Nat Bailey founded White Spot in 1928. He was born January 31st, 1902 in St. Paul Minnesota. His mother was a cook and baker in railway eating houses, and his father ran wheels of fortune in carnivals across the United States. His family followed him from town to town and in 1911 Nat’s father moved the family to Vancouver. Shortly after their arrival, his mother fell ill and it was up to young Nat to help out.

Like his father, Nat Bailey was always willing to gamble on the future and in 1914, this 12 year old newcomer to a young city took to the downtown streets to hawk newspapers. Some say he went fist to fist with another boy for his corner spot, others that he bought out his rival; but most likely, Nat simply outhustled him.

By the time he hit 18, Nat was out of the newspaper business and into something close to his heart and to that of anyone who’d ever gone without: food. He was now selling popcorn and peanuts on the city streets, and he’d also combined his love of sports with a fan’s love of a good ballpark frank. Nat’s hot dogs, peanuts and coffee kept them shouting for more at Athletic Park.

He transformed his 1918 Model T truck into a traveling lunch-counter and parked it each Sunday at the ever-popular Lookout Point on SW Marine Dr. where hungry sightseers crowded around Nat’s truck.

And it was there, in the woodlands south of Vancouver, that Nat found his inspiration for Canada’s first drive-in on a hot summer day in 1924. Obviously too tired to contemplate the short walk to Nat’s truck, one customer at the Point leaned out his car window and shouted, “Why don’t you bring it to us?” By the next day Nat had hired three energetic young “hustlers” to take orders from the parked cars. Because they “hopped to it,” they became known as carhops.

In four years, Nat had turned that driver’s casual call for service into the heart of a true family business. On a Saturday in June of 1928, he happily welcomed his guests to the first White Spot drive-in on Granville St. at 67th Ave.

Behind Nat on the log cabin were two words in green: White Spot. His first idea for a name had been Granville Barbecue, but instead he took the advice of his friend, the late sportsman George Irwin. “Why not call in White Spot like that fellow on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles?” he’d suggested. “he’s doing all right with the name.” So White Spot Barbecue it was, and Nat prayed that success would flow north.

But how to get delicious food from the kitchen to the 25 cars neatly parked in the drive-in and serve them all with a staff of two – only a cook and a manager who doubled as a carhop? Nat solved the problem with style by inventing the first carhop tray, using long one-half-inch by six-inch cedar planks painted white. Burgers, pop, coffee, almost anything could be balanced on it. So, like an elegant carnival performer, a carhop could slide hot food through the open windows of a car and magically turn it into a dining room on wheels.

Not long after opening the White Spot Barbecue, Nat met Eva Ouelette, in her he discovered a lifelong partner who shared his dream of a true family restaurant business.