An eye-catching new food truck has joined the Vancouver scene.
The black truck with astronauts, food and neon aliens is called Sirius Craving, and while it's visually out-of-this-world, co-owner Nicholas Quintillan says the food strikes much closer to home.
"We were really inspired by the neon aesthetic of those old hangout places like the bowling alley, arcades," he says. "We looked at classic hangout places we would have frequented as kids."
That also informed the food, which is a homemade take on what you'd expect at those places, with burgers and fries taking centre stage.
"We really want to drive home that homemade concept," Quintillan says.
Almost everything is homemade. They work with Anita's Organic Mill in Chilliwack for their buns (they went through several iterations developing the buns used now) and they get their meat from Two Rivers out of North Vancouver (with whom they also worked to develop their own patties).
Everything else — like sauces, spice mixes, and pickles — are made in-house with Quintillan and Brockton Lane doing the lion's share, with help coming from Quintillan's wife Courtney and others. Even the iced tea is done by the Sirius team.
So far the most popular item on the menu is clear.
"The smashburger outsells everything else eight to one," he says.
The smashburger is a popular trend right now, Quintillan adds, and they do an "outstanding" version.
"Ultimately it's the perfect homemade burger," he says.
Quintillan is a veteran of the food industry, with more than 25 years in the business; he's also trained as a chef at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, and spent time working the front of house.
More recently he decided it was time to get in on the mobile food industry, and he and his wife (and co-owner) Courtney Quintillan got going on Sirius Craving. Lane came in later as a business partner.
"We started the business in October of 2020; it took nine months customizing a truck from the ground up," he says.
The truck, which they got ex-NASCAR engineers to work on, was built just for them, with the Sirius crew giving input into all the details they wanted for their plan. Earlier this spring they got their license to operate in Surrey and Abbotsford, and just in August were approved for Vancouver, where they plan to spend most of the time.
If you want to find Sirius Craving Quintillan says the website is updated on Mondays with their locations for the week. He's hoping to be in Vancouver four or five days a week, but adds they're open to private events and catering so a concrete schedule isn't available.
