Best Thing(s) I Ate This Month: Sloppy Joes and Fresh Focaccia

Over the past few years, Vancouver has established itself as an incubator for fabulous smaller-scale culinary innovators. Two recent standouts have one thing in common: despite their names, they’re not your average Joes.

 

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Midnight Joe’s operates out of a stylish, retro food truck, where owners Britt Irvin and Drèa Whitburn sling the finest sloppy joes this side of 1965. A plush, garlic-toasted bun acts as a vessel for Two Rivers Meats ground beef that’s been simmered in a nostalgia-inducing sauce that’s both sweet and smoky. The crispy cheese-skirt edition is a personal fave—but this blast from the past is delicious in every iteration. Various locations, @midnightjoesvancouver

Focacciaza—run by the infamous-in-my-house Johannes Kroller, a.k.a. Focaccia Joe—serves a pitch-perfect version of the Italian staple. The team operates from a bicycle-powered food cart and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it counter in Railtown: in each, a rotating selection of bouncy-yet-substantial slices come garnished with seasonal toppings. The standout of my first visit featured a rich tomato sauce that, when combined with the caramelized, crispy edges that are a Focacciaza signature, transported me to the streets of Rome, where pizza al taglio is a standard, not a treat. With focaccia this delicious, I’m inclined to make it a staple of my own diet, too.  1007 E Cordova St., focacciaza.com