Cuisine: Italian
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There are a lot of mom and pop food trucks out there but Blu Olive is a father-daughter operation run by Sarah and Steve Carmean.
Sarah has just moved back from Cleveland after 15 years up north where she’s been working in esteemed kitchens at restaurants including The Flying Fig and Lucky’s Cafe. You’ll see the Cleveland influence in some of their ingredients such as fresh pasta from Ohio City Pasta. Steve’s background is in graphic design.
At the moment they are keeping the menu short and simple. Their aim is to cook flavorful Italian food and serve homemade ice cream. Expect to find a couple of changing pasta dishes, some seasonal specials, and the addition of ice coffee to the menu as well. So far we’ve been impressed with everything we’ve tried but the stand-out dish has been the beet and ricotta ravioli with poppy seed butter. The beet flavor is surprisingly mild given the vibrant color of the filling and there’s a lovely sweetness that almost reminded me of sweetcorn. Great flavor and perfectly cooked.
The meatballs with capellini were also satisfying (they are planning to switch the pasta to rigatoni) – nice tender pork and beef meatballs with a pleasant marinara and a-touch-softer-than al dente pasta. We also enjoyed the salads – it’s always nice to find healthy options at food trucks as well as behemoth burgers and fried food. The finely shaved fennel is a nice addition to the mesclun greens and the lemon and parsley dressing is citrusy without being acidic. The bean salad with roasted marinated tomatoes was refreshing and made for a nice side dish.
We are looking forward to trying more of Sarah’s homemade ice cream. On our first visit we tried this gorgeous little float with vanilla ice cream, blood orange pellegrino soda and some raspberries.
You can find Blu Olive this Monday at the Columbus Museum of Art at lunchtime and at St James Tavern in the evening. For future locations, keep an eye on their twitter or facebook updates. This is one of our favorite new trucks of 2012 and we encourage you to check them out.
