New food service on Dawgfather turf

My Three Cousins serves halal options

My Three Cousins, University Avenue. Photo by Calum Agnew.

Dalhousie students asked for a variety of foods on campus – and now, they’ve got it.

The newly established business My Three Cousins is now offering students Greek, Turkish and Lebanese foods, based on student surveys that requested more Mediterranean options on campus.

The Dalhousie-owned business is operated out of a mobile truck and will soon have a permanent location on University Avenue.

They serve halal hotdogs, kebabs, sausages and shawarma along with many other options and are the first university-owned mobile food truck on a Canadian campus.

But just down the street from My Three Cousins is the Dawgfather, who already serves halal options.

Dalhousie Food Services director Derrick Hines says that when it comes to food on campus, it’s all about choice.  “The Dawgfather doesn’t go into the Mediterranean foods, this one here does. At least [students] are getting choice on campus, as opposed to walking downtown,” he says.

My Three Cousins chef Greg McGuire says he doesn’t think serving halal dogs on the same street as the Dawgfather is an issue.

“We’re just a different take on it. And so we’re bringing fresh and local and homemade food every day – it’s a lot different.”

“We’re going to work on everybody coming to us eventually,” he says.

The permanent location of My Three Cousins will be decided by the university, but will definitely be on University Avenue since it is a high traffic area.

Hines says the plan is to have My Three Cousins at university events, such as football and hockey games.

“It’s flexible, and for an event going on like Homecoming we can be involved with it.”

Hines hopes that eventually the truck will move around the Dal campuses. He says there will be a GPS on the truck so that students can track online where it would be on campus.

My Three Cousins customer Amina Abawajy likes having more food to choose from. “It’s pretty amazing. It’s a good variety. I didn’t even know about this place and I just walked by and saw shawarma and I was like, ‘what?’”

As for the Dawgfather, he’s not worried about the competition.

“Dalhousie has been trying to get rid of me since 1998. They think that they can take business away from me, but they can’t.”

He says he’s not concerned because he is in a high traffic area and he has many loyal customers.

“I’m the Dawgfather, I’ve got more game than Xbox 360.”