Feeding more than 80,000 hungry Penticton Peach Festival attendees isn’t an easy job, but three Penticton-based food truck operators said there’s no place they would rather be.
While all of the music and entertainment at Peach Fest is free of charge, the reality is the tens of thousands who gather each year for one of Canada’s most iconic community festivals want to eat.
For business owners like Penticton’s Jeff Treadway, the longtime owner of Jeffer’s Fryzz, being able to cook up delicious French fries and poutine is a labour of love.
Treadway opened his first food truck selling French fries and fast food 35 years ago in downtown Penticton and being told he makes some of the best fries and poutine in the business is a great source of pride, he said.
“We started back in Nanaimo Square back in 1984 and we’re still there 35 years later,” he said. “Thirty years ago we brought poutine into British Columbia for the first time. No one even knew what it was.
“All the French Canadians, the cherry pickers who come here every spring, came up to me and said, ‘Jeff, you’ve got to get poutine man’,” so I started making poutine,” he said.
His son Tim runs the food truck in Nanaimo Square and he travels around to various events and festivals like Peach Fest running the second Jeffer’s Fryzz truck, he said.
“I could run 10 to be honest, but I’m looking to retire, not reinvent,” he said with a smile.
While many did question his decision to get into the food truck business before it became hugely popular, Treadway said he knew right from the beginning the Jeffer’s Fryzz would become a huge success.
“I felt it would be a big success right off the hop,” he said. “We were very busy the first day we opened in Nanaimo Square.”
For local food operators who manage to secure a spot at Peach Festival, it’s about more than making money, but promoting the business and being part of an iconic event that the vast majority of Penticton residents participate in every year, said Treadway.
“Peach Fest is the most important event we do because it’s right here where we do business in Penticton,” he said. “The customers expect us to be here, so we have to be here.
“We don’t make tons of money and it’s not hugely profitable, but we have to be here because that’s what is expected of us.”
Using the proper potatoes and a sophisticated recipe no one else he knows uses are the keys to making insanely tasty French fries and poutine, said Treadway.
“There are 10 secrets in my recipe and they’re all put together,” he said, without getting into details. “The most important thing is the TLC and me learning how to use a potato properly.
“I can make fries out of almost anything because I’ve done my homework and I know how. A lot of people go to a different, cheaper kind of potato that is easy to cook fries with. I use a very tough potato.”
There isn’t a big potato industry in B.C., so he purchases most of his potatoes from growers in Washington State and a few suppliers in this province, he said.
While he mentioned retirement a couple of times, Treadway admits he will likely continue working at big events like Peach Fest.
“I’m not kidding myself, I will always be working,” he said. ‘My idea of retiring is working the fry truck only 20 hours a week, just so I can keep in touch with my customers.”
Terri Lambert, the longtime owner of Opa Greek Foods in Penticton, has been operating her food truck for the past 15 years and hasn’t missed a single Peach Fest in that time.
Lambert takes her food truck and staff and heads out on the festival circuit in Alberta and B.C. virtually every weekend from early May until early October.
Her children work with her at events in Penticton and the Okanagan, but when she travels to Alberta and the Lower Mainland, “I hire locally,” said Lambert.
Her entire menu features traditional Greek food and always will, she said.
“My business partner is Greek.”
Lambert said she wouldn’t think of missing Peach Fest.
“Because I'm local and everybody knows me and my business, they come out and support me,” she said.
While she always does good numbers at Peach Fest, her best and most profitable gigs are in Alberta at the Calgary Stampede and summer festival in Red Deer, she said.
“Peach Fest, Salmon Arm Roots and Blues and other Okanagan festivals are great too,” she said. “They love the food, they are loyal customers that have been with me every year since I started.”
The keys to success in the food truck industry is serving good food at a reasonable price and being professional at all times, she said.
“You have to run a smart operation and you must be professional at all times,” she said. “You have to feed a lot of people and they’re hot and hungry and customer service must be top priority. You have to have a smile on your face, you have to have a good team that you can pump up.
“This isn’t just a fly-by-night thing where you think you can buy a $100,000 trailer and think you can get into any festival. You have to build rapport with event organizers and be professional.”
Penticton’s Betty-Jean and Dean Walsh have been busier than most food vendors at this year’s Peach Festival as they’re operating two food trucks.
They are the proud owners of It’s All Greek To Me and Get Hooked fish and chips.
This is their 10th year in the food truck industry and they’ve been lucky enough to serve their food at every Peach Fest since they started.
“Peach Fest is up there because we live here and we know a lot of people,” said Betty-Jean. “We mainly stay in the Okanagan, but do a few festivals in Alberta and Peach Fest is still probably our favourite event to work at.
“I grew up with Peach Fest. I was in the kiddies parade when I was like five years old. I don’t think I missed many Peach Fests when I was a kid.”
Many of her customers are visitors who come to Penticton for Peach Fest and they never get tired of telling her and her husband how beautiful this city is, she said.
“Look at this venue, look at that lake,” she said. “Where else do you get to go to a festival and look at that. We’re right on the lake and it’s beautiful. Penticton is awesome.”
Betty-Jean agrees that serving quality food all the time is the key to success.
“The most important thing is consistency,” she said. “You must do proper prep, serve good food and be friendly with your customers.”
Chad Parker from Oliver says he attends Peach Fest almost every year and loves the food.
“The poutine is pretty good,” said Parker. “It’s eight bucks for a large poutine, which is very reasonable. It’s pretty tasty.”
There’s a wide variety of food, which is important at a huge festival like Peach Fest, he said.
Penticton's 71st annual Peach Festival continues all weekend at Okanagan Lake Park. Friday's main stage headliners are tribute bands paying homage to legendary bands AC/DC, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and The Eagles.
For more on Penticton Peach Festival, click here.
