Vegetarian (& Vegan!) Smashburgers at The Lockside Canteen

It’s just a name! Simple as that.

We've had our opportunities to do this, but so far we're quite set on being seasonal only. Running a restaurant is hard! It’s extremely time consuming and stressful, and we’re awed by all the people that choose to do this full time. We love having a break and coming back to another season all fresh and ready to go. Plus, we do have another full time business that occupies the rest of our year. Need any web hosting or design?

We try to be as environmentally friendly as we can be. It's been a core principle of Lemon Dogs since its very beginning in 2013 when we started with bio-plastic cups and paper straws.

Our goal is to make all of our packaging environmentally friendly, but not everything is available in such a form. Here's a breakdown:

Compost

• Paper plates and 'boats'
• Paper take-out containers
• Paper bowls
• Paper hot cups
• Paper straws
• Peach paper liners (replaced checked wax paper in 2020)

Recycling

• Hot cup plastic lids
• Plastic portion cups used for salsas in take-home kits, and for cheese sauce in our 'chips and queso'

Garbage / Plastics

• Plastic freezie and ice pop wrappers
• Bio-plastic* bowl lids (marked 'eco')
• Bio-plastic* cold cups and lids

Ingredients

We use a lot of local ingredients whenever possible, sourced through local vendors and farmers’ markets. In addition to that, we’ve gone meatless for 2021! All of our burgers will be made with Impossible Food ground meat alternative. It’s delicious and you won’t even know the difference!

* Bio Plastics are biodegradable, but they must be tossed in the garbage. They are typically made of corn or legume by-products and most are certified to decompose at least 80% of their structure within 1 year in optimal aerobic composting facilities.

Halifax's waste management facilities only handle short-term composting. They've told us that they aim to turn their compost into usable garden materials in under 6 months. Since these plastics take longer than that to degrade and the city does not have facilities to force them to biodegrade faster, they must be tossed in the garbage.

In the garbage, bio plastics will still biodegrade, but will likely take longer since the conditions will be less-optimal than with other materials typically found in composts.

Let’s preface this with a couple of important points.

1. We have very limited space. We probably don’t have the room to put that soft serve machine/fryer/extra fridge/etc that you think we should have in there.
2. We try to have environmentally friendly foods and packaging wherever possible

We don’t have:

• Coke/Pepsi/Sprite/Any number of other sodas and pops. Limited space!
• French fries: No fryers! And no, we don’t plan on getting one.
• Ice cream cups/cones: Sorry. We have just enough space to hold the ice cream that we need to make the floats, and that’s all we want to have on hand. 
• Bottled water: Bottled water is a sham, just drink tap. We’ll fill up any bottle or cup that you bring to us, no charge.
• Tacos! (as of 2021) Sorry about this one, folks. Check out the list of local places we recommend that you can go to to satisfy that urge.

Please check with us before placing your order and we can tell you if and when we have used any given allergen. Here's some general rules of thumb:

Gluten: OUR KITCHEN IS NO LONGER GLUTEN FREE AS OF 2021. We will have gluten free buns available for the smashburgers, and they will be toasted on their own exclusive griddle. All of the sides that we offer are gluten free.

Seeds & Nuts: Sesame seeds are used pretty frequently in our kitchen, as well as other nuts. Please just ask us details on whatever you'd like to eat.

Dairy & Eggs: We regularly use dairy and eggs at the canteen. For those with less severe allergies, these items can be omitted from most products we sell. Many of our products are already cream and milk free, and we usually have oat milk on hand for coffee and tea.

Vegan/Vegetarian: Everything (as of 2021) is vegetarian! There are a lot of menu items that contain dairy, including the potato rolls that are used for the non-vegan burgers. Most items that are already vegetarian can be made vegan. You can find more information about Impossible Foods here, which we use for the burger patties.

We do what we can to separate vegan items from any dairy, but it is a very small kitchen so there is always a chance of cross contamination.

Sometimes! A beautiful sunny weekend often means a lot of people at the park. Since our products are hand-made and cooked to order, when it gets busy, the wait gets longer.

For window orders:

• On your average weekday drinks are ready within 5 minutes and food in about 10.
• On a busy weekend, drinks can take 10-15 minutes and food 15-25 minutes.

As of 2020 you can now simply order online and come to pick up your order when it's ready! No need to wait around. If you don't like lines or (understandably) don't want to line-up with the threat of COVID-19 around us, you don't have to!

We do our best to monitor our food preparation times in order to keep them within our personal 20 minute goal, and in the event there is a wait we hope that, as many of our customers have indicated for themselves, you'll find that the food is worth it.

This is likely our most frequently asked question! Her name is Charlie and it is believed that she's a Samoyed Husky mix. Krista rescued her as a puppy in Florida 13 years ago (as of May 2021).

Some notes about Charlie:

1. Heat: when our weather apps accurately predict the hottest days outside, we leave her at home in the air conditioning. When she is with us and it appears too hot outside, we take her for a dip in the canal to cool off and give her plenty of shade and ice water. Her white fur does not attract the sun like darker fur does, and her undercoat helps to insulate her from the heat, much as it insulates from the cold in the winter.
2. Petting: Charlie is very friendly and would surely love your pets! That said she has her quirks as she gets older. If you have a puppy with you, Charlie can get overwhelmed with their exuberance, and she's currently not allowed to be around other dogs due to her auto-immune disease. Please be mindful of this. If you have a young child with you, please ensure an adult is present at all times. Charlie is typically great with older children that are mindful and frequently around dogs. Please use your judgement.
3. Other Dogs: Our pup was recently diagnosed with an auto-immune disease that is really well handled, but because of the steroids she has to constantly be on, she can’t be around other dogs without potentially getting sick because of her lowered immune system.
4. Food: You may share small quantities of dog-friendly(ish) foods or dog treats with her, but please do not feel obligated to do so. She is well fed, despite the pleading-sounding noises she often makes! She absolutely loves freezies and popsicles (minimal quantities is best due to sugar content.)