What Happened to Save On Meats After Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Season 13 Vancouver, British Columbia
Current status
As of October 2026, Save On Meats has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, January 18, 2021.
What the source shows: Save On Meats' own website, on a page dated 2021-01-18, shows a graphic reading 'The Diner at Save On Meats Is Now Closed' and says the business is working with A Better Life Foundation to feed neighbours in need. A Better Life Foundation, which gives its address as 43 W Hastings, says on a page updated 2025-12-10 that it hosts free community dinners in the Save-On-Meats diner for invited Downtown Eastside guests. How we decide a status →
- Episode Season 13, Episode 5
- Aired
- Address 43 W Hastings St, Vancouver, BC V6B 1G4
- Website saveonmeats.ca
- Show map
© OpenStreetMap contributors © CARTO
What happened after Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?
Save On Meats, at 43 West Hastings Street in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, appeared in the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives episode “Scratch Made Classics,” which aired 2011-12-26. Wikipedia's article on the business, last modified 2017-08-16, says the butcher shop opened in 1957, a lunch counter followed in 1960, and restaurateur Mark Brand reopened the shop and diner in 2011. BC Living, in an article dated 2011-07-05, described a diner menu of ribs, a banana split and a Reuben, with a 40-seat dining room and a take-out window.
The business's own website says it has been family owned and operated since 1957 and works in partnership with A Better Life Foundation to provide meals to neighbors in need; its latest post is dated 2021-01-18. A Better Life Foundation's website, on a page modified 2025-12-10, describes weekly free community dinners held in the Save-On-Meats diner and building on Hastings Street.
The graphic on the business's website, uploaded in January 2021 to a page dated 2021-01-18, reads "The Diner at Save On Meats Is Now Closed." A Better Life Foundation, a charity that now lists 43 West Hastings Street as its own address, says on a page updated 2025-12-10 that it invites about 80 neighbours several times a week to free three-course dinners in the Save-On-Meats diner, cooked and served by volunteer groups; it does not describe the diner as open to the public. FlavortownUSA, a site that tracks Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives restaurants, also lists Save-on-Meats as closed.
The episode
Also in Season 13
Season 13: 17 of 37 still open · 3 renamed, moved or under new owners
-
Ep 4Mama's Food Shop
Closed - Closed
-
Ep 4Red Wagon Café
Relocated - Open
-
Ep 5The Redhead
Closed -
Ep 6Falconetti's
Closed -
Ep 6Rincon Criollo
Relocated -
Ep 6Tattooed Moose
Open
Nearest open restaurants
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Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
Open -
You Gotta Eat Here!
Relocated -
You Gotta Eat Here!
Open -
You Gotta Eat Here!
Open -
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
Open -
You Gotta Eat Here!
Open
Before you go: Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.
Sources we checked
- saveonmeats.ca http://saveonmeats.ca/
- abetterlifefoundation.ca https://www.abetterlifefoundation.ca/get-involved/plenty-of-plates-team-building-vancouver/
- Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save-On-Meats
- bcliving.ca https://www.bcliving.ca/?p=103976
We work hard to keep every status accurate and dated, but restaurants change fast and our sources aren't perfect. If something here is wrong — a status, a name, an address, anything — tell us what you're seeing and where you saw it, and we'll check it.
Record ddd-1620 · checked by Cal Marchetti.