Today on Illustrated Vancouver, a placemat from White Spot, circa 1947. Actually, the date is just a guesstimate; August 22, 1947 was written on the back of the placemat in ink. I came across this placemat amidst the paper ephemera at the annual Burnaby Train Show earlier this month.

I love looking at old maps of the city, and I’ve featured quite a number of them so far. In spite of all the changes we’ve seen over the years, this map is still surprisingly useful, although you will no longer find a White Spot location at the corner of Granville & 67th Avenue. Incidentally, that was the location of the very first White Spot drive-in restaurant, which opened in 1928.

According to their corporate history, the White Spot story all started with a man and his truck. The man was Nat Bailey and his truck was a 1918 Model T which he transformed into a traveling lunch counter to serve sightseers at Vancouver’s Lookout Point.

Is there something about this story that sounds familiar? With a bit of luck, Vancouver might just get to see the food cart to franchise story repeat itself in the years to come.