks. Fer reals, some of the coolest food trucks in the city, all squeeky clean for the party
3. Ernest ice cream, in its little bicycle cart. So awesome!
4. Sumo suits! Hilarious!
5. SIP Sode and Caribou Root Beer. Deliciousness in a bottle/​can
6. Sangria. Delicious delicious sangria.
This party was ROCKING. The food trucks were cooking up some AMAZING stuff, and it great seeing all at a central location, sharing their food with other vendors and just having a great time! A fantastic opportunity for me, since I could then find out where everyone was located. Can you imagine the coordination our organizers had to go through to get this party happening? I can’t thank you enough Robin, you did an amazing job (as always). The Unilocal community is so lucky to have someone like you!
Also, thanks for the sunglasses. I know there really wasn’t a chance to use them (what is WITH this «summer» weather here?!), but you can bet I’ll be rocking them as soon as the sun decides to make an appearance!

Props to the people who organized this thing. There are so many food carts around town now, and it’s difficult to keep track of them all. What better way to showcase them than to put them all into a central location?
As I had already eaten (and wasn’t cool enough to qualify for the Elite Hour), I was more there to chat with some of the cart owners and see what’s going on. And of course to also do some people-​watching.
One of my highlights was trying the Cariboo root beer sample. This really is something. Most other root beers are waaay too sweet, but I think Cariboo really did well on this one. The sample people also told me where I could go pick some up (they’re not available everywhere).
Vancouver needs to throw more of these things.

As I wore my Unilocal shades in hopes of bringing the sun out to celebrate Canada Day, this food truck party at the Waldorf totally made my food cart dream come true. Even though I have escaped to cities like Portland, New York and LA to fulfill the dream, this particular one was different.
Featuring some of Vancouver’s finest food trucks, this brought the Vancouver community together over a shared love of food. I engorged on delicious food (OMG the risotto balls!), sipped on some sangria and rosemary sage mojitos on the patio, and mingled with other Unilocalers on this 145^th birthday.
Thanks for making this event a success Robin, please have more food truck parties!

*squees!*
Was thrilled to see a lot of the food trucks around and sample some of their delicious food. I was able to try quite a few places that I haven’t been to before like Earnest Ice Cream, Soho Road, and Street Meet! Also, I need to get more of that salted caramel ice cream… mmm… Also, the Cariboo root beer was awesome and I really need to find where I can get them.
I really loved seeing people in the sumo suits. Best. Thing. EVER. It was hilarious to see people getting into the suit and then getting up. XD
Also, major major thanks to Robin and everyone else who helped set up everything! You guys are the best!

What do ya get when you mix a bunch of food trucks, sumo costumes, a friendly community, and the whole sexy Unilocal Elite crew all up in one place… ONE HELL OF A BLOCK PARTY, SON!!!
Located at the Waldorf Hotel on E. Hastings was the Canada Day Block Party Food Cart Fest… (is this event annual? or no… well it friggin should be! ;)
I must have counted at least 12 or so food carts in one parking lot, sampling all that Vancouver’s got to offer. From Mom’s grilled cheese truck and their «Hot Angie’ to
Pig on the street if your «Achin for Bacon»!! MMMM two trucks i wanted to try since it opened. I was also fortunate enough to try the
famous Earnest Ice Cream food stand! now let me take moment to talk about their ice cream., It really is as they say: «Seriously GOOD» full of flavor and extremely satisfying! try the salted caramel! my favorite! ;) Thank you food trucks! thank you for your delicious abundance of sustenance ;)
Robin and Crystal, you never cease to amaze us! you truly go above and beyond for the community! you give us something to look forward to every time and it is greatly appreciated! thank you for doing what you do ;) we love you!!!
Until next time Unilocal!
you complete me!

Stop #1 on this year’s day o’ fun.
So every year, we spend July 1^st just eating and getting drunk… some years are rougher than others, but this year was great. We had fears that it might rain, but the weather held up the whole day. Good thing since this shindig was outside.
We arrived early for Elite Hour. Man it’s cold, but I soon had delicious food to warm me up. First on the list was Streat Meat. Yum. They had really great risotto balls. I love the soft rice inside and the crispy deep fried outside. Next was Soho Road for their naan bread… I got mine with butter chicken… That was by far, the best thing I had there… While we waited, we had samples of mango lassi. Wonderful.
Umm, free Sangria? Wow. There are no words. It was really good Sangria too. I only had a sip. Had to be responsible. Plus, this was only stop number one. Can’t be drunk and wanting to pass out in restaurant washrooms like years past…
Pig on the Street makes me want to get on my back on the floor and oink… I had their brownie with bourbon and bacon sauce. Sooooo-​eeeeeee… This was amazing. It didn’t really look that appetizing, but it tasted like nothing else. Sigh. It was like those truffles you get from Costco, slathered in the butterscotch sauce from Milestones with bacon. Ohmigosh. I got two… because other people took one bite and thought it was too sweet. Psshaw. It was perfect.
Last stop was Mom’s Grilled Cheese. I only had one bite… it was okay. My husband thought his sandwich was the greatest. It’s grilled cheese and knowing him, it was the probably the plainest one because he’s such a purist.
There was a stage… I heard a band playing, but I was mesmerized by the sumo wrestlers… I had to laugh every time a child put the suit on… they fell over without even making a move.

How do you spell perfection?
CDBPAFCF brought to you by Robin M!
Every food cart came to play and serve. They gave us Elite lovely samples of what makes Vancity a great Cartcity! It was great to see some old friends, meet a few new ones and to just chill in Vancouver in the early spring. (oops summer)
Most of all I was so happy to see Robin M and Crystal H both of whom I have a huge crush on.
g

Robin, Crystal, Unilocal,the Street Food Association of Vancouver… You made our dreams come true this Canada Day! Even the skies opened up and brought us sun despite the gloomy forecast.
An event with a gathering of the best food trucks, sumo suits, live music, beer garden and good company. I couldn’t imagine a better way to celebrate Canada’s birthday. I was like a chicken with my head cut off, I didn’t know where to go first… To eat, drink or test my strength sumo wresting!!!
Thank you Feastro for the Deliciously hot tacos, La Brasserie for the huge sample of your very flavourful sandwich, The Juice Truck for having my favorite «almost chocolate» smoothie, Meet Street for your awesome veggie burger, Zipcar for your free elite membership, and The Waldorf for your efficient (and very friendly) staff. And THANK YOU Robin for being so amazing at putting together such a fun event for us. Can we do it again?
P. S. My baby had a great time and was honored to be an elite for an hour.

What a fantastic party! For those who do not live or work near these wonderful food trucks, today is a great opportunity to sample some of the best food the city has to offer. Here are my picks:
# Divine fudgy brownies with bourbon and caramel and bacon. OMG.
# salted caramel ice cream where you can actually taste the salt. Excellent ice cram from Ernest Ice Cream.
# Moms grilled cheese sandwiches with havarti, mozzarella, and capicola that is soft and delicious. Possibly the best I’ve had in a while.
# Free zipcar memberships for Elite Unilocalers? Hell yeah.
# Met with the UBC food scientist who created SIP soda.
# Root beer made with actual beer? Yes please.
# Free sangria for Unilocalers. Absolutely appropriate. How else are we supposed to survive in a Unilocal event without some sort libation?
Thanks to Robin and her team for reserving a special hour for us Unilocalers. I do feel a little more special now.

Sumo suits, food trucks, and Unilocal swag? Did I hear block party? I am so there!
What an awesome way to celebrate Canada Day. The food trucks were so good to me. Props to street meet, Feastro taco stand, and Mom’s grill cheese for their mouth watering samples and for Sips soda and Cariboo 0.5% root beer to wash it all down.
Great times, great atmosphere, what more do you need??? Oh yeah me in a sumo suit!
Thanks Robin M and to all the Unilocal helpers getting it all set up there (Amy T. and Ben C). You guys rock

Thanks Unilocal for putting on this inaugural Canada Day event. This is my first Unilocal review as I thought it was well deserving of a review! This was the perfect thing to do on a Canada Day for foodies, especially foodies that love street food. Met up with some other foodie friends to enjoy the day at the Waldorf.
Got there early because we knew it was going to be busy, last check I did on Facebook showed that over 900 people had rsvp’ed. Arrived 12:30pm.
1^st stop — Feastro for the Tuna taco. Simply amazing piled so high on the taco shell that they gave you a set of chopsticks to eat the excess off the top, so that you could roll it up later and eat it taco style. Everything was so fresh and the tuna chunks were so large and tasty!
2^nd stop — Pig on the Street for the bacon cheese twisty bread and the super sinful but oh so great Bacon Bourbon Caramel Chocolate Brownie. $ 2 each item and so worth it!
3^rd stop — Earnest Ice Cream, it had the largest lineup there when I first arrived. Went for the R & B Oatmeal Stout Ice Cream. Fantastic! I am an ice cream and gelato fanatic and am excited to know that you can purchase it by the pint on Commercial Drive.
4^th and final stop — Guanaco (Salvadoran cuisine) for the platanos fritos balls of deep-​fried plantain super hot, with sour cream for dipping. Yummy and crunchy. Would have had the pupasas too, if I had more room. Was full by the end of this last bit.
The only suggestions we had for next time are that it would be nice to have some more seating, a larger beer garden and maybe some more food trucks so that the lineups wouldn’t be quite so long. But these are the challenges that you face with the space and the first time an event is held.
Overall, a terrific idea for this Canada Day and look forward to many more food truck events. After all, this city can be fun, we just need to get out there and support the organizers that go to the trouble of putting these things on for us!
Bravo Robin and Unilocal crew! Thank-​you as well to Mother Nature for sparing us from the rain today :)

My face hurt from smiling so much and I’m exhausted. What a FABULOUS time! I wish I could’ve stayed longer, like all day!!!
The gluttony,
The ridiculous,
The happiness,
Can’t wait to see all the pictures.
I hope the food trucks get together and decide to do this more often, then my facial muscles can relax.
Thank you Waldorf Hotel for making my food truck gathering dream come true.
Thank you Robin for ever conceiving of such a sublime event.
Thank you Mom’s Grilled Cheese for feeding us gluten/​dairy handicapped.
Thank you Crystal… for being awesome.
Thank you Raymond for taking what is my all time favourite photo at a Unilocal event!
Thank you Unilocalers for being so cool :)
See you soon.
over
and
out.

Robin, you have out done yourself witht this one. The food and drink trucks were amazing with my two favorite being the grill cheese truck and the perogies. Then, there’s the amazing deal with zipcar (no fee membership for elites). And how could I forget the great drinks from Sips, Cariboos and sangrias. Ahhh and what about those Sumo suits. I loved that Robin gave elites one hour to browse and then opened it to the public. If your not registered with Unilocal,you should be. So register and join the rest of the Unilocal events for more fun in Vancouver.
And as alway, Have Fun!!!

First off, thanks to Crystal, Robin as well as all the helpers and food trucks for making this great event possible. None of this would have been possible without all of them, so thank you, thank you and… THANK YOU once again!
My personal favourites were the El Salvador truck with their tacos, Street Meet with the unbelievable crispy risotto balls (I could have snacked on those forever) and Holy Perogy with their Italian perogies which I found divine. Other notable mentions are Pig On The Street with their extremely creative fudge brownies as well as the Juice Truck’s strawberry coconut juice.
Not to be forgotten was the root beer with 0.5% alcohol from Cariboo and the Waldorf Bar which had red sangria as well as wines. A great experience, great party and Happy Canada Day! I cannot wait to see what is in store for next year!

Thank you, thank you, thank yoooou for the bounty of food sprawled before us!
The clouds moved away in time for a truly Canadian block party full of food trucks, stands and sumo suits. Elite Unilocalers were allowed to enjoy some samples an hour before it was opened to the public. It was a nice touch and I felt so special.
There were a lot of firsts at this party. I had a chance to try Earnest ice cream and the Salted Caramel was heaven. I’ve never tried sumo wrestling on the suits before and it was a perfect way to burn a few calories, –both from trying to bump your opponent out of the ring and from laughing. The risotto balls from Street Meet were insanely good and I’m so glad I finally had a chance to try it. And who can forget about Cariboo Brewing’s Root Beer with 0.5% alcohol. I can never drink regular root beer again!
There were also quite a few of my favorite food trucks at the event today such as Mom’s Grilled Cheese and Re-​Up. A highly successful event for the whole family including your dog. Thanks again Robin, all the organizers and helpers for making this the best Canada Day party!