*exterior of triple o’s restaurant. photo: triple o’s*

By Mario Toneguzzi

White Spot Hospitality continues to expand its Triple O’s quick-serve restaurant concept with a recent opening in the Calgary market and plans to expand the unique offering to Ontario.

“We’ve had great success with our full-service restaurants and the highest sales mix, the most popular items at our Whitespots today, are our Triple O’s burgers, fries, and shakes,” said Triple O's and White Spot President, Warren Erhart. “The base of our menu.”

“We often thought we could create a concept that would bring the products closer to the guests through a quick-service environment that would be very successful. And it’s proven to be that way. We opened our first one at Rogers Arena in Vancouver and then B.C. Ferries and a lot of sort of unique points of distribution.

“The success really is that it’s a limited menu. It’s the same high-quality products we have at White Spot but this one’s all about burgers, fries and shakes. By using the same recipes that we have, our Triple O’s sauce is really a unique burger offering, the quality you can taste in the products.”

He said the uniqueness of the brand includes hand-scooped milkshakes, fresh-cut fries, and the burger sauce.

The White Spot restaurant chain began in 1928. The Triple O’s concept was created in 1997. White Spot currently has 64 full-service restaurants in British Columbia and Alberta. There are 70 Triple O’s locations in B.C., Alberta, and Asia. Of those, 65 are located in Canada and five in Hong Kong.

In Canada, there is one in Edmonton at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, the recently opened Calgary location at Chevron On the Run at Dufferin Boulevard S.E., and the rest of Triple O’s is in B.C.

The name Triple "O" is derived from the "OOO" abbreviation used by car hops back in the days when drive-ins were popular. The carhops would circle the words hamburger, relish and mayonnaise when taking an order for the trademark burger.

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🤠 [ CONTEST ALERT ] 🤠⁣ Our Calgary restaurant is now open! We’re excited to be bringing the great taste of Triple O’s from the West Coast to Calgary! Know somebody that would LOVE to try our signature burgers, fries, & shakes? Tag all the burger-loving Calgarians you know below for a chance to win two $100 Triple O’s gift cards – one for you and one for them! ⁣ ⁣ How to enter:⁣ 1. Follow @tripleosrestaurant ⁣ 2. Like this post⁣ 3. Tag all your burger-loving friends below! ⁣ Contest closes July 27 and the winners will be announced the same day! Good luck to everyone!!

A post shared by Triple O's (@tripleosrestaurant) on Jul 20, 2020 at 8:00am PDT

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Double the trouble! 🍔 🍔⁣ ⁣ This #TakeoutDay load up on all your Triple O’s favourites! Indulge in our hand-scooped milkshakes, award-winning burgers made with artisan-style buns & craveable sides from Poutine to Garlic Parmesan Fries! @canadatakeout

A post shared by Triple O's (@tripleosrestaurant) on Jul 8, 2020 at 9:00am PDT

Erhart said the ingredients in its Triple "O" Sauce remain a closely-guarded secret.

TRIPLE O’S HAS PLANS TO OPEN 12 NEW LOCATIONS IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS

“Right now we’ve got the 70 locations. We’re going to have 12 more in 12 months. We’ve got five more in British Columbia opening up, three in the Alberta market, and four in Ontario that we all plan to have within the next 12 months,” said Erhart.

“So really quite an aggressive growth plan, entering new markets. We are going to be planning some more growth and we have got plans, not quite ready to announce, in a second Calgary location. We’re looking at Lacombe (Alberta) and also one in an Edmonton site. Those are sort of our Alberta plans over the next year.

“In British Columbia, a number of locations here as well throughout the province. But also entering the Ontario market in February of next year. So we’ve got sites already in Vaughan and in Mississauga already lined up for February and March opening for next year.”

Triple O’s are located at various places such as Chevron gas stations, free-standing restaurants, sports arenas, and on university and college campuses.

White Spot Hospitality has been recognized with the platinum status designation as one of Canada's Best Managed Companies, one of Canada's top 150 iconic brands as awarded by Interbrand Canada, awarded a gold medal for excellence in franchising by the Canadian Franchise Association and as one of BC's Most Loved Brands as recognized by Ipsos.

Mario Toneguzzi, based in Calgary has 37 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald covering sports, crime, politics, health, city and breaking news, and business. For 12 years as a business writer, his main beats were commercial and residential real estate, retail, small business and general economic news. He nows works on his own as a freelance writer and consultant in communications and media relations/training. Email: mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com.

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