The Pita Press

Power to the Pita!

We’re super excited to introduce to you the Pita Press! Here we’ll bring you regular news about what’s going on at the cafe, seasonal menu changes, plus any events we’re involved with or think you should know about. Basically, this is a platform to discuss anything we think is relevant to our customers, be it about our food, our customers themselves, the restaurant, Nanaimo or world falafel news.

So thanks for visiting, we look forward to seeing you soon!

Thirsty Camel Merch

Love the Thirsty Camel Cafe? Want to tell the world?
The Camel still has t-shirts available. These shirts are made in Canada of a bamboo/cotton blend. Three styles to choose from:

Love Food – $24
Power to the Pita – $20
No slogan w/ small Thirsty Camel logo on upper back – $20

There’s also stickers:
“Thirsty Camel Cafe: Participating in the community since 2004″

Stickers are available for $1, which is below production cost.

If you appreciate healthy food and local community activism, or maybe you just think the Thirsty Camel has the best falafel you’ve ever had, consider showing your support and spreading the good word by purchasing a t-shirt or sticker. We look forward to seeing you in the restaurant soon!

Barter Day

A great big thank-you to everyone who came in for lunch on Friday November 27th. To celebrate Buy Nothing Day, The Thirsty Camel was only serving lunch to patrons on a barter basis, and not accepting money in payment for food at all.

Considering this radical means of exchange catches most customers by surprise, we gladly accepted IOUs throughout the afternoon. We look forward to receiving our trades from the people that came in for lunch that day. But there’s one important thing we want anyone who still owes us their barter to remember: it can be something you grew, made, canned, or created. It can be music you compile or play for us. It can be a poem. It can be an amazing book that’s been sitting on your shelf for a long time and that needs to be passed on. It can be anything you think is equal to the value of your lunch. But it can not be something you bought.

Our goal in accepting barter exchanges on Buy Nothing Day is to honour the idea of abstaining from using money for at least one day out of the year, and also to encourage you, our customers, to consider your consumption habits, your relationship to money, your relationship to work and capitalism in general. We hope we gave you something to think about! Thanks for participating!

Soup's On

Winter’s coming and we’ve put soup back on the menu. Come on down for lunch or dinner and enjoy a healthy and delicious meal that’s made with love!

Organic Earth Bench

In early July we built a beautiful bench for the outdoor patio. This curvy comfy seat is a one-of-a-kind creation that looks a bit like a throne and is built entirely out of cob.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with cob, it’s a natural building material made of sand, clay and straw. The materials are mixed together, usually by foot, and hand-sculpted into the desired form—like a bench, an oven, or the walls of a house.

Mixing it up

The first step was to lay down the foundation. Wanting to use as much local material as possible, the boys of Island Earth Works went scouting for rocks in the downtown neighbourhood. Some excellent big rocks were found practically right across the street from the Camel, in a little wild space adjacent to Nanaimo city hall.

Rock Foundation

Once these were laid in place, the cob building began. With the help of many friends who wanted to kick off their shoes and get dirty, the cob bench came together in a single weekend.

Now finished with a fine coat of natural plaster and linseed oil, this unique and creative addition to the downtown environment is ready for action.

So come down and have a seat! We think you’ll agree we’ve got the funnest (most fun?) piece of furniture on the street.

Sculpting the bench

2009 for the win!

This has been an exciting and triumphant year for the Camel. The summer kicked off with the news that we’d been voted #1 Best Vegetarian Restaurant in Nanaimo in the News Bulletin’s Best of the City contest. The TC was also voted #2 for Best Lunches and Best Overall Restaurant and #3 for Best Mediterranean Food in Nanaimo. Wow! Thanks to everyone who voted for us. We love you all!