Three wheel delivery vehicle the toast of Rosedale

Nicholas Brown smiles when he hears the little "beep beep" coming down the street.

"It's hysterical," he says. "You just never see anything like that around Toronto. It gives them pizzazz, a little je ne sais quoi."

He's talking about the delivery vehicle for the Olliffe butcher shop on Yonge Street, one of the so-called Five Thieves -- a block of upscale shops along Yonge south of Summerhill subway station.

Olliffe came under new management this year, and while co-owner Ben Gundy says the shop has remained true to its roots, they have spiced things up with a cheeky new delivery vehicle that has been drawing stares.

When Mr. Brown, a long-time customer, first saw the odd little three-wheeled Vespacar coming up his driveway, it brought him back to a little Irish village.

"I remember thinking, gosh, what is that? Is that legal?" he says with a laugh. "I spent some time in Ireland, and you could always remember the milk truck coming down the road. It reminds me very much of those little villages."

Mr. Gundy, who acquired Olliffe in March and opened in June, shares the business with his two brothers, Sam Gundy and James Aitken, who also owns the neighbouring Sweetgrass Flowers.

Their family has always been in the food-service industry, says Ben Gundy, a trained chef who designs marinades and stuffings for Olliffe's meat products. When they took over the store from its previous owners, he says, they were careful to orchestrate a smooth transition, ensuring customers that the business they had grown to love would carry on.

One thing that did change, however, was the mode of transport.

Sam Gundy knew of a builder from Bayfield, Ont., named Ken Johnson, who restores Vespacars on the side. Realizing the potential of the cute three-wheeler as an advertising vehicle, the Gundy brothers enlisted his assistance, and he managed to track one down, retool it and paint it with the Olliffe logo.

While there are fewer than five dozen of these cars on Canadian roads, according to Mr. Johnson's best estimate, Sweetgrass Flowers also got its hands on one, and so the two neighbouring stores have matching Vespacars -- though one is white and red, the other a vivid shade of lime.

Mr. Johnson says the Vespacar is a traditional Italian work vehicle, with the surprising capacity to haul 1,000 pounds, designed after the Second World War as "the big brother of the Vespa scooter."

A few hundred were shipped to Canada in 1982, but they are not made here, he said. Just under 100 of that initial shipment have survived; Mr. Johnson says he stumbles across the rusting remains of a Vespacar every now and then in the United States and Canada, which he can use to salvage parts.

"It's called an ape [pronounced ah-pay], which in Italian means bee, which is the sound that they make," Mr. Johnson notes. While the cars can be driven around town and are licensed as motorcycles, he says, "I wouldn't be tearing down a major highway in one."