This May represents a special milestone for both Thunder Bay Dining and the Dining Lady.
Thunder Bay Dining is a Facebook page that was established to help promote restaurants located in and around Thunder Bay. May 16 marks the third anniversary of the page, which now has more than 5,460 members.
The dining scene in Thunder Bay has evolved a lot over the last decade as new restaurants, gastro-pubs and cafes have appeared. Last year, a few new places opened their doors, including Tomlin, Red Lion Smokehouse, Polish Bistro, Mckellar Café, Breakwater Taphouse and, most recently, Sweet North Bakery. Throughout the last few years we have also seen a few of our local restaurants close, such as Retro Bakery, Sweet Pea's and Embassy Bistro.
Thunder Bay Dining’s goal is to promote our many local establishments and encourage those people who may never have heard about these local gems to venture out and try something new. I have been asked to do a column regarding the foodie scene in Thunder Bay. Since summer is almost upon us, I thought that a good place to start would be with our local food trucks.
Food Trucks En Route
Over the last two seasons, Thunder Bay has enjoyed a variety of offerings from seven different food trucks, and this summer there may even be a few more food trucks added to the mix.
The first food truck established in Thunder Bay was Churrasqueira Galo Inc, which was then followed by Cindy Loohoos, Local Motion, Barbecupid, Miks Concession, Windigo on Wheels and of course the stationary trailer at Marina Park, Going Dutch.
This summer, if everything goes as scheduled, we will also have JFC and D' Culture Shock on the road. Sadly, Cindy Loohoo won’t be operating their food truck this year.
These food trucks provide high-quality food choices for people who don't want to dine-in or for those who may want to pick up and take their lunch back to their home or office. Each truck has its own specialty, ensuring a wide variety of choice for every foodie in town.
Churrasqueira Galo offers up some delicious local favourites such as burgers, elephant ears, and some Portuguese cuisine such as piri-piri chicken. They also have a permanent restaurant located at 570 Red River Road for those wanting to dine-in.
Local Motion is a truck operated by Pinetree Catering. Nikos Mantis offers his diners fresh, locally-grown products and this makes his truck very unique. Nikos is famous for his duck confit spring rolls which won him first place at the Top Chef 2014 event.
Barbecupid's Mike Belisle offers a variety of pulled pork and beef sandwiches along with deep fried pickles. It’s hard to miss his hot pink food truck.
Windigo on Wheels came into the food truck scene last year, offering up some unique dishes. This year they have revamped their entire menu and now feature some local cultural foods such as bannock tacos, bannock burgers, bannock-wrapped sausages and many other dishes that can also be found in their café. Their café is located in the old McKellar Hospital building and is appropriately named McKellar Cafe.
Going Dutch is a stationary trailer that you can’t miss as you take a stroll down at the marina. John Verboom provides a great selection of amazing Dutch treats and specialties, including pofferjtes (mini pancakes with your choice of toppings), croquettes, and rookworst. He also offers a selection of ice cream for the foot traffic at the marina.
Monica Kramer owner of Mik's Concession offers her guests everyone's favourites; slushies and ice cream. If you want to try both, why not have their Mik's Mix? I like to call it a Shlake; it's a slushie with ice cream in it. Mik's Concession also is available for shags, weddings and birthday parties, as they have portable slushie machines that they can bring to your event if it's indoors.
D'Culture Shock is introducing their own food truck this year and hope to be out on the streets soon. They will feature West African, Carribbean and Sri Lankan flavours. You may remember D'Culture Shock from their restaurant on Red River Road; it was only open a short time, but they have now gravitated toward the idea of operating a food truck.
JFC offers his foodie followers his amazing deep fried chicken, poutine, fries and let's not forget his homemade footlong corn dogs!
Most of these trucks will be found on the city streets during the hours of 11:30 am to 2:30 pm Monday to Friday and some are also booked at events in and around the city all summer long.
Finding The Trucks
You can find these food trucks by either checking on the Thunder Bay Dining Facebook page (a post with the day’s locations is pinned to the top of the page) or by visiting each food truck’s Facebook page daily.
No matter which truck you try, I am sure there will be one truck that will become your favourite. When the cold of the winter months set in, people often tell me how much they miss their favourite food trucks and wish they could get that one special dish.
Last winter, Mike Belisle of Barbecupid food truck offered take-out dinners to his foodie fans for pick up at Tim's Meats on John Street. While Nikos of Local Motion was busy with Pinetree Catering this winter, you could still catch his food at a few local eateries, such as Expresso Joya on Cumberland (they stock his sandwiches) and Breakwater Taphouse. Cindy Loohoo shut down her truck to open her own restaurant; she is now located in the old Retro Bakery location on Court Street. As mentioned earlier, Windigo on Wheels also runs the McKellar Cafe located inside the old McKellar Hospital, serving up some of the freshest wholesome meals in town.
We welcome the food trucks again this summer and wish them all the success this year can bring them! If anyone has a location where they would like the food trucks to park this year, please contact me or any of the food truck owners directly. Remember, they are only here for a limited time, so let’s help spread the word.
One other thing to remember: the trucks must park at least 180 feet from the nearest restaurant as stated in the city by-laws, so if you are interested in hosting one this summer, please ensure you have room for both the truck and its customers to park during the hours of 11:00 am to 2:30 pm.
As always, try something new today and enjoy our Thunder Bay foodie scene!
The Dining Lady
Learn more about Thunder Bay dining visit the Thunder Bay Dining Facebook page. For more on the Dining Lady, checkout this website.
