Nosh Pit

Taco Time Enters the Food Truck Biz

Curb cuisine gets corporate.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on May 11, 2012 at 01:00PM 1 Comments

Coming to a curb near you. Photo via Facebook.

Contrary to what we’ve come to expect, Seattle’s newest food truck isn’t brought to you by some fledgling chef with ambitions of one day opening her own eatery. Taco Time, the Northwest chain with more than 70 locations, will roll out a four-wheeler in mid-June, says a rep for the company.

The truck will hit 50 events—neighborhood block parties, Mariners games—throughout Washington State until Labor Day, with other cameos planned throughout the year. Locations won’t be preannounced but made known via Twitter, presumably in an attempt to generate traction.

Taco Time Traveler is being launched in conjunction with the company’s golden anniversary. The crew, 30 employees plucked from various local Taco Times, will shill free grub: tacos (hard and soft), burritos, Mexi-fries, salads, etc. It’s the same stuff you’d find at the restaurant, with a seasonal focus, noted the rep.

Sigh. One can’t help but think this (literal) marketing vehicle portends a turning point in mobile dining—a concept celebrated for its novelty. Then again, curbside corporatization isn’t exactly new. Last summer, and the summer before that, Seattle eagerly ate up the taco truck Qdoba launched. Nor is it surprising. Street food is the purview of whiz-bang chefs turning out invigorating and admirable fare—which explains why it’s so popular, and why brands looking to up awareness want in on the buzz.

Awhile back Kurt Dammeier, owner of Maximus Minimus, shed some insight on the truck-as-promotion racket. Do read on.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, Taco Time, Seattle Food Trucks

Restaurant-Food Cart Hybrid Takes Root in Portland

This is pretty cool.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on May 10, 2012 at 02:20PM 0 Comments

Lardo, soon to be a brick-and-mortar. Photo courtesy Karen Brooks/Portland Monthly.

An interesting development from our sister publication to the south. A couple of enterprising culinarians are teaming up for a restaurant-food cart hybrid on Portland’s Hawthorne Boulevard. Here’s how it works.

Craft sandwich operation Lardo, of the Good Food Here pod on SE Belmont, is moving into a brick-and-mortar space at 1212 SE Hawthorne Blvd. In the parking lot sweets shack Sugar Cube, an alum of Good Food Here, will set up its trailer. The restaurant will seat 40, while a tented patio, presumably near Cube, will accommodate 100. Culinary incubator ChefStable is driving the (genius, don’t you think?) business model.

Here in Seattle several food trucks have straddled both the restaurant and roving worlds—and with great success —but those are instances of brand building. We have yet to see a collaboration with such moxie, in which curbside and fixed operations partner and share resources. Will we ever? Who knows. Seattle is a bastion of progressive thinking, but given the hesitation with which some restaurateurs approach food trucks, one does wonder.

What do you think? Would something like this work here?

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, Seattle Food Trucks

Slideshow: Mobile Food Rodeo 2012

Get stuffed all over again.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on May 08, 2012 at 11:30AM 1 Comments

The cavalcade of trucks parked outside Fremont Studios, making for a colorful (and fragrant) couple of blocks.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

The cavalcade of trucks parked outside Fremont Studios, making for a colorful (and fragrant) couple of blocks.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

A dash of Sriracha spices up Indian tacos from Off the Rez.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Get ’er done: Nolan Stamps takes a bite out of a kalua pork sandwich from Fusion on the Run.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Newcomer Crisp Creperie proved a popular stop. The line was so long it reportedly took up to two hours to get a crepe. Don’t say we didn’t warn you about that wait.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Now that’s teamwork. Employees at Contigo demonstrate how a taco hand-off is done.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Lynn Rehn of My Chef Lynn checks in with son Rocky, who helped man the truck.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Rehn’s signature lamb burgers.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

With seating scarce, attendees took to the next best option: the curb.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Plugged in: The Rodeo rounded up more than 30 top trucks, including familiar names like Maximus Minimus and Skillet, and more recent ventures such as Jemil’s Big Easy (which apparently keeps its condiments rather high).

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Crazy crowds meant food went fast. Molly Moon’s ice cream was out by 3:30—just as the heat hit its peak.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Get ’er done, part II: Robert Howard dominates his Buns burger.

Where film buffs have SIFF and fashion folk Black Friday, food truck people have the Mobile Food Rodeo, an all-day opportunity to binge on all manner of curb cuisine.

This year’s bonanza brought in an impressive 35 trucks and took place Sunday in Fremont. Crowds were thick and lines long, but the grubbing was undeniably good (and that sunshine—glorious!). Hit the slideshow for a recap of the feast, and for everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Seattle’s mobile community, behold this feature on food trucks.

All photos by Seattlemet.com photographer Lucas Anderson. Full disclosure: Seattle Met was a sponsor of the Rodeo.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, Seattle Food Trucks, Mobile Food Rodeo

New Food Truck: Lucky Devil Doughnut Co.

These aren’t your typical fried cakes. Also: malasadas!

Posted by: Christopher Werner on May 08, 2012 at 09:30AM 0 Comments

Luck Devil Doughnut Co. spreads the malasada gospel. Photo via Facebook.

Doughnuts of all stripes are found in this city, but rarely does one encounter malasadas. Sweeter and eggier than your typical doughnut, malasadas are of Portuguese origin and when traditionally done, devoid of fillings. In Hawaii “they’re all over the place,” says Josh Goldman. “They’re incredibly popular.”

And so shall they be in Seattle. Today Goldman and his brother Gabe launch Lucky Devil Doughnut Co., a food truck devoted to the sugar-dusted orbs. They cost $1, are fried on the spot, and taste best when still hot, advises Josh, who has spent time in Rover’s, Ray’s Boathouse, and Tom Douglas kitchens. He’ll be the guy running the show; Gabe, a graphic designer, is more behind-the-scenes and the one responsible for the truck’s fetching look. Growing up the brothers spent considerable time in Hawaii, hence the focus on malasadas.

Traditionalists will find cake doughnuts as well as maple and chocolate bars. The Hole-y Rollers, or doughnut holes, are gussied up with some decidedly less traditional toppings, including nacho cheese, buttermilk ranch, and sour cream and onion. There are “special” offerings, too, that go for $4 (“they’re bigger,” notes Josh) and also lean toward the creative. Consider the Lucky Devil: chocolate cake dipped in a chocolate glaze made with ghost chili (supposedly the world’s hottest pepper) then finished with cherry drizzle. Or the Surfer’s Breakfast: scrambled egg and Spam between two doughnuts, either glazed or plain. And the orange-stuffed one with guava and passion frosting that the Goldmans call POG. Coffee drinkers will be delighted to learn the increasingly prevalent Lighthouse Roasters is providing the beans.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays Lucky Devil is at California and Edmonds; Fridays find it in Wallingford at 45th and Corliss. And on Mondays it’s hitting the Starbucks headquarters. Hours are 7–3, according to Josh.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, Doughnuts, Seattle Food Trucks, Lucky Devil Doughnut Co.

Parfait Watch

Seattle’s scratch ice cream scooper is back after a winter breather, and with brownie sandwiches to boot.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on May 03, 2012 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: Young Lee

Adria Shimada of Parfait.

Another sign summer is nigh: Parfait is back at it after parking for the winter.

Through the month of May Adria Shimada’s mobile—one of Seattle’s standout trucks —can be found near Victrola on Capitol Hill on Friday evenings; Saturday it’s outside the Caffe Fiore at NW 85th St and 32nd Ave NW. Shimada is also eyeing a spot at the new Caffe Fiore in West Seattle, located at 2206 California Ave, for a Wednesday stint.

In June she’ll tag on a few more locales, including the Thursday night Queen Anne Farmers Market and the Mercer Island market, which takes place on Sundays.

Shimada’s signature from-scratch pints will of course be in tow, but new this year—humina humina—are the brownie sandwiches. Rather than use cookies to mold the treats (they get too soggy for Shimada’s tastes, a syndrome known to beset many ice cream ’wiches), Shimada is making hers with thin fudge wedges, about half the thickness of your regular brownie, she says. Look for those in June.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, Ice Cream, Ice Cream Sandwiches, Seattle Food Trucks, Parfait, Adria Shimada

Is This What Food Trucks Will Look Like in the Future?

If so, street eating is about get cushier.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Apr 27, 2012 at 11:50AM 2 Comments

The future of food trucks?

This picture is making the rounds on the Facebook pages of some local food truck people. It apparently originates with the brains at Interesting Engineering.

Interesting indeed. While some Seattle trucks—and one in particular —have placed a premium on appearance, we have yet to see an example this design-forward. (Portland, once again, has us beat there.)

There doesn’t appear to be much in the way of kitchen equipment, and where those stools get stored is beyond me. And how would that counter hold up during travel? Logistics aside, this is pretty cool. Having a place to plop it while eating—that’d be a nice option.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, Seattle Food Trucks

Video: Seattle Food Truckers Talk Life on the Road

“The tires could fall off. It could be raining, it could be snowing. It could be 32 degrees in the trailer, it could be 100 degrees in the trailer.”

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Apr 25, 2012 at 08:30AM 0 Comments

There sure is a lot going on with food trucks these days. It’s as if a new one rolls out every week. Oh wait, they do. To bring readers up to speed, I compiled a hefty spread on the burgeoning trend for our May issue. Below is a teaser of the feature, but be warned: serious hunger may ensue.

Seattle Met Food Trucks from Seattle Met on Vimeo.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, Skillet, Seattle Food Trucks, Parfait, Street Treats, Hallava Falafel, Crisp Creperie

Food Trucks Galore at Next 50 Opening Day

Including—get excited—Street Donuts.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Apr 19, 2012 at 01:00PM 1 Comments

Nice to see you too, Street Donuts. Photo via Facebook.

Maybe you’ve heard? This month marks the golden anniversary of the 1962 World’s Fair. Seattle Center is hosting an array of events over the coming months to celebrate, and the official kick-off gets under way this Saturday. Culture Fiend documented the day’s happenings, but what’s up on the grub front? Food trucks.

More than 20 of them are scheduled from 11–6, including none other than Street Donuts. The trailer slinging dough rounds decked with newfangled toppings was a fixture last summer on Second and Pike, but like Maximus Minimus, laid low over the winter.

Where Yi-Chun Lin and her crew will land after Saturday, she’s not yet decided. Rest assured, we will bring any updates as soon as we hear them.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, Food Events and Festivals, Seattle Food Trucks, Street Donuts

Coming Soon: Urban Nomad Food Truck

A set of wheels serving pasta of all the stripes.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Apr 18, 2012 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Urban Nomad, pasta mobile. Photo courtesy Bruce Pinkerton.

You know food trucks are a bona fide big deal when restaurateurs are getting in the game. Renee Erickson (Boat Street Cafe, Walrus and the Carpenter) is doing it, and so is Bruce Pinkerton.

Pinkerton calls his mortar-to-mobile track “reverse engineering.” The truck he and business partner Barry Baxter are launching is an extension of their brick-and-mortar on Elliott Avenue, Urban Cafe. The set of wheels they’ve fittingly deemed Urban Nomad.

The concept for the truck is pasta—a foodstuff that many a restaurant is built on but has remained relatively unseen in the mobile realm. Expect a couple of staples alongside rotating specials: There is a “vast amount of options we can take,” says Pinkerton of the menu. Daily offerings will include at least one gluten-free option, and Pinkerton, who will oversee things at the cafe while Baxter mans the truck, predicts the pasta will allow for all sorts of seasonal accoutrements. All of this will be displayed on a 42-inch flat screen.

Pinkerton says Urban Nomad is a couple weeks out from debuting. Once it does, the truck is scheduled to serve Fremont, the Starbucks HQ, South Lake Union (twice), and maybe Capitol Hill and SoDo again.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, Seattle Food Trucks, Urban Nomad

Truck Stop: Sanjey Noriega of Curry Now

A peripetatic basketball player returns to his roots.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Apr 17, 2012 at 09:13AM 0 Comments

Sanjey Noriega of Curry Now

“I started a food truck because I always wanted to run my own business and felt I should do something I enjoy: cooking.” And so, after eight years traveling the globe as a basketball player, Sanjey Noriega returned to Seattle, where he had settled as a teen, and set out to launch his mobile business.

His truck, Curry Now, offers a rotating selection of East Indian and Pakistani dishes drawing from an arsenal of family recipes. Consider it the four-wheeled response to this city’s dearth of decent Indian eats.

Here, Noriega pulls over for a few questions.

What items sells out first? Our chicken curry bowl is by far our most popular item. It’s the one constant on our menu.

What else should I try? The chicken tacos, because they are served on roti that I make every day.

Where do your recipes come from? Most are longtime family recipes that I learned from my mother and my aunts. Others I learned on my own and developed through practice. I usually spend a couple weeks practicing before I will introduce a new dish to the public.

What item will you never reveal the recipe for? The mixture for our masala. It is a unique mix that we have developed over time.

Any aspirations to expand or go brick-and-mortar? For now, we want to focus on the street food, but we may venture that way at some point.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, East Indian Cuisine, Seattle Food Trucks, Truck Stop, Curry Now, Sanjey Noriega

New Food Truck: Scratch Deli

Sandwiches with an obsessively local focus, from a former Whole Foods butcher.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Apr 11, 2012 at 07:32AM 1 Comments

All from scratch. Photo courtesy scratchdeli.com.

Last summer Ian Thackaberry embarked on some rather idyllic—and ambitious—research: He frequented every farmers market in the city in an attempt to get to know as many vendors possible at each one. The relationships he forged inform the menu at his week-old, obsessively local sandwich truck, Scratch Deli.

As you may have gathered from the name, ingredients are from scratch. Either they’re crafted in-house by Thackaberry or by those aforementioned purveyors. Take, for instance, the PB&J made with Deluxe Foods jam and CB’s Nuts peanut butter. Or the chicken salad lacquered with a hazelnut pesto aioli he whips up using Holmquist Hazelnut Orchard out of Lynden, Washington. (“Way up there” in terms of what to order, confides Thackaberry.) As the weather warms and farmers market season takes off, Thackaberry expects he’ll roll out featured items so as to showcase more suppliers.

Thackaberry is parking at Wine World Warehouse in Wallingford. He’s staying put there for the time being, and why not? Just one week in and he has hit his one month goal.

Thackaberry comes to Seattle after a stint in Portland. He graduated from college in 2008 with a degree in finance and economics but soon realized the field wasn’t for him. So he got behind the butcher’s counter at Whole Foods—“like going back to college,” he says of the enlightening experience. Thrillist has a video with Thackaberry, if you are so inclined to meet him.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, Seattle Food Trucks, Scratch Deli

Jemil’s Big Easy: Ready for Business

The Cajun cruiser plans to hit the road on Wednesday.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Apr 09, 2012 at 02:00PM 2 Comments

That’s some decal job. Photo via Jemil’s Big Easy.

UPDATE 4/10 Jemil’s is good to go.

If all checks out with a health department inspection on Tuesday morning, Jemil’s Big Easy will debut on April 11. The truck is the venture of New Orleans native and seasoned Cajun cook Jemil Aziz; he is launching it with Julie Little, a fellow instructor at Blue Ribbon Culinary Center and Coyote Central.

Assuming all does check out, this week the plan is to hit up the Starbucks headquarters on Wednesday. After that it’s South Lake Union on Thursday and on Friday through Sunday, 922 First Avenue South for the weekend’s sporting festivities. Going forward the schedule includes several of the usual spots—Mondays and Thursdays at Boren and Harrison in SLU, the Mermaid HQ on Wednesday—plus Canopy West at 11061 Tukwila International Boulevard on Tuesdays. Fridays you’ll likely find Aziz back in that First Avenue locale.

Speaking of Boren and Harrison, holy heck are there a lot of trucks parking there now.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Street Food, Seattle Food Trucks, Food Truck Pods, Jemil's Big Easy