The whole food truck thing has been moving fast, and we try to keep up by hitting new trucks as soon as they debut. Though we don’t always succeed, we’ve caught a fair number of trucks during either their soft opening or their first night of business.
This means we’ve seen a lot of trucks at the stage where they’re still trying to work the bugs out – everything from dealing with electrical issues to serious difficulties with the menu items to inability to estimate food quantities to match up with their crowd.
We tried That Food Truck during their soft opening, and none of above applies. In fact, if our experience is any indication, they’ve hit the ground running… and they’ve done it while putting out a quality menu that pushes all of our happy buttons.
These include locally purchased meats from a single farmer that one of the owners (Chef Dan Kraus) butchers himself (!). And, beyond that, a whole lot of locally sourced goodness, including vegetables from their own garden. As well as local farmers, That Food Truck are also working with Eleni Christina Bakery and North Market Spices. NMS have made a special blend for them that they’re calling truck dust. It’s sprinkled on most of the dishes.
The owners of That Food Truck, Dan and Steve, have significant restaurant back-of-house experience, and are using the truck as a means to explore avenues not open to them within a traditional restaurant setting. The truck kitchen is well equipped. They even have an oven and Dan bakes his own chocolate chip cookies each morning.
The quality shows in the end product. The hamburger was easily among the best we’ve had from a food truck, and the ‘Big Bad Wolf’ was definitely worth returning for. The chicken confit sandwich was exceptional.
Really, everything we had hit the mark, with the possible exception of the squash fritters which were a bit mushy on the inside. Those were quite possibly an anomaly, or a small reminder to us that it was indeed a soft opening. We do like that That Food Truck offers some small bites and snack sized items. We really enjoyed the spicy carrot fries. Thin slices of carrot deep fried, salty, a little spicy and not at all greasy.
In talking with them, we were assured that there was more to come, menu-wise. Pork belly lettuce wraps and Tomahawk pork chops were cited as examples. We’re curious… and will be back.
You can expect to find That Food Truck at Gay and Grant in the evenings and at Campus Pit stop Kenny and Lane during the day – but check their Facebook and Twitter for updates.
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