It’s a match made in foodie heaven, and it’s happening right here in Burnaby.
The folks over at YVR Prep, a commissary kitchen on Still Creek Avenue, are bringing fresh food to Dageraad Brewing’s tasting room. The idea for the pairing came about eight months ago, when Dageraad owner Ben Coli connected with YVR Prep co-founders Josh McWillliams, Ryan Mackay and Jason Wong.
“We’ve always wanted to offer food, partly just to keep customers here for one more beer, but also just to have something to bring people in for lunchtime and things like that. We don’t really have the competency or space to have a kitchen ourselves.
“It’s just not something I wanted to get into; it’s not something I need to get into because there’s other places in town that do food and specialize in food. The great thing about YVR Prep is it’s just this omni kitchen that they can do anything, and they collaborate with loads of other people,” Coli said.
Before the partnership began, Dageraad offered only a limited selection of food items, and most were snacks like chips and pepperoni sticks. The folks at Dageraad told the YVR Prep team they wanted to have fresh items available to entice patrons to stay longer at the brewery.
“We basically heard what they wanted and what they were looking for and were able to fulfil that,” McWilliams told the NOW.
McWilliams, who is also a chef at barbecue restaurant Whiskey Six, and Mackay came up with a number of items for the brewery with help from the folks at Swiss Bakery, including artisan sandwiches, trail mix and fresh pretzels.
“The pretzels were a cool touch. They’re (Dageraad) a very proud Belgian-style brewery. Pretzels are huge in Belgium, so it was cool to be able to bring that aspect into it,” McWilliams said.
“But the coolest part was just that another local biz wanted something and we were able to be like ‘Yeah, we can do that.’”
The partnership began about two months ago and has been going well, according to Wong and McWilliams.
Every day McWilliams drives over to Dageraad and drops off a few sandwiches and pretzels along with specially made mustard featuring Dageraad’s own Burnabarian beer. The orders are placed the night before and can vary from five or so sandwiches to 20 or more sandwiches on the weekends, plus the pretzels and trail mix.
“And, with each week, we’ve been increasing the numbers; they’ve been ordering more and more from us. So it seems pretty organic on their part, where their patrons are really responding well to the food,” Wong said.
Looking forward, Wong would like to see this concept expand to other breweries and businesses that don’t have access to full-scale kitchens.
“It’s something that we’d love to continue, and if that piques the interest of other breweries or pubs or restaurants out there, then, yeah, we’d be more than happy to facilitate,” he said.
McWilliams agreed.
He’d like to see the clients who use the YVR Prep kitchen get involved and be part of growing this concept.
“We’ve got so many different flavours and businesses that are working under one space. The idea that we could open up any of that and streamline that with other breweries, I think it could be some really great connections and some potential down the road,” McWilliams said.
