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Fourth Plain a food hot spot

International Food Festival aims to make community aware of corridor's wide range of markets, restaurants

The Columbian
Published: June 7, 2010, 12:00am

Whether you’re in the mood for a burger, tacos, gyros or fresh-baked ciabatta, you’ll find it on or near Fourth Plain Boulevard in Vancouver. However, the area has yet to achieve destination status.

“There’s a perception that there’s no reason for people outside the area to come here,” said Sharif Burdzik, who works as an assistant vice president at First Independent Bank’s Fourth Plain Boulevard branch.

o What: International Food Festival, the first of which organizers hope becomes an annual event highlighting the range of authentic ethnic cuisine along Fourth Plain Boulevard in Vancouver.

o When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 10.

o Where: Warrior Field at the corner of Norris Road and East Fourth Plain Boulevard in Vancouver.

o What: International Food Festival, the first of which organizers hope becomes an annual event highlighting the range of authentic ethnic cuisine along Fourth Plain Boulevard in Vancouver.

o When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 10.

o Where: Warrior Field at the corner of Norris Road and East Fourth Plain Boulevard in Vancouver.

o Admission: Free.

o Information: 360-759-3528, or click here.

o Admission: Free.

o Information: 360-759-3528, or click here.

That’s a perception Burdzik and a group of volunteers from the local business community are hoping to change by staging an International Food Festival this summer. The event will celebrate the neighborhood and spotlight the wide range of ethnic cuisine along the Fourth Plain corridor.

“It came from thinking about what the high points are of Fourth Plain, or the international district, as the city calls it. We have a big variety of ethnic foods in the area, more than I think people realize, both in restaurants and markets,” said Burdzik, chairman of the Fourth Plain Business Coalition, the group planning the festival.

The Fourth Plain Business Coalition is a subgroup of the Fourth Plain Corridor Revitalization Task Force. The coalition began serious planning for the International Food Festival, which organizers hope will become an annual event, late last year. They’ve been meeting once a month at El Rancho Viejo on East Fourth Plain Boulevard. Starting in May, they ramped up planning sessions to twice a month.

At a meeting last month, about 30 people pulled up to a bank of tables arranged in an L-shape at El Rancho Viejo to discuss festival infrastructure issues such as insurance, permits and equipment rentals while munching on chips and salsa.

As of early June, 17 restaurants and markets, including El Rancho Viejo, Burgerville, Hawaiian Time Café, Butcher Boys and Julia Bakery, had committed to participating in the festival, Burdzik said.

“My hope is that it’s a true international festival, and that we have good representation of all the types of food available along the corridor,” he said.

Burdzik hopes that the entertainment is just as culturally diverse as the cuisine. One of a Kind Drumline is set to participate, and organizers are working to line up a mariachi band and other performers.

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Festival organizers are thinking long-term. The emphasis is not on restaurants making money at the festival, but rather on raising awareness about the breadth of food options the Fourth Plain area has to offer. To that end, vendors are being encouraged to offer small portions of a few signature items priced no higher than $5 apiece, preferably between $1 and $3.

“The thinking is to encourage people to sample a variety of items from several booths instead of making a full meal of one thing from their favorite restaurant,” Burdzik said.

Butcher Boys, for example, plans to have jerky and pepperoni available at the festival. Butcher Boys, a meat market on East Fourth Plain Boulevard established in 1969, has seen the area go from a blue-collar, family-friendly neighborhood to a more depressed section of the city. But police, neighborhood associations and local businesses have worked hard to clean it up, and revitalization efforts are starting to pay off, said Peter Kurfurst, whose parents, Jim and Barbara Kurfurst, own Butcher Boys.

Peter Kurfurst is part of the festival planning group, and believes this event will bring some much-needed good publicity to the Fourth Plain corridor. He hopes it will help get the word out not just about Butcher Boys, but about all that the neighborhood has to offer.

“Basically, it’s to draw interest and get more people coming down to the Fourth Plain corridor. It’s been a neglected area for a number of years,” Kurfurst said. “This is part of an ongoing effort to reclaim the area and make it a nice place for people to raise their families. And when businesses thrive, everybody does.”

This year the group hopes to build awareness about the event, and believes it will grow over time. As former longtime Vancouver City Councilor Pat Jollota said at the May 12 festival planning meeting, other successful local events such as the Vancouver Farmers Market and the Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival took time to achieve the level of success they enjoy today.

“Don’t worry about starting small,” Jollota urged. “If you do it right, people will start coming.”

A drive down Fourth Plain Boulevard on the way back from the mall six or seven years ago first brought all the diversity the area has to offer to Jollota’s attention.

“I suddenly realized, look what we’ve got here. Instead of seeing an area that was going downhill, I see all these signs in different languages. This is something that should be celebrated,” she recalled.

Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt, who has referred to the Fourth Plain corridor as the city’s international district, said he’ll be at the food festival.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to showcase the culture and international flavor of the Fourth Plain corridor,” he said.

Leavitt considers the Fourth Plain area the backbone of Vancouver.

“That’s where there’s a strong, blue-collar work force, people who are working hard to make ends meet,” he said, adding that the health of that area is crucial to the greater community. “If you have back problems, your whole body breaks down,” he said, continuing the backbone analogy.

While the long-range effects of the festival on the Fourth Plain corridor remain to be seen, the planning alone already has helped bring local business leaders together in a spirit of cooperation.

“It’s kind of the thought that the rising tide raises the whole boat,” Burdzik said. “If we can get the word out that there are a lot of places to eat lunch and dinner on Fourth Plain, then that helps all of us.”

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