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It\u2019s lunchtime at Main and Hastings and the people of the Downtown Eastside are looking for something to eat.<\/p>\n
\u201cDay-old bread and doughnuts,\u201d said James Witwicki. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of the trope of what they\u2019re feeding people.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are free meals, low-cost community cafeterias and affordable restaurants in the area, but Witwicki says day-old bread and doughnuts isn\u2019t what they do. In fact, one cafeteria has served beef bourguignon with mashed potatoes and mixed greens with a red wine honey vinaigrette for $2.25. The ingredients come from local farms.<\/p>\n
Witwicki lives in subsidized housing in the Downtown Eastside and is within walking distance of the many inner-city eats consumed by the neighbourhood\u2019s low-income people like himself.<\/p>\n
Accessible restaurants have many important roles to play here beyond serving affordable food.<\/p>\n
In the Downtown Eastside, most of the affordable housing is single-room occupancy units in old hotels. The units are typically 100 square feet with a shared washroom in the hall. Eating for one, let alone hosting a friend, is a challenge for many. Some residents of these old buildings use hot plates to cook because they don\u2019t have full kitchens, they are in need of a Kitchen Renovation Boston<\/a> service. Some property managers, however, don\u2019t allow hot plates at all. So having good places to eat out is all the more important.<\/p>\n Witwicki has lived in the Downtown Eastside for eight years and knows which businesses fit locals\u2019 wallets.<\/p>\n There\u2019s Prime Time Chicken on Main \u2013 you can\u2019t miss it; the awning is bright yellow with blocky red letters \u2013 with trays of hot food in the front and diner seating in the back. It serves \u201ceverything known to humanity,\u201d says Witwicki: fried basa fish filets ($1.50), vanilla and chocolate soft serve ($1.50), glossy Chinese Food ($4.50 for two items over rice), pans of lasagna ($6.50) and, of course, fried chicken ($1.75 a leg, $3 a thigh).<\/p>\n There\u2019s the 75-year-old greasy spoon Ovaltine Caf\u00e9 on Hastings, run by mother-daughter duo Grace and Rachel Chen. You may remember the Chens from their time running the nearby Save on Meats diner; you may remember the Ovaltine from The X-Files<\/em> and I, Robot<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I can stay, if I can keep the low-price, that\u2019s good for the neighbourhood,\u201d said Grace. \u201cIf you go around here, you can see some places where the price is totally different.\u201d For $5.99 at the Ovaltine, you can get the classic breakfast, the BLT, the club sandwich or a cheeseburger. Take that $5.99 one block south and you can get one scoop of dairy-free gelato in a cup at Umaluma.<\/p>\n There are many others. The very clean S2 Caf\u00e9 House with breakfast sets, omelets and sandwiches for $5 to $6 dollars. The Chinatown Plaza food court \u2013 a buzzing hub for Cantonese seniors to eat, play chess or read the paper \u2013 where you can get Vietnamese sandwiches for $4 to $5 dollars and noodle soups for little more. Steamed dim sum is available at Kam Wai or an assortment of fresh buns at Chinese bakeries like The Boss and Maxim\u2019s; items are a dollar or two. Because the Downtown Eastside rubs shoulder-to-shoulder with Chinatown, home to many seniors in subsidized apartments, low-income locals and immigrants frequent the same affordable eateries.<\/p>\n Today, Witwicki goes to Gain Wah. It\u2019s about as old school 1970s Chinatown as you can get, with fluorescent light panels, linoleum tiles and sea-green tablecloths that clash with the red posters listing dishes. You can get dumplings and noodles here for $4.50, but Witwicki chooses a $7 dish: the stewed lamb on rice with bean curd, a cousin of tofu. It\u2019s a good deal because he only eats a third; the rest is packed for later.<\/p>\n These restaurants occasionally make it onto foodies\u2019 lists of cheap bites, both online and in local lifestyle publications. These restaurants\u2019 nostalgic trappings and the class-crossing experience of visiting them validate hobby eaters looking for an adventure. One Yelp reviewer called Prime Time\u2019s chicken \u201cghetto chicken.\u201d Daily Hive writers called a low-cost sandwich counter inside Army and Navy a \u201cwell-hidden secret\u201d that \u201csome may call grungy.\u201d<\/p>\n The opinions of outsiders aside \u2013 gawky and privileged or not \u2013 businesses like these are an important amenity for low-income neighbourhoods like the Downtown Eastside, and not just because the food is cheap.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople feel like a paying customer and feel like a valued member of society,\u201d said Jeremy Hunka, a spokesperson from the Downtown Eastside\u2019s Union Gospel Mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n It means a lot if someone can order one dish and share it with a friend, because it keeps them together and keeps the price low.<\/p>\n It also means a lot if someone isn\u2019t asked to leave right away after they\u2019ve finished their meal. Because the affordable housing in this neighbourhood is small, everywhere else becomes your living room. Restaurants are arguably even more important for homeless people, because when harsh weather hits, they become a temporary shelter from the cold, rain, snow and wind.<\/p>\n Food courts and fast food restaurants like McDonald\u2019s and Tim Hortons have become refuges for homeless and low-income people for reasons like these. These spots offer another plus: free Wi-Fi, which allows them to look for work and connect with their family and friends. Some even spend the night at locations that are 24\/7.<\/p>\n In a neighbourhood where many people feel ostracized for poverty, mental health, mobility challenges, addictions or trauma, a welcoming atmosphere means a lot.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing singled out for being different or being or ignored or avoided communicates that they\u2019re not of value,\u201d said Hunka of UGM. \u201cTo avoid that pain, they may choose to further distance themselves from society. They may go to be alone, sleep in an unsafe place or make dangerous decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n Food court and fast food restaurants may tick the boxes of being cheap and welcoming, but they don\u2019t tick the box of healthiness.<\/p>\n \u201cFor low-income people, healthy food is really rare,\u201d said Hunka. \u201cIt\u2019s much easier to buy processed, cheap, non-nutritional food to fill that stomach, but that doesn\u2019t go very far when you are walking around all day or looking for work or have health issues or trying to raise a family.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s common to see someone walking the streets of the Downtown Eastside drinking a soda or eating chips or chocolate.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a cafeteria that\u2019s cutting-edge when it comes to providing healthy meals. The Carnegie, the community centre that\u2019s the cornerstone of the neighbourhood right at Main and Hastings, serves 280,000 meals a year, a little over 350 meals a day.<\/p>\n Today at the Carnegie, there\u2019s Cajun chicken, roasted corn and kale for the fixed lunch price of $2.25. Steve McKinley oversees breakfast ($2), lunch ($2.25) and dinner ($3.25) as the Carnegie\u2019s food services coordinator.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to do the opposite of here \u2013 with just as much demanding clientele!\u201d said McKinley. \u201cI worked in Toronto serving super rich people in Rosedale and Forest Hill in high-end catering and food shops.\u201d<\/p>\n After that, McKinley returned to working in Vancouver restaurants, which he had done before moving to Toronto. Then he heard from an old colleague that the Carnegie was hiring.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to work somewhere with core values that synced with mine. I didn\u2019t just want to work somewhere just profit-driven. So I saw an opportunity here to borrow techniques from fine dining and apply it in an institutional setting.\u201d<\/p>\n And now McKinley\u2019s been here about seven years.<\/p>\n It\u2019s mid-August and the pantry is well stocked with local produce.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything that we feature we\u2019re buying from these farmers in places like Lillooet and Burnaby. We have these nice heritage variety items that we\u2019re doing. We do a lot of vegetarian and people have been responding really well. I\u2019m getting Canadian quinoa and apples like these Ginger Golds.\u201d<\/p>\n McKinley adds, \u201cWe don\u2019t do Eggo waffles.\u201d<\/p>\n Volunteers, donations and partnerships with farmers and food-recovery programs help keep the cafeteria going. There\u2019s always room for more, says McKinley.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a place where \u201cevery Wednesday there\u2019s tortellini, every Thursday there\u2019s meatballs,\u201d he says. Menus change because the Carnegie keeps it local. When foods are in season and there\u2019s a surplus, the cafeteria can get them for cheaper, sometimes even nothing. McKinley believes this is the model to aspire to for subsidized cafeterias. It minimizes food waste, optimizes every dollar and allows kitchens to serve what\u2019s fresh.<\/p>\n They also try to keep meals contemporary and diverse.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the time, people look at the community and be like \u2018nobody\u2019s gonna eat something with kimchi in it,\u2019 you know what I mean?\u201d said McKinley. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not the case. Everybody likes this contemporary food.\u201d<\/p>\n He loves that about the job, being able to serve good food to people who might not be able to afford buying the same thing in a restaurant.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s equalizing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The cafeteria is bustling, as it is every meal. As McKinley walks past the lineup, a regular stops to offer a compliment: \u201cGreat salmon dinner last night!\u201d<\/p>\n Because the Carnegie is a subsidized cafeteria, it\u2019s extremely unlikely that it will disappear. But affordable businesses in the low-income neighbourhood have been closing as the city\u2019s land values go up and taxes become too much of a burden. Instead, businesses that cater to the tastes and spending power of the incoming condo-dwelling crowd \u2013 cappuccino bars, clothing boutiques, higher-end restaurants \u2013 move in. Visitors excited to check out the new businesses follow.<\/p>\n The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP), an arm of the community centre that focuses on neighbourhood advocacy, has said that these pricier businesses create zones of exclusion.<\/a> The Downtown Eastside is a neighbourhood where residents spend a lot of time on the street, whether they\u2019re selling things, resting against a building or just socializing.<\/p>\n Pricier businesses, say the CCAP, don\u2019t usually tolerate these kinds of behaviours outside. The sidewalk outside their businesses are policed more vigorously, which takes stretches of sidewalks in the Downtown Eastside out of use for those who usually enjoy that public space as a neighbourhood living space. You\u2019ll probably notice that the neighbourhood\u2019s fancier businesses don\u2019t usually have locals hanging out outside.<\/p>\n But the new, fancier businesses don\u2019t need to be actively policed to discourage someone who is marginalized from being around, says Witwicki. He says a kind of \u201cself-editing\u201d will tell them to go elsewhere.<\/p>\n The welcoming restaurants have meant a lot to Witwicki since he moved to the Downtown Eastside in 2010 after the death of his wife. He used drugs and alcohol, but in 2012 decided to quit.<\/p>\n \u201cI went into a crushing depression,\u201d said Witwicki. \u201cThey started me on therapy, to which I responded very well, but I needed to work at adding things back to my life that were important, like church and writing.\u201d<\/p>\n It was during his recovery that people started taking him out to eat.<\/p>\n \u201cDifferent individuals have their own patterns,\u201d said Witwicki. His late neighbour almost exclusively went to Hon\u2019s Wun-Tun House, and when his family came to visit him in the Downtown Eastside from Saskatoon, they\u2019d go to the Chinatown restaurant every day. \u201cThat was his routine,\u201d said Witwicki. \u201cThat was how he felt comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n For Witwicki, that recovery period during which he tried new restaurants gave him an adventurous spirit to vary it up today when he periodically eats out.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s nice that there are restaurant owners who remember regulars by name, Witwicki says it doesn\u2019t take much to feel warmly taken in.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about the body language,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know you\u2019re welcome because they\u2019re happy to see you.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Christopher Cheung<\/a> is a reporter at The Tyee<\/a>, where this story originally appeared.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"