Lemon Dogs located in Shubie Park fulfills your need for tasty and flavorful Mexican inspired food not too far from home! Utilizing traditional seasoning, Krista and Jordan, the owners of Lemon Dogs create beautiful Mexican style street food as well as specialty lemonade and cold treats.
Starting as a local market business, Lemon Dogs cultivated a community of lemonade lovers. Since then they have shifted to the food they currently sell, Mexican style street food with lemonade served as a beverage option. This shift involved lots of learning and exploring, which the owners do each year during their travels to Mexico in the winter. Having visited various locations across Mexico, they have learned more about the traditional cuisine and had the opportunity to source out ingredients. Krista shared with us during an interview this past week, “There’s a lot of variety and we bring back lots of ingredients that are harder to source here. It’s pretty important to us to not whitewash the food.”
Aside from what the company sources in Mexico, Lemon Dogs buys as much as they can from local sources. As Krista says, “We started at markets, so we already had all the contacts. It was a no brainer; I definitely want to use these [local] products because they are the best things I can get around here.” Their desire to use the best products does not end there, as they also use environmentally friendly materials. The business utilizes paper and readily biodegradable products wherever possible as well as utilizes a biodegradable plastic product for their cups.
Lemon Dogs is also mindful of dietary restrictions and tries their best to limit cross contamination and increase options. As mentioned, the business buys many of their products from Mexico where the extensive labeling of allergens is not the same as Canada’s. Due to this, limiting cross contamination can be difficult but as Krista says, “to the best of our ability we do maintain as gluten friendly a kitchen as possible.” This also reigns true for dairy free and vegan options which are always available!
As we all know, COVID-19 introduced new problems to almost every aspect of life and Lemon Dogs was no exception. The business installed a glass ordering window to limit exposure, are wearing masks while serving, and have decreased the amount of days they are open as they were unable to hire seasonal staff this year due to the small kitchen. They have also implemented an updated and changed online ordering system. Jordan stated, ‘Everything can be ordered easily online. When people order online it makes for a better experience for everyone.” Ordering online helps get your food ready for when you arrive and decreases the amount of people standing around.
Lemon Dogs is in Shubie Park behind the Fairbanks Centre and is currently open Thursday through Sunday 12:00pm to 6:00pm. They have a few picnic tables available for seating and there is a large grassy hill that is the perfect location for a lock-side picnic! Make sure to check out the community garden while visiting the park and if you have time take a stroll around the beautiful trails!
Visit Lemon Dogs online here
