"Everyone is on life support": Vancouver restaurant raises alarm on dire state of the industry

Corvette Romero and Matt Brennan, owners of Shameless Buns food truck and Jack’s Chowder on Fraser Street, love serving hungry customers around the region. They just wish things weren’t so challenging for Vancouver’s food industry.

“We like to joke that we are two foodies who thought it would be a good idea to start a food truck… What could possibly go wrong?” said Brennan in an interview with Dished.

“When we originally began Shameless Buns, we saw it as an opportunity to celebrate Filipino food in a new and exciting way. In 2019 when we began, food trucks were a great way to launch your food businesses with the potential of scaling big. Sadly, this is not the case anymore.”

Shameless Buns, Jack’s Chowder, and many other restaurants and food trucks in Metro Vancouver face numerous challenges in keeping their doors open. From rising operating costs to erratic business patterns, these difficulties are piling up in a way that some business operators do not see a way around.

“Over the years, we have made multiple TV and media appearances on shows such as Carnival Eats and Guy’s Grocery Games while also winning awards like ‘Best Food Truck Experience’ at the Golden Owl Awards. Yet we have been struggling for a long time and there are no signs that things are getting better,” explained Romero. “Everyone is on life support, even the legacy restaurants. Unless you have a lineup from open to close, you aren’t making money. There are only about 10 restaurants in the city that are doing that.

“Over our years of operation, we have battled a pandemic, heat domes, atmospheric rivers, a crippled economy, delivery apps and rapidly changing customer habits. The last two years have been incredibly difficult for us and virtually everyone we know with a food business. The bottom line is, people just aren’t spending as much money and the cost of goods continues to rise.”

Sam Pero, president of the non-profit, volunteer-run Streetfood Vancouver Society, echoes Romero’s sentiments.

“Everyone thinks food trucks are easy money but they’re not,” said the Cannoli King owner. “Event coordinators are charging higher fees. There is so much red tape from the cities and food costs keep going up. It’s one dagger after the next, and you’re going to see more closures.

“Some of our food trucks have been around for a long time, and they’ve shared that things are tougher now than ever before.”

Fewer customers, more costs

A recent TD survey found that over half (54 per cent) of BC residents are planning to cut their spending in some way. Others aren’t planning on cutting their spending (37 per cent) but claim they’ve already cut back all they can.

One of the biggest takeaways of the survey is that 60 per cent of BC respondents plan on cutting back on their food purchases, suggesting they’d eat out or order in less.

“Our biggest challenge is inconsistency,” added Brennen. “We have a unique business, because we make most of our business during May-September, but the rest of the year is a struggle. We pay our team a livable wage and have reasonable prices and we often had to borrow money from friends and family just to pay our team or rent.”

Another challenge is the constant rise in costs for restaurant and food truck owners. In a recent post on social media, Romero gave an example of how a 16-litre jug of oil was $19.99 six years ago, but now they have to pay $45 for the same amount.

“As everyone knows, everything has gone up significantly in the last few years,” Romero said. “We go through about eight jugs of oil a week, and I like to use it as an example so people can see how extreme the rise in costs is.”

“Our food bills are massive and they keep increasing every few months. A traditional rule of thumb is to price your menu items at 25 per cent food cost, meaning if the item costs $2.50 to make, you charge $10. We are now at the point where our food costs are sitting closer to the 35 to 40 per cent mark because customers will simply not buy from us if we are too expensive.”

Brennan and Romero also identified huge increases in commercial rents, food truck event fees, and delivery apps as being other major difficulties for the industry.

“The constant closure of restaurants is extremely scary,” Romero admitted. “We sometimes say, ‘Why should we continue if everyone else is closing?’ Seeing the recent closure of legacy donut shop Cartems really hit home and I had many other small business owners reach out to me after they saw the post to say they were going through the same challenges.”

Ian Tostenson, president and CEO of the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association, confirmed that he is seeing a higher rate of closures recently compared to the past.

“Anecdotally, it’s the highest level of bankruptcies in many years. It’s a combo of bankruptcies as well as the end of the leases with owners saying it’s not worth it to continue.”

What can locals do to support their favourite establishments?

“The state of the industry is marginal at best overall,” added Tostenson, who encouraged local restaurant owners to join the BCRFA to get support. “The harder part of the market is the small independents. Rent costs have been a real challenge, with municipalities increasing property taxes which get passed onto tenants.

“Right now is a critical time for the industry as we face uncertainties in the economy. We see the importance of the industry uniting and working in the same direction. People still want to go out, but are being conscious of their dollars.”

Romero and Brennan shared several suggestions of how locals can support their favourite establishment in Metro Vancouver. They include calling the restaurant to pick up your order in person, leaving a five-star review if you had a great experience, being very selective when leaving one-star reviews, and supporting local restaurants.

The Shameless Buns and Jack’s Chowder owners also shared messages of hope for their fellow restaurant industry workers and thanks for their longtime supporters.

“We are all in this together. Many of us will not be open within the next few years, but remember you are doing something amazing. You threw it all on the line to become an entrepreneur and do this crazy thing. None of us go into this to struggle. We are doing this because we love to share our food with the world, but the world is a very challenging place.

“Shameless Buns and Jack’s Chowder has served thousands of people over the years, and we like to think we have made a tiny impact on the incredible food scene that lives in Vancouver. We want to thank everyone who has experienced our food and we hope we are around for years to come.”