With Brick'N'Cheese, the French taco arrives in Vancouver
Best friends from Reims grew up on the fast food that’s hot in France
The French “taco” is more like a burrito, or a brick, as the cofounders of Vancouver’s Brick’N’Cheese put it. Photo by Leila Kwok
SINCE ITS INCEPTION in the early 2000s, a particular street food has slowly come to reign supreme in France. Gaining popularity among students, travellers, and young people in general, this special fast food has gone on to pop up everywhere from Brussels to Marrakesh to New York. Full of ooey-gooey cheese sauce, French fries, and various protein fillings, from chicken nuggets to seasoned ground meat—everything stuffed together into a pressed tortilla—the “French taco” is here.
Brick‘N’Cheese is a new French food business making a name for itself in Vancouver’s culinary scene. Started by lifelong best friends Baptiste “Tito” Petit, 27, and 24-year-old Samy el Jabri. Hailing from Reims, which is best known for Champagne, the two grew up during the advent of the French taco. “In France, we ate it a lot, around four times a week,” Petit tells Stir. “It’s so good.”
While the origin story of the dish is often disputed, many agree that it emerged from a kebab shop in Lyon about two decades ago. O’Taco is a chain that started in Grenoble in 2007 and that now has hundreds of locations throughout France.
More burrito-like in its construction, the French “taco” has nothing to do with Mexico. “French tacos are not related to Mexican tacos at all,” Petit says. “The name is silly, which is why I decided to name our restaurant Brick’N’Cheese. I didn’t want anyone to be offended by [us] calling them tacos. I was out with my friends one night and it came to me: a brick is exactly what it looks like.”
Baptiste “Tito” Petit (left) and Samy el Jabri are best buddies and business partners. Photo by Leila Kwok
Although neither has formal culinary training, the two had a strong enough passion for the dish to want to pursue it as a business. Although they had considered opening up an outlet in France, their focus shifted to this side of the Atlantic after Petit received his Canadian Visa.
Upon arriving in Vancouver in 2019, Petit worked as a DoorDash delivery person to better understand the city’s take-out culture. “I worked every day for five months to know how the citizens of Vancouver usually ate,” says Petit. “I wanted to know every restaurant in Vancouver.”
El Jabri was studying in Toulouse at the time, earning a Master’s degree in business. Realizing that there was a completely open market for French tacos in Vancouver, Petit and el Jabri knew they had to seize their chance.
The secret is in the cheese sauce. Photo by Leila Kwok
“We wanted to discover the world,” Petit says. “We were very interested in exporting this food concept from our country to Canada.”
Recognized for their hard-work and innovative product idea, Brick’N’Cheese was accepted into the DoorDash Kitchens Without Borders program, which helps immigrants and refugees launch food ventures in North America. Operating out of Coho Commissary, Brick’N’Cheese is open for delivery seven days a Door Dash week.
Petit and el Jabri adapted the tacos’ typical fillings, giving them a more North American feel. While the essential composition remains the same—protein, toppings, and cheese sauce wrapped in a flour tortilla before being grill-pressed—a key ingredient has changed.
“The cheese selection in Canada is so different,” says Petit, who spent a month of trial and error crafting the perfect cheese-sauce recipe. “We use a French cheese that we can’t disclose. It’s a secret sauce. The sauce is the most important thing.”
Among the options is the original Brick comprising ground beef and chicken, ketchup, cheddar, and pickles. The Farmer Brick features chicken nuggets, honey mustard, mozzarella, and mushrooms, while the Hot N Spicy is full of ground beef, red hot sauce, cheddar, and jalapeños. Veggie Brick is a house-made patty, chipotle sauce, black beans, and fried onions. Then there’s the build your own brick option, with stuffings including goat cheese, blue cheese, bacon banana peppers, barbecue sauce, and sweet chili sauce.
Fish’N’Chips Brick is a new item that the pair say would not be a hit in France. “Nuggets, chicken, ground beef are all classic [taco] proteins in France,” says Petit, “as well as a cordon bleu. That’s very French.
“We have so many more things planned,” he adds. “We want to expand our menu and open a brick-and-mortar location. One day, we are even going to import ingredients form France. If we do that, people will be addicted. French tacos were our favourite food back in France.”
I have been lucky that my day-to-day life hasn’t been affected very much, I still go to work and have my dog, Winston, to get me outdoors. I am looking forward to being able to visit my family in Ontario and finally meeting my one-year-old niece.
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