A SkyTrain stop led Dan Close to an appealing location for a restaurant concept he'd fried up during his years in the restaurant business.
Close and his partner, Tim Ferguson, were searching for a spot for Spud Shack Fry Co., a Belgian frites shop, when Close came upon the Shops at New West - the vast retail space at the New Westminster SkyTrain station.
"I hadn't taken the SkyTrain for awhile, and I stopped here, and I was like, 'Uh, what's this?'" says Close, a triathlete who was on his way to a five-kilometre race. "On the way back, I had a chance to see the development. I was able to walk around and get a sense and a feel. I saw all of the towers that had just come up over the last five or six or seven years, some of the plans for the downtown core. Then I started looking at the numbers, the ridership: a quarter of a million people a week."
Close and his partner decided it was the perfect space to "fry" out their new venture.
The concept is based on the national snack food of Belgium: frites. And don't be fooled into thinking it’s just a fancy way of saying fries. Frites are distinguished by the fact that they are cooked twice, are thicker than American fries, fresh cut and are served in a paper cone with a choice of flavour-packed dips, like lemon and chive, chipolte, roasted garlic, and on and on.
The Spud Shack Fry Co. space also incorporates touches of the western European country. The room's colours: black accents, red chairs, yellow tiles all incorporate the colours of the Belgian flag.
"We are old-world Europe meets the west coast," Close says about the atmosphere.
Close brings a dash of Canadiana to the shack by offering poutine, which has become the most-popular staple at the restaurant. Interestingly, vegans - those who eat no animals products or by-products - have fallen in love with a meat/dairy-free poutine offering that Close cooked up by chance one day.
Local vegan Melissa Balfour was in the Spud Shack one day and told Close she wished there was a vegan poutine for her. Close thought to check the gravy mix he uses and discovered it was vegetable based.
He them popped downstairs to Safeway and grabbed some vegan "cheese," came back upstairs, threw some frites in the fryer and served Balfour up a vegan version of the rich gravy dish. Balfour was delighted and the vegan poutine has become a cult favourite for vegans in the know (it's not officially on the menu).
Along with frites, Spud Shack’s menu includes sandwiches, burgers and, of course, - another touch of Belgium - artisan draught beer.
Close began his cooking career about 15 years ago with a Red Seal apprenticeship at the Fairmont Waterfront, where he spent six years. Later, he worked at the test kitchen for Cactus Club. The father of two lives with his wife in Cloverdale but spends a great deal of time in New West, where he's carved out a band of loyal and hungry followers - especially through the social media site Twitter, where locals rave about his salty frites.
"New West loves us, (and) we love being in New West," Close says. "Right now, it's all referrals. It's Twitter. It's Facebook. It's social media. It's my food. It's all about the food. It has to be."
Spud Shack is located at 352-800 Carnarvon St. To check out the menu, click here.
