Over the past two years the City of Vancouver has launched a new street food program that has been bringing delicious eats to various parts of the city: The Re-Up BBQ, located near the Art Gallery, and Arturo Mexico to Go, at Canada Place, are two of my favourites. However, Gastown has, until now, not really been a beneficiary of the street food program the way other neighbourhoods have, which is a shame given the amount of food traffic down here, especially on weekends and evenings.

However, the corner of Abbott and Water have gotten considerably more exciting thanks to the arrival yesterday of the Juice Truck. Yesterday I stopped by while Juice Truckers Zach and Ryan were handing out free samples of their juices. I worked in a juice bar years ago, trained by the good folks who opened ReBar Modern Food in Victoria. I'm familiar with the carrot-apple-beet combo, the wheatgrass, and such. In fact, working in a juice bar kind of put me off juice for years, and awful places like Jugo Juice and Booster Juice that add sugar, ice cream and all sorts of not-good-for-you additives to their products really turned me off commercial juice. However, in the interests of being a friendly neighbour, I stopped by and tried a sample of the Juice Truck's Hybrid Smoothie: carrot-ginger juice with homemade almond milk, banana, and cinnamon.

Come rain, come shine, there is juice. In a truck.

The Hybrid.

Well hellooooooooo, Juice Truck! The juice was delicious, not too sweet, and the almond milk didn't mask the flavour of the carrots at all. I thought about that damn juice all day yesterday, and this morning, in a torrential downpour, I headed out to Abbott & Water for my fix.

This could be a problem.

Or is it? Juice Truck uses organic and where possible, local ingredients. They make their own almond milk. I didn't see a mention of ice cream, yogurt, or scary "power boosts" on their menu. Juice Truck's prices are in line with, or a little higher, than other juice bars or coffee shops - I paid $7.00 for a 16 oz smoothie - but that's a price I'm willing to pay for locally made, locally sourced juice.

Juice Truck, this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Welcome to the neighbourhood. And thanks for not being the Donut Truck. That really would have been a problem.

Cute juice truck branding! Follow the Juice Truck on Twitter at @juicetruck.