Nanzaro was away at a training camp on a long weekend not too long ago. The training camp was all the way in North Vancouver. It had been a while since we had driven all that far.

35 km. Each way.

And all man, I hate driving through downtown Vancouver, along Georgia and the Lions Gate Bridge is simply exasperating. I find that the worst bridge approaches in Metro Vancouver is coming from North Van to the Lions Gate Bridge … especially when there is one lane opened. Gosh the drivers are so aggressive and many of them does not respect the alternate lane merge rules.

It is strange. Nanzaro’s training ended past 2PM and yet the camp did not provide them lunch. So he was hungry, understandably, knowing he is the kind of social person who will play and not sit down and have a proper breakfast.

I asked him what he wanted for lunch and he said burgers … gourmet burgers … and NOT fried rice. I know why he said that. You see, we also picked up his friend from the same training camp. I think he doesn’t want his friend to know he likes fried rice. LOL! Actually, Nanzaro likes burgers a lot too.

So, OK … I remembered that there is a place called the Deacon’s Corner on Main St that people were raving about and saying how cheap it is too.

It took us a few moments to spot the restaurant. From the street, you can’t really see the restaurant as there is no sign on the exterior of the building and the restaurant is recessed a bit from the edge too.

It is at the corner of Main and Alexander. The way I would describe it is that this is located right smack in between East Hastings/Main and the funky Gastown area.

Metal doors and windows with metal bars.

It is not surprising because Deacon’s corner is just about 200m away from the intersection of Main and East Hasting. That is the area that has the highest incidents of drug abuse, poverty, sex and crime … perhaps in all of Canada. There is a lot of work to be done in this area to solve these problems but this is going to take a really long time.

Are you scared going to that area? You know, generally, the people there are not violent. Some will stop you and ask you for money but if you just say no, they let you be. But Suanne is scared. Every time I drive past that area, she will lock the car door.

By the time we got to Deacon’s Corner with the traffic and all, it was already about 3PM. The restaurant was empty and we were the only customer.

We learned that they closes at 5PM everyday. They are opened early for breakfast (at 7AM) and so I guess this is more of a breakfast and lunch place.

This is very much a greasy spoon place. The decor was basic … nothing fancy. With the warm lights, I can imagine this is a nice cozy and bustling restaurant in a cold morning with a hot cup of coffee as a hand warmer … and with the smell of cooking from the kitchen. But at that time we were there, we were the only customer.

Service is friendly but really slow. It took quite a wait for the food to come. I did not check how long it was but I remember we waited quite long and saying that it should not take so long because we were the only customer there. Maybe it felt long because we were all hungry.

I remember reading reviews on the internet about how cheap their prices are. And I expected it to be so considering the location Deacon’s Corner is located.

I personally don’t find it cheap. It is not expensive but it certainly is not cheap. Their sandwiches costs up to $12 and the burgers is as high as $14. Big breakfasts are $13 and Scramble Eggs are $11.

Both Nanzaro and his friend went for the ultimate. It is called The Deacon and is $14.

It is burger with the common things such as cheese, bacon, fried onion and …

… a quarter pound deep fried hot dog. This deep fried hot dog is the crowning glory of this order for sure. You just can’t miss it.

Gosh … DEEP FRIED hot dog. I wanted so much to eat a piece of it. Under normal circumstances, Nanzaro would allow me a piece but I gotta respect that he got a guest that day. I think it’s not cool to be seen sharing food with daddy, huh?

Nanzaro reported that the bun is soft and the burger juicy and moist.

The accompanying fries is nicely seasoned but otherwise just so-so.

All the items on the menu sounded too large for Suanne. So she ordered the Grilled Cheese Sandwich which is $9. It doesn’t look like much for $9 to me.

This order comes with either soup, fries or salad. Suanne opted for the soup and the soup of the day is tomato mushroom soup. The soup is so thick that it’s more like a stew. She didn’t think much of the soup at all.

The sandwich is grilled with Swiss, Cheddar and Jack cheese. So-so … had better ones before.

For me, I had the Mexican Scramble ($11). This consist of house made chorizo, bell pepper, onion, cheese, house made salsa with 2 very crusty sour dough(?) and hash brown.

I like the crispy shoestring hash browns.

The eggs are nice too. The salsa is lightly spicy.

It was a lot of food. Even the two hungry boys could not finish everything and had the leftover fries and the deep fried hot dog to go. We are glad that Deacon’s Corner use environment friendly take out box.

So what do you think of the prices? I personally find it expensive because $60 is on the high end of what we normally pay for a meal for four people.