In particular, they make hot sandwiches stuffed to the gills with gourmet meats, cheeses and veggies. They also have a nutella and bananna option for a sophisticated alternative to the old favorite PB&J. Their catering menu is more extensive, offering breakfast pastries, fruit platters, cheese platters, dips and more. They also offer free consultations if you want do do an extra special lunch presentation for your office, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with Thomas and let him know exactly what you need!

What we really admire about Scent of a Sandwich is that they’re on board with the idea of inclusive revitalization, where economic development that takes place in historically under-served communities like the DTES is intentionally inclusive of existing residents in businesses. Scent of a Sandwich has demonstrated their commitment to inclusive revitalization by partnering with local employment agencies like BOB and Pathways, hiring locally through the Pathways 100 Hired Challenge, and improving their formerly vacant storefront on Main Street between Pender and Abbot (in partnership with BOB and the City of Vancouver’s Facade Program). BOB also put on a BusinessLinks session with them to do a culinary & catering staff skills training event.

Furthermore, they’re also interested in being sustainable, and are doing all their deliveries by tricycle! Looks like they’re using disposable plates at the moment, though…surely that will change soon once they get more established.

You can check them out in their new location at 418 Main St. Welcome to the neighborhood from the whole team here at BOB!

That’s right, the much anticipated W2 Media Cafe is open for business! They’re serving yummy Saltspring coffee and a variety of other delicious offerings. Come for the food & drink, stay for the community, politics, media and art!

The media cafe is collectively run social enterprise with a mandate to provide accessible technology for media and communications to all those to all those who need it. And that need is a pressing one: according to W2′s statistics, at least 6,000 DTES residents are without telephone, internet, or computer access. We see this in BOB’s Supported Employment Program, where many of our clients describe having no phone or computer at home, and get only limited access to communications technology through inner-city community resources that are often very busy and only open during standard business hours; many see this lack of access to technology as an obstacle to achieving their goals in life and on the job. It can also make it hard to find a job, secure permanent housing, and assert one’s voice to advocate for political change.

Fojan, an acting student, is making delicious coffee and helping with W2 programming

In terms of community, W2 hired all local DTES and East Van residents to staff the cafe. BOB’s BusinessLinks program assisted the W2 team with with hiring outreach and candidate selection, and sponsored barista training for 12 folks to get FoodSafe certification, customer service training, a programming overview of the media cafe, and more. Cafe staff are getting great opportunities to build skills and pursue activities beyond the cafe counter; several of our BusinessLinks graduates enthusiastically report getting involved with event coordination and program development for projects like the W2 Letterpress Studio and kids & youth media camp.

Debbie is a mother of 3 made temporarily homeless by unwanted apartment renovations in East Vancouver. She plays goalie for the DTES Women’s Street Soccer team and is going to Paris to play in the 2011 Homeless World Cup. She and her family are now well housed. She cites her employment at the cafe, as well as the community she connected with there, as a key part of her return to housing stability. Congratulations Debbie!

Tech geeks, artists, and anyone interested in DIY electronics will appreciate the interactive light display largely DIY’d by W2′s Tech Director WillStacey. You control the interface from within the cafe. Adjust the display pattern and the RGB scale, and look up to see the results! More exciting interactive art and technology installations to come through their Media Artist in Residence Program. Sensitive to the needs of the neighborhood, the cafe also provides free community meeting space, publicly accessible washrooms and lounge, a community media lab, and much more.

BOB is pleased to be part of supporting the start-up of W2 Media Cafe through our Loans Program. We congratulate all the founders and staff on the cafe opening, and look forward to seeing more great things come out of this ambitious project founded on grassroots principles of social inclusion. Well done!

BOB is working with W2 Media Cafe to recruit and train potential candidates. If you are interested in this opportunity, come to our barista training information night on Wednesday April 27th from 4-6pm. The session will be held at the W2 Media Cafe, #250-111 West Hastings.

If you have any questions, please contact Lani Johnson at 778-328-7674 or lani.johnson@bobics.org.

The session will include a presentation about the community work W2 Media Cafe does, as well as information about the barista positions. Please bring your resume and be prepared for a short screening interview.

Successful candidates will be selected for a week-long training session put on by BOB that will include the opportunity to get certified in Foodsafe and Serving it Right.

BOB is excited to partner with W2 Media Cafe to provide the barista information and training sessions through our BusinessLinks program. By hiring inner-city residents to staff their inner-city business, W2 Media Cafe is contributing to inclusive revitalization through building community capacity. Well done!

Former owner Al DesLauriers had several offers for the building in the 1990s from prospective condo developers who were drooling over the site. He turned them down, stating that he would rather give up his business for free to someone who wanted to maintain the butchery.

Rumours have been swirling since last year that Save-On Meats was being bought by restaurateur Mark Brand. Brand has ample experience in the business, having opened Boneta, The Diamond, and Sea Monstr Sushi in Gastown.

In a report published by the City of Vancouver last week, it became official: early in 2011, the doors of Save-On Meats will open once again, under Brand’s ownership.

Many organizations came together to make this happen.

Our former Business and Social Enterprise Developer, Brian Smith, helped BOB partner with Vancity to provide a $500,000 loan to Brand for this project. As well, the City of Vancouver supplied a grant of $35,000 through the Greenest City Neighbourhood Grants program to catalyze the re-opening. The façade of the building will be upgraded under the Hastings Street Renaissance Project.

Another partnership that was integral was the one with Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House. Part of their Kitchen Tables project is to widely introduce their food philosophy in the neighbourhood. The Neighbourhood House’s food philosophy states that no one should be without access to healthy and natural foods. Food is one of the basic human rights, and nutrition can play a big role in physical and mental wellbeing.

This is where Brand hopes Save-On Meats will come in.

The building is three stories tall; each floor will have a different function.

The first floor will include a walk-in meat counter and café open to the public, as it had been since 1957.

The second floor will feature a commissary, a centralized food-making facility that will supply Brand’s restaurants. Those who work in this communal kitchen will be local residents trained through a program at Potluck Café and Catering, conveniently located across the street.

The third floor would be the operating area for the Downtown Eastside food incubator, which would encourage entrepreneurs in the neighbourhood to build upon their ideas. Incubators such as this one help small businesses sustain themselves.

The words “SAVE OUR CITY” have been painted across the boarded up storefront at Save-On Meats. Interpret it how you will, but this could be the start of a new era for Hastings Street. Once a vibrant retail area that catered to everyone regardless of income level, Save-On Meats could be the very spark to reignite the flame.

In smaller letters underneath the graffiti reads ‘Work in Progress’. It is pretty safe to say that Brand, the citizens of Vancouver, and especially DesLauriers are happy with the direction in which that progress is heading.

Produce selection at Quest

We have been giving out food vouchers for Quest Food Exchange to clients for quite some time now. An idea came up that perhaps we should see what kind of meals we could come up with ourselves with supplies from Quest. It would not only be a test of our creativity, but would give us a scope of the opportunities and restrictions for a person living with limited resources.

Quest has several locations around Metro Vancouver. Their mandate is to rescue food that is on the brink of becoming waste and see that it gets used.

Ada and I visited the Dundas Street warehouse location, as it has the largest selection of food and goods.  We met with Pardeep Khrod, who gave us a quick tour of what was available and helped us make a meal plan for the dinner. Searching through the aisles, many possible meals were running through our heads. Pardeep helped us narrow down our options to a chicken parmesan-type meal, complete with lots of fresh vegetables to include in the sauce and garlic bread to accompany.

Our total at Quest, including 30 pieces of breaded chicken, came to less than $50. Even with a couple of last minute provisions from Nesters Market, the amount spent was nearly ¾ less than the usual cost of putting on a dinner for 15-20 people.

Ada with our purchases

Shopping was the easy part.  

The kind people at Jacob’s Well  graciously let us use their kitchen space for the afternoon before the dinner. We carted our Quest goodies over to their kitchen. Jacob’s Well had all of the cooking utensils we could ever need, which we realized might not be realistic for most people shopping at Quest. However, our meal was still rather simple to prepare and required only the most basic of items.

The preparation was a little scattered: “What should we make first?”, “How long will things take?”, ”These onions are making me cry!” As a vegetarian, I was worried about my lack of knowledge on chicken cooking times; Ada assured me that it was pre-cooked. After that wave of relief washed over me, it was back to tearing up over a cutting board of onion slices.

We had two hours to put it all together, and managed to pack everything up just in the nick of time. When we returned to the office, we were pleasantly surprised to be met with a sizable turnout of clients.

At the dinner, a discussion is often led about the pressures of working or successes on the job. This time, we got everyone chatting about what they do in terms of feeding themselves. We had lots of interesting suggestions. The best one was to cook for a whole week at a time, to save on preparation time later and ensure that nutritious meals are available for several days. One client said that he combined beans, rice and vegetables with spices or a sauce, kept it in several containers and had that over the week. This can also be done with food like oatmeal, pasta, or stir-frys. Shopping at Quest serves this style of eating well, as its best to use food purchased there fairly soon. Once cooked, though, it can be refrigerated or frozen for later use.

While cleaning up, we discussed the success of this month’s dinner. It was definitely great to see how Quest works firsthand and we had fun preparing everything. When all was said and done though, we probably would not “cater” a meal for 20 people again. We’ll leave that to the experts. I’m sure they know the secret to cutting onions without crying.

Potluck Café and Catering

Potluck is a social enterprise in the Downtown Eastside that runs a café and provides catering services, both of which serve hundreds of customers in the area. Potluck offers many great community programs to residents of the Downtown Eastside. They (rightfully) believe that no one should be deprived of quality, nutritious food and are committed to sharing this message.

BOB has maintained a good working relationship with Potluck for a number of years. We have partnered with them on numerous occasions, including collaborating with them for monthly SHINE dinners for clients, as well as employer breakfasts.

Barney and the band

BOB and Potluck also worked together to offer a Banquet Server Training Program last year. As a part of BOB’s Business Links program, clients were taught valuable skills in order to enter the workforce and were given the opportunity to interview with employers once they completed the training.

The night at the Vogue not only supports a fantastic cause, but is guaranteed to be a good time. Tickets can be purchased at: https://tickets.voguetheatre.com/Online/default.asp 

If you are not able to make it to the fundraiser and still want to support Potluck, visit their café at 30 W. Hastings from 8-4 Monday to Friday or donate here.

A little shot of the interior of Kranky Cafe 228-216 E. 4th Avenue

Vancouver is a city freckled with cafes. Whether they be corporate chains, smaller chains, high priced specialty cafes, there is a cafe for everyone. For me, though I do have a few locales that I frequent, the one that is most near and dear to my heart is an adorable joint just across from my apartment on Main and 4th called Kranky Cafe. There are a few reasons why I’m particularly fond of this enterprise. It’s tucked away right inside our neighbourhood, one that is an eclectic blend of break and muffler garages, refill stations and live-work lofts. Robson Street it is not, but over the past handful of months since the cafe has been open even I as a customer can see firsthand how my neighbours along with myself have embraced it as  our spot. Similarly to the Narrow, another small but cherished hang out for locals. Having it tucked right in with the lofts in this unassuming (and “up and coming”) part of town reminds of the kinds of places one would see in Berlin or other European cities, where the cut and dry zoning and commercial strips that western cities celebrated isn’t so prevalent.  Though the space is small they make the absolute most of it with live music, local artists work on the walls, and a beautiful patio space. Perhaps the number one reason why I like it so much is that it was started by a pair of young entrepreneurs who took a chance on this location and have made a real positive impact on this small neighbourhood.  So I asked them to send in a brief little backgrounder for all entrepreneurs to be, or those looking for a great lunch, coffee, snack or beer on a patio spot on the edge of Mt. Pleasant. Below is the response from Dana, one of the partners  on how they made it all happen.

Kranky Dana- Mmm-k well basically it all started many moons ago in the neighborhood of kitsilano. There is a cute lil’ coffee shop (Arbutus coffee), where both Tondela (her business partner at Kranky) and I worked for a time. It was a shop that was started by a woman named Amanda, and she had owned and operated it for 7 years. The unique part about the shop was the laid back community vibe, which in essence was an extension of Amanda’s laid back personality. When that shop was sold, Tondela and I started talking about creating our own shop, with a lot of the similar aspects that we had enjoyed at Arbutus. Tondela stayed on at Arbutus as their primary baker, and I went on to a gluten free bakery working their as a baker. Throughout most of 2010 we had met and talked about our future plan to take over the cafe world.We made some good connections and had a lot of help from our Realtor who is also a family friend of Tondela’s.
When the Moss came up for sale we made a bid and we got it.
Since then it’s been a bit of a whirlwind! in the process, coming up with a name for our place was an ongoing one. And then….gold!   Tondela had overheard a woman talk about being cranky…. and then cranky evolved into Kranky…. and ta da.

Through numerous challenges, equipment issues, learning about the business and finances etc, it has been a huge learning experience.
There is always something to do, or get done. We try our best to take breaks when we can, our goal is to one day have two days off in a row, each…. one day. one day
We both want to create a comfortable place where people will hopefully come and take some time, and connect with others in the community.
Tondela has a background in film and is also a graduate of Emily Carr, and does some great work in the visual arts. (Dana has mainly a background in music and other randomness according to herself) Essentially we want to be able to support local artists as best we can with our small space. Currently we host music nights and display artwork which changes roughly every six weeks. We were a part of SWARM and will also be a part of the upcoming Drift on main.

This is a really great area to be situated in and we have met some real nice folks. The support we have gotten from people has also been lovely, which is really encouraging for us from day to day.

Thanks Dana and Tondela for seeing the potential in this tucked away corner of EastVan and for bringing your passion and talents here.

nd beneficial it is to hire locally.  It is especially exciting for the Supported Employment Team when a client we have placed goes above and beyond at the workplace. This month, we have highlighted the story of David, who is one of those exemplary employees.

David is working at Calabash Bistro

Read more about David’s work at Calabash Bistro here:

SEPNewsletter – Sept 2010.

Other stories this month include:

• Employer Profile – Calabash Bistro
• Urban Farming Workshops
• Event Listings
• Job Postings

Calabash Bistro Chef Cullin

Last week I had the Fry Fish sandwich with homemade Jerk Fries and Jamaican ketchup.  OH MY WORD.  It was simple, delicious, and I had to go back again this week!  This time I ate the Jerk Chicken sandwich with Jerk Fries and salad.  The chicken was made with the chefs own house made jerk sauce.  Speaking of sauces..  I’m a sucker for them!  So their Jerk Aioli and Jamaican Ketchup threw me over the edge.  And OH MY GOSH..  Their homemade Coco Bread..  It’s a light sandwich shaped bread that they use for their sandwiches or make into a patty.  And it is wonderful.

Dayna, Calabash Bartender

Both times I’ve dropped in, the servers were really friendly and they are on the ball with great service.   The upstairs is comfortable posh, with local art work and Caribbean décor, with the chefs cooking in the background wearing their colorful tams.  We tried a couple of their drinks, and I would definitely recommend the Ginger Ale which is made in house and is strong and nice.

A unique aspect of Calabash is their desire to bring art and music into the eating experience.  Their downstairs lounge is host of Foundation Radio, an online radio station that plays roots, reggae, jazz, blues, motown and funk music.  They often have live music with DJ’s spinning and local artists performing reggae, hip-hop, funk, and poetry.

Natalie, Server and weekend DJ

If you haven’t checked it out, come in at lunch for their daily special sandwiches that are very reasonably prices ($6-$12), or come in the evening for their delicious Mains ($10-13).  I haven’t tried the sides yet, but I’ll have to wait for next week to check out the Plantain Chips and Fried Coconut Dumplings.  J

I just had the little point and shoot camera with me, but they were nice enough to pose.

Calabash Bistro

Many moons ago, when we were at our old offices Mina Jung came into our office about opening up her dream business, selling healthy Korean food as a lunch alternative. She planned on calling the business Next Sunday Kimbab because as a child she always looked forward to the Next Sunday. It took a while and the idea was refined, but Next Sunday Kimbab is now open and providing healthy Korean food delivered to your office for lunch or meetings.

A Next Sunday Kimbab retail location is still in the long term plans, but BOB staff were quite happy with the samples Mina brought over today. So consider Kimbab for your next meeting or staff lunch, you can learn more about Next Sunday Kimbab from their Facebook Page or their blog.