Introducing: Blue Donkey Streatery, Mississauga’s new electric blue Greek food truck
The Blue Donkey Streatery, Missisauga’s newest food truck, is decked out in blue and white, with a big cartoon donkey on the side. Like most things about this operation, it’s a gloriously unsubtle reference to owners Tony Vastis, Elias Vastis, Dimitri Velonis and Manny Tsouvalas’s Greek heritage. The foursome—after assorted experience in the food industry (Sneaky Dee’s, Caffe Demetre, the Drake Hotel Café) and traditional hot dog stands across the city—got their big break when they were turned down by the notorious Toronto A La Cart program, only to be offered a vendor space in Mississauga’s new Celebration Square.
Running on two 100-pound propane tanks (with a gas generator for electricity), the truck has two standard refrigerators with freezers on top, two gyros rotisseries, a grill, a flat-top, a fryer, a mise-en-place prep space and just enough counter for food assembly. Like a donkey, the truck is slow and steady yet reliable (i.e., it maxes out at about 80 km/h).
The menu of “gourmet food at street prices” tops out at $8 and is mostly Greek with a few Canadian touches, like the obligatory poutine. Diners can choose from classics like grilled souvlaki on a pita (chicken $5.50, pork $5), gyros on a pita (chicken $5.50, beef $5, chicken/beef mix $5.25) or Greek salad (small $4.50, large $7.50). There’s also a fried calamari pita ($4.75)—with Greek salad, tzatziki and hand-cut fries—and a Greek grilled cheese ($4.75) with spicy feta, tomatoes, Greek cheeses and fries. The Greek poutine ($4.50–$5.50) douses hand-cut fries with homemade gravy and feta (along with a medley of other cheeses). The whole thing can also be stuffed into a pita for a gyros poutine (chicken $7, beef $6.50). For dessert, the Blue Donkey offers “honey and pita sticks” ($2.50), a kind of loukoumades gone street: thin slices of pita bread are deep-fried, drizzled with Greek honey and sprinkled with cinnamon.
Open now for its second week, the Blue Donkey is most often parked in the square from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Torontonians not quite moved to venture so far west will be able to catch the truck at future Food Truck Eats events and at festivals around the city. In true food truck fashion, you can get its location via Twitter or Facebook.
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- Lemon and orange IVI Greek soda ($2 each)
- Introducing: Blue Donkey Streatery
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- Greek poutine ($4.50 small, $5.50 large): fries with a medley of feta and other cheeses and homemade gravy
- Introducing: Blue Donkey Streatery
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- Honey and pita sticks ($2.50): thinly sliced deep-fried pita drizzled with Greek honey and cinnamon
- Introducing: Blue Donkey Streatery
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- Fried calamari pita ($6): fried calamari with Greek salad wrapped in a pita with tzatziki and hand-cut fries
- Introducing: Blue Donkey Streatery
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- Chicken gyro pita ($5.50): rotisserie-cooked meat wrapped in a pita with tomato, onion, tzatziki and hand-cut fries
- Introducing: Blue Donkey Streatery
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- Cross-sections of the chicken gyro and calamari pitas
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- Introducing: Blue Donkey Streatery
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- Tzatziki, sweet garlic mayo with ouzo, sweet barbecue, hot spicy relish, spicy feta and sweet garlic mayo (50 cents each)
- Introducing: Blue Donkey Streatery
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- In case you’ve ever wanted to know what the inside of a food truck looks like: cramped
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- Co-owners Tony Vastis, Dimitri Velonis and Elias Vastis
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- Mississauga’s new, gloriously loud street-food truck
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Blue Donkey Streatery, Mississauga Celebration Square (Highway 10 and Burnhamthorpe Rd.), bluedonkeystreatery.com
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/food/introducing-blue-donkey-streatery/&title=Introducing: Blue Donkey Streatery, Mississauga’s new electric blue Greek food truck&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/blue-donkey-outside-624x414.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_95304" align="aligncenter" width="656" caption="The Blue Donkey Streatery, currently parked at Mississauga’s new Celebration Square (Image: Gizelle Lau)"][/caption]
The Blue Donkey Streatery, Missisauga’s newest food truck, is decked out in blue and white, with a big cartoon donkey on the side. Like most things about this operation, it’s a gloriously unsubtle reference to owners Tony Vastis, Elias Vastis, Dimitri Velonis and Manny Tsouvalas’s Greek heritage. The foursome—after assorted experience in the food industry (Sneaky Dee’s, Caffe Demetre, the Drake Hotel Café) and traditional hot dog stands across the city—got their big break when they were turned down by the notorious Toronto A La Cart program, only to be offered a vendor space in Mississauga’s new Celebration Square.
Running on two 100-pound propane tanks (with a gas generator for electricity), the truck has two standard refrigerators with freezers on top, two gyros rotisseries, a grill, a flat-top, a fryer, a mise-en-place prep space and just enough counter for food assembly. Like a donkey, the truck is slow and steady yet reliable (i.e., it maxes out at about 80 km/h).
The menu of “gourmet food at street prices” tops out at $8 and is mostly Greek with a few Canadian touches, like the obligatory poutine. Diners can choose from classics like grilled souvlaki on a pita (chicken $5.50, pork $5), gyros on a pita (chicken $5.50, beef $5, chicken/beef mix $5.25) or Greek salad (small $4.50, large $7.50). There’s also a fried calamari pita ($4.75)—with Greek salad, tzatziki and hand-cut fries—and a Greek grilled cheese ($4.75) with spicy feta, tomatoes, Greek cheeses and fries. The Greek poutine ($4.50–$5.50) douses hand-cut fries with homemade gravy and feta (along with a medley of other cheeses). The whole thing can also be stuffed into a pita for a gyros poutine (chicken $7, beef $6.50). For dessert, the Blue Donkey offers “honey and pita sticks” ($2.50), a kind of loukoumades gone street: thin slices of pita bread are deep-fried, drizzled with Greek honey and sprinkled with cinnamon.
Open now for its second week, the Blue Donkey is most often parked in the square from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Torontonians not quite moved to venture so far west will be able to catch the truck at future Food Truck Eats events and at festivals around the city. In true food truck fashion, you can get its location via Twitter or Facebook.
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Blue Donkey Streatery, Mississauga Celebration Square (Highway 10 and Burnhamthorpe Rd.), bluedonkeystreatery.com){kind=link}
This is a great article about a great family that work hard and own a great Food Truck, however I’m positive that Elias Vastis is also owner of Hula Girl Espresso Boutique on Dundas St West at Bloor and only worked at The Drake Cafe (years ago). Also, Manny Tsouvalas owns Colossus Greek Restaurant in Oakville. Neither of these were mentioned and should have been. These guys know food, customer service and hard work. I’m glad Toronto Life had recognized this.
Congrats. Sounds great. Toronto’s loss… Wish you all the best!
So delicious!!! Easy and fun eating.
Awesome food truck. Good for them!
Blue Donkey is an impressive food truck!! The food is delicious and the service is excellent!! We need more Blue Donkey’s on the road serving such good Greek food…yum!!
Not what the industry should be about. Wouldn’t wait in line for souvlaki on a pita. Mississauga is off to a bad start. Exotic and reasonably priced food has been the anthem of industry not ubiquitous greek food.
I kind of regret not going to the food truck rally but it’s so hard to find hehltay things to eat from a food truck. That catfish sandwich looks really good though. Reminds me of a crispy chicken sandwich. I haven’t had one of those in a really long time. I use to love them. I still love them, I just try not to eat them now.