Who knew Kevin Smith would be such a prolific teller of Vancouver's stories? Armed with just his smartphone and Twitter account, the director has already brought Vancouver and the interwebs together through his harrowing one-photo tale of waking up to a massive garbage pile outside his luxury hotel room window.
Now here we are on Smith's second day in Vancouver, and we've arrived at another key visual storytelling moment, this time involving the crossroads of Canadian culinary history, pop culture, cinema, and fast food.
Aiming his lens on a McDonald's at 891 Granville Street at Smithe, Smith takes us on this profound journey into the past:
"At this Vancouver McDonalds in 1992, The Grinch director Scott Mosier and I had our first and last taste of the ill-fated Hawaiian style McPizza."
Change.org
McPizza, one might argue, was ill-fated on its own, though it has remained a powerful touchstone for those who encountered the fast food item in its tenure on the McDonalds menu. You can, if you are so moved, add your name to the "Bring back McPizza to Canada" petition on Change.org.
Canadians got to enjoy McPizza more than Americans; the Canadian-born menu item remained on more menus north of the border after it was largely discontinued in the States in 2000, after first making its debut in the 1980s, and seeing widespread testing in the early 1990s--right when Smith and Mosier encountered the Hawaiian rendition here in Vancouver, on our very own Granville Street.
Hawaiian pizza, that divisive combo of pineapple and ham, is credited as being a Canadian invention, thanks to the late Sam Panopoulos of Ontario.
The McPizza is serious business for many, including Smith, who acknowledges his small, but valuable, role in preserving its memory:
"History should be written by EVERYONE - so this was just a banal piece of mine," he adds.
Thank you, sir.
https://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith/status/1043177754504486912
