As the gentrification and metamorphosis of South Surrey continues, a burgeoning gourmand and restaurant scene is cooking up alongside the shift.
Restaurants like Canadian-owned Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria and Vikram Vij’s My Shanti have become staples at Morgan Crossing, a high-end outlet mall located just north of Highway 99. An artisan café scene has also sprouted up throughout the area and includes places such as Good Day Sunshine Café on King George Boulevard and Mink: A Chocolate Café at Morgan Crossing.
Cindy Ivison, general manager and chef of Belle’s Café on 140 Street in the Elgin Park area, said she’s noticed a massive demographic shift recently.
“Over the past three years there’s been a major switch,” Ivison said. “A lot of our seniors are moving out of the area and we’re getting a lot more young couples with kids. And a very, very high Asian population is what’s changing in the area right now.”
According to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, South Surrey and White Rock have had some of the biggest increases in real estate prices and the highest volume of sales over the past five years. As of October 2015, the benchmark average price for a home in South Surrey/White Rock was at $700,500, a 29.5% increase since 2010 and well above the averages for the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.
Ivison said this is bringing a new clientele into her café that is replacing the seniors who are moving out of the area.
“It’s young families with money that are coming out here is what we’re finding,” she said. “Because there are so many townhouses and high-end complexes that are being built in the area and they don’t want to cook, we have a whole frozen to-go line. I have women who bring in their own pans and we make lasagna and shepherd’s pie and mac and cheese. And they bring their own pans and take them home and pretend they made them themselves.”
Ian Tostenson, president and chief executive officer of the British Columbia Restaurant & Food Services Association, said it’s always difficult to quantify cultural shifts like a growing food scene, but what’s happening in South Surrey is undeniable.
“It’s a high-income area and it’s diversified, No. 1,” Tostenson said. “But you’re going to see people that otherwise don’t want to live downtown head out to White Rock and Surrey, and so with the population growth always come restaurants and that scene.”
Tostenson added he noticed the area is also becoming increasingly culturally diverse, which means restaurateurs could eye the area as a new place to try something different.
“It’s not like there’s one style out there. You can go out there as an entrepreneur and do something different, something maybe with a unique fusion ethnic twist to it because the population is so large and diverse.”
The number of commercial and industrial business licences in Surrey rose in 2014, from 8,375 in 2013 to 8,889 last year, and 17% of the city’s businesses are located in the South Surrey area. The influx of new business licences in 2014 was the largest increase in over a decade.
Justin Pepe, the manager of Tap Restaurant, a fine-dining outlet on 34 Avenue in the Rosemary Heights West enclave, said the shift has required structural changes at the business.
“We’ve just doubled our restaurant in the past month here,” Pepe said. “We’ve had to double in size to accommodate the people we’ve had, the influx. So definitely we’re seeing it.”
Alistair Veen, chef and owner at Tap Restaurant since 2007, said two development projects in particular, the Morgan Rise and the Estates at Morgan Heights, have brought a wave of newcomers with fine-dining tastes. Between the two developments are approximately 100 new townhomes, some of which are still for sale at upwards of $1.1 million.
“It’s turned into a condo and townhouse ocean loaded with young families that see greater value for their dollars out here,” said Veen. “They are just as food- and wine-savvy as their downtown counterparts. Some more so as they can afford to spend more on their home wine collections than if they lived downtown.”
Last summer, noted Vancouver chef and former Dragons’ Den panellist Vikram Vij opened My Shanti, an Indian cuisine restaurant at Morgan Crossing. Vij said he chose the area because of its future potential as the Lower Mainland continues to grow.
“The shift is there as you see more and more people living outside of Vancouver,” Vij said.
