He couldn’t have done it alone. But restaurateur Mark Brand said serving nearby businesses from the Save On Meats building made reviving the more than 50-year-old Vancouver landmark possible.

He hopes to open the revamped business within the next two weeks.

“I loved Save On Meats, and the other option for it was to be developed into condos. So to lose this as a source of food retail and also as a distribution hub to the Downtown Eastside and refrigeration would be a massive loss,” Brand said. “This sort of stuff just doesn’t exist in the downtown core. There’s not 22,000 square feet available in anything that would be cost effective.”

A rebuilt neon pig sign decorates the refurbished façade at 43 West Hastings St., which includes a sliding window to a sandwich counter.

“We’re really trying to make this the breaching point for everybody to come back,” said Brand, who co-owns the nearby Boneta, Sea Monstr Sushi and The Diamond restaurants.

Customers at the window will pay $1.50 for a breakfast sandwich, $2 for a sandwich or a nutritious cup of soup. Brand has hired Helen Hill, a longtime familiar face from the nearby Potluck Café to work the counter.

The new version of Save On Meats has two halves. The sandwich window fronts a long diner on the east side. Booths line a brick wall and avocado-hued stools border a cedar bar made of first-growth cedar reclaimed in the renovation.

Brand commissioned Dan Climan, who included the old Save On Meats in his art school thesis on disappearing Vancouver icons, to paint signs as an installation for the new Save On.

“Damn Fine Reubens,” reads one. Another features a cheery pig with S.O.M. branded on its rump.

Guest DJs, including Skratch Bastid from Toronto and Halifax, are to fill the jukebox with their 45” records every two months. The proceeds will go to the Legionnaires on Main Street.

The former horseshoe-shaped counter stretches the length of the new shop on the west side of the space to display meats, cheeses and seafood. The drop ceiling has been replaced with a pressed ceiling a couple of feet higher. Customers will see a pasta prep table, grain from Vancouver Island being ground, and a juicing machine into which kids can drop oranges.

Complimentary healthy and inexpensive eating classes are scheduled for the fall. A commissary kitchen and restaurant linen service to be staffed by residents of the Downtown Eastside is to open on the second floor. The Potluck Café and Pathways Information Centre have helped Brand find workers.

A converted diesel generator will run on the fat from nearby restaurants to fuel electricity and hot water heaters. The generator vents onto the roof and Brand just received funding to establish three hothouses there with the help of a former employee of UBC Farm.

SOLEfood, a spinoff of the United We Can bottle depot, will tend gardens in the basement, growing herbs for Save On. As with the linens, delivery will be by push dolly or bike.

The feasibility of an incubator kitchen where Downtown Eastside residents could develop products is being considered for the fourth floor. Developers, Vancity, Building Opportunities with Business, and the CCEC Credit Union helped finance the project.

crossi@vancourier.com

Twitter: @Cheryl_Rossi