Festa - Nashville Food Trucks

Published by American Palate

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2014 by Julie Festa

All rights reserved

First published 2014

e-book edition 2014

ISBN 978.1.62585.071.3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Festa, Julie.

Nashville food trucks : stories and recipes from the road / Julie Festa.

pages cm

print edition ISBN 978-1-62619-540-0

1. Cooking, American. 2. Food trucks--Tennessee--Nashville. 3. Cooking--Tennessee--Nashville. I. Title.

TX715.F4258 2014

641.5976855--dc23

2014015052

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I know that everyone who writes a book and begins to write the acknowledgements says there are just too many people to thank. And its clich but so very true. There really are too many people to thank. First and foremost, I need to give the hugest of thanks to every truck owner and chef who took the time out of his or her extremely busy schedule to sit down with me; they took the time out of their days and weeks to look through their recipes to find some to share. Going through this process, I realized just how little I knew about some of my favorite trucks. Getting to know all of the trucks and their proprietors more in-depth has been such a great experience for me. And while I appreciated all they did before I started this book, my appreciation has grown even more as Ive gone through this process. Without all of them, there would have been no book for me to write. For them to open up their windows, doors and sometimes homes to Jim and me has been the most rewarding part of this process. I truly hope that this book does them all justice. I am blessed to call so many of them friends.

Having a flexible place to work for my day job has been such a blessing. Thank you to my employer, Floyd Shechter, and my co-workers for their support as I went through the process of writing this book during one of our busiest times. Having them bear with me as I took sometimes longer than normal lunches or came in a little after the office opened so I could meet with truck owners at breakfast has eased some of the stress, and I cannot thank them enough for that. And they were so understanding and supportive during those three unplanned days I took so that I could finish this manuscriptits been a true blessing.

A project like this cannot be done without the support of friends and familyand there are so many of them that I could fill pages. I will find my own way to individually thank all of them. There are a few, though, whom I do feel need to be thanked here individually. Nothing happens without a mom and a dad. Thanks to my parents for bringing me to the land of opportunity. I try each and every day to make them proud of me and to make sure that I do not squander the opportunities I am presented. Thanks to my aunt Donna and my cousin Kimtwo of the most joyous people I have ever met. They both inspire me to be a better person. They have been confidantes when I needed them so desperately and have been there to provide me with a smile and an upbeat vibe when Ive felt down and out. I appreciate them both more than they will ever know.

The photos in this book are all from a talented local photographer, Brooke Stephens. Thanks to Brooke for the time she spent heading to the trucks and the time she took to edit all of the pictures. I know the editing was no small task. Thank you for helping to bring my words to life through pictures.

There is one final thank-you that is perhaps the greatest of all: to Jim. He is the one who introduced me to food trucks. He is the one who has pushed me to try more off the grid foods. He is the true reason this book exists. If I had never met him, I have no idea how long it would have been before I ventured to the Grilled Cheeserie, or to any food truck for that matter. I know that without him, I would not have had the nerve to try a lot of the foods from the trucks. And thats a sad thought because I would have missed out on so much fantastic food. I know that it hasnt been easy living with me these last few months, as Ive been stressed with my day job and writing this book.

Thank you, Jim, for sticking with me through thisyou are the trooper of all troopers! And this book is truly my dedication to you.

INTRODUCTION

Growing up, I was a total midwestern girl. While I was born in Korea, I was adopted at just a few months old. I am just as much of a corn-fed American as those who are born in the United States. I grew up in Indiana, Minnesota and, finally, Alabama. With one parent working as a teacher and the other parent as a stay-at-home mom keeping four kids in line, I grew up on a lot of casseroles because Mom didnt have a lot of time to put together anything truly gourmet. I loved my moms casseroles, even though, looking back, I realize they really werent too flavorful. Its what you did to feed six people and survive on a single teachers salary. Now, Mom, if youre reading this, you know I was always one of your best eaters so know that I loved your cooking. You always did the best with what you had available.

I would get in the way every night when my mom was cooking because I was fascinated by watching her. Plus, I always fancied being a cook when I grew up. Actually, I wanted to be a good cook because my grandma had told me that the way to a mans heart was through his stomach. And, well, I wanted a good man.

I moved to Nashville in 2002 for work. And it wasnt until sometime in 2011 that I started to notice friends mentioning going to a place called the Grilled Cheeserie. I thought to myself, I love grilled cheese! I need to go to this place! Unfortunately, when I looked it up, I couldnt ever find where the truck was headed or I wasnt familiar with the area of town it was in. I remember sitting at my computer while perusing social media pictures, thinking, Wow, thats a really nice food truck. I started to follow the trucks movements almost like a stalkerbut only an online stalker. It didnt really travel near my side of town during the day, so it was a bit difficult for me to try it out at lunchtime. Finally, on a cloudy Sunday morning in January 2012, my boyfriend, Jim (he pops up a lot in this book), looked at me and said, You know. The Grilled Cheeserie is at Crema this morning for Sunday brunch. And I finally had my first food truck experience. I dont remember the name of the melt that I had, but I remember it had a fried egg on it. And thus began my romance with the food truck scene and culture here in Nashville.

It was about this time that a co-worker of mine mentioned that there was a weekly food truck lunch about three miles from my work. Since Jim lived only about a half mile away from the weekly location, we were able to meet for lunch. We would bring our tailgate chairs and a little foldout table. We would go through and split items from as many trucks as we could. As the crowd died down, we would walk back over and start chatting with the food truck owners. We began to build some friendships with many of the proprietors. It was also at this time that I would head back into the office all excited about what we had eaten or about a specific truck. I started telling my co-workers where they could find trucks near their homes over the weekend. I also started giving them tips on how to enjoy the best from the trucks. One of my co-workers mentioned that I should start a blog giving people the same tips I gave them. I thought about that and looked online; it turned out there really wasnt an active resource focused on the Nashville food truck scene at that time.