{"id":9941,"date":"2014-07-18T11:32:48","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T15:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=9941"},"modified":"2014-07-18T11:32:48","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T15:32:48","slug":"flash-cafes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/flash-cafes\/","title":{"rendered":"Flash Cafes"},"content":{"rendered":"

July\/August 2014 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Talk about curb appeal. Foodmobiles bring us performance artists on wheels.<\/h3>\n

By Claire Z. Cramer<\/p>\n

\"Food-Trucks\"<\/a>“Thanks for dining with us today,\u201d says Mark Gatti as he hands over $2.50 in change from a five-dollar bill along with a fragrant hotdog heaped with sauerkraut and spicy brown mustard. Such a deal! And the never-a-dull-moment people-watching in Post Office Park on Middle Street at Exchange comes free.<\/p>\n

Mark\u2019s Hotdogs stand claimed its patch of the Old Port 31 years ago. That was during the Reagan administration, a prehistoric, smartphoneless era when there were no Standard Baking croissants for breakfast, no Duckfat fries for lunch, and no food trucks!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy take on the food truck thing is, I give them a lot of respect,\u201d says Gatti. \u201cThey\u2019re run by people who\u2019ve paid their dues in restaurant kitchens. They may even have been high-end chefs. I\u2019m more like a social worker who\u2019s got a hotdog stand.\u201d (Precisely like a social worker, actually; he\u2019s a vocational rehab counselor during the weeks of winter when it\u2019s too cold for outdoor hotdogs.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think the trucks would be a competition, and they haven\u2019t been. Urban Sugar came over with a free sample\u2013it was delicious. I\u2019ve met the El Corazon people\u2013they\u2019re nice. I\u2019d get out and sample more, but I\u2019m working long days. I pull up here around nine a.m. to get set up, and I pull out around six. I\u2019m lucky because I like what I do. I haven\u2019t seen any down trend\u2013after so many years, I\u2019ve got my regulars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just across Exchange from Mark\u2019s in Tommy\u2019s Park you can often find Derrick Anderson and his colorful Little Jamaica cart. \u201cI opened up 18 days before the first snowstorm last year. I started on Commercial Street, but I felt like a UFO in the woods, so I moved up here.\u201d His menu is straight-up Caribbean: jerk chicken and pork; goat curry; and an oxtail dinner with rice and peas, callaloo, and plantains ($8 to $12). \u201cMy mother was from Spanish Town, and she was a great cook; I learned from her. Jamaicans can cook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson gets around. Look for him at the Reggae Fest on the waterfront August 10 and on the Eastern Prom August 21 with Stream Reggae.<\/p>\n

Crowd Sourcing<\/p>\n

Taco Trio is one of five food truck and cart operators recently awarded concession licenses to specific urban locations by the City of Portland.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou had to submit a menu with your application,\u201d says Manuel Pena, who with wife Karen Rasmussen has owned the taqueria Taco Trio on Ocean Street in South Portland since 2011. His taco trailer, which debuted this year at the Old Port Festival, now serves weekday breakfast and lunch on the Western Promenade. Look for Maine Medical Center staff, Waynflete kids, and hungry mansion-dwellers in line. A smaller Taco Trio cart has the rights to Lincoln Park, rich feeding grounds for office, shop, and city employees among the legal types coming and going at the county courthouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m being a little ambitious\u2013five menu items,\u201d says Pena. \u201cThree kinds of tacos\u2013vegetable, steak, and chicken\u2013and two breakfast sandwiches\u2013eggs and chorizo, and eggs with salsa.\u201d Lunch tacos with meat are $4, including rice, salsa, and beans. Tweet @Taco_Trio.<\/p>\n

This summer\u2019s comedy Chef, <\/em>starring Jon Favreau, Sofia Vergara, and North Haven Island summer resident Oliver Platt as the food critic, brings viewers right inside a busy Cubano food truck, and it looks crowded. \u201cI\u2019ve seen the movie,\u201d says Pena. \u201cIt was funny. Yes, it\u2019s crowded in here, and no, you really can\u2019t cook and handle the money at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concrete Jungle<\/p>\n

Now defiantly untouchable by the forces of development, rehabilitation, or job creation, Congress Square Plaza has if nothing else turned into a boon for food trucks. The city awarded Small Axe Food Truck official sanction to set up in the sunken paved square between the grand Westin Harborview hotel and minimalist-chic Vinland restaurant. Small Axe\u2019s menu includes sizzling, glazed pieces of Korean-style pork belly on a bun for $8, a \u201ccurry fish bowl\u201d for $7, and onion rings for $3.50. Owners Bill Leavy and Karl Deuben are nearly hidden in their mobile kitchen. \u201cThe guys just marked the one-year anniversary of Small Axe,\u201d says hostess Stephanie Broido, out on the pavement delivering a fried haddock sandwich on a toasted bun to a diner. Waiting for your mobile lunch here on cafe chairs provided by Friends of Congress Square and a square wooden seating platform donated by Space Gallery gives you time to contemplate urban gentrification and where you think Congress Square falls on the spectrum. Track Small Axe @SmallAxeTruck<\/p>\n

Instant Art<\/p>\n

Urban Sugar recently joined Small Axe in the square\u2013at times, at least.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan is mornings there, and lunch here and evenings on the Eastern Prom,\u201d says Kevin Sandes, owner of Urban Sugar with wife Valeri. As I write this, they\u2019re parked on Spring Street next to the El Corazon food truck for a sunny weekday lunch. Their menu is based on devilishly fabulous bite-size donuts made on the spot, plus a few $6 lunch sandwiches. The maple-glazed donut bites topped with bourbon buttercream and candied bacon are already urban legend. A small bag of cinnamon-sugar minis is $3.<\/p>\n

The Sandes are year-round food-truckers. \u201cWe spent last winter at Sugarloaf. It got cold in here,\u201d says Kevin. \u201cBut this is how we pay the rent.\u201d Keep track @UrbanSugarCafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cMunjoy Hill\u2019s kind of a perfect place for evening food truck dining. You can BYOB\u2013bring your own blanket\u2013and eat in the [Eastern Prom] park,\u201d says Kevin while Valeri toasts a bulkie roll and fills it with chicken salad, lettuce, and tomatoes, and presents it on a cardboard boat garnished with a tiny, warm sugar donut. \u201cShawarma serves Arabian barbecue up there, too\u2013it\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mutual respect seems to run high in the mobile-food fraternity.<\/p>\n

With a View<\/p>\n

C.N. Shawarma is the creation of Clayton Norris and baker Jenna Friedman. Norris, whose mother, Sarah Heald, has owned and operated Sarah\u2019s Restaurant in Wiscasset for 33 years, graduated from Marist College in 2003 with a degree in journalism. He promptly turned on his heel and headed for a year of culinary school, followed by stints in restaurants \u201cfrom a little bistro in New Jersey to a 15-person kitchen\u201d in New York. He returned to Portland, working as a sous-chef in Abby Harmon\u2019s kitchen at Caiola\u2019s for a year before hunting for a truck and a vertical rotisserie.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood trucks can run anywhere from $20,000 to $200 grand,\u201d says Norris. \u201cDepends on age, size, systems, plumbing, all kinds of things.\u201d His graphic-designer cousin helped him design Shawarma\u2019s truck\u2019s dramatic crossed-sword logo.<\/p>\n

\u201cJenna learned to cook in Montreal. She worked in New York, too. There are Middle Eastern populations in both cities, and we were both drawn to the cuisine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris makes chicken shawarma ($7) by stacking upwards of 30 pounds of marinated boneless thighs and breasts up the rotisserie post and slow-roasting. Sandwiches consist of shavings of the sizzling meat with a spiced sauce in a pita bread. Lamb kofta ($8) are fried patties in the pita; he also fries falafel ($7). His spices come from Gryffon Ridge in Dresden\u2013\u201cher stuff is just so fresh.\u201d Tabbouleh, fattoush, and watermelon salads are $3 to $5. Try his signature \u201cCN potatoes\u2013rustic chunks, deep-fried, sprinkled with sumac and drizzled with garlic sauce.\u201d The plan for the summer is Tuesdays through Sundays, lunch and dinner on the Eastern Prom. Check for sure @CN Shawarma.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd no, I haven\u2019t seen the Chef <\/em>movie yet. I haven\u2019t had time!\u201d<\/p>\n

Adjacent to Norris and Friedman on the Eastern Prom is Fishin\u2019 Ships\u2013Sam Gorelick and Arvid Brown are using sustainable seafood and local ingredients to make creative variations of seafood shack staples. The High Thai\u2019d is redfish dipped\u00a0 in local craft beer batter and served with spicy Thai mayo. \u201cWe bought our truck in South Boston, drove it up to Blue Hill, fixed it up over the winter, and opened up here in June,\u201d says Brown. Follow the ship @FishinShips.<\/p>\n

In the Zone<\/p>\n

El Corazon has been serving lunch on Spring Street since before it was warm enough to eat outside, when you\u2019d see the Cianbro construction guys lined up on lunch break from renovating the Civic Center. Now the line waiting for $2.50 tacos and $3.75 taquitos is dressed in office business wear. Check @corazontwet.<\/p>\n

The stretch of Spring Street between High and Union streets is a city-designated \u201cfood truck zone,\u201d available to the trucks on a catch-as-catch-can parking-spot basis. The Eastern Prom is another.<\/p>\n

The Wicked Good Mobile Kitchen turns up on Spring with a good cop\/bad cop lunch menu. Have a virtuous kale smoothie ($5) with your oozing cheese steak ($6). Vegan items are strictly segregated from the meat. Healthy offerings notwithstanding, owners Nate Underwood and Chris McClay say their most popular item is poutine ($5). Stay in touch @wickedgoodtruck.<\/p>\n

Mainely Meatballs keeps it simple: meatball sandwiches\u2013beef or quinoa\u2013in three sizes, a salad side or two, and \u201csweetballs\u201d for dessert, which are no-bake chocolate and oat drop cookies. A small \u201cone-ball\u201d meatball sandwich is $4; three balls is $8. All come with a side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working on adding maybe a lobster meatball, a buffalo chicken with blue cheese, and a Moroccan couscous vegan ball,\u201d says co-owner Daryl Blaisdell, who answers to MElyMeaballs.<\/p>\n

Whole Lotta Love<\/p>\n

What began a few summers ago in a cute, green, retro aluminum trailer in the parking lot at Foreside Antiques on Route 1 in Falmouth is now Love Kupcakes Inc., with an additional truck often found on the Portland\/Westbrook line in front of the Racket & Fitness Center, a stand in the Public Market House in Monument Square, a presence at festivals and events like the Fourth of July fireworks on the Eastern Prom, and a catering business for weddings and parties. Contact them
\n@LoveCupcakesME.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sweet cupcakes are all-natural, and gluten-free is an option,\u201d says general manager Hannah Watson. She\u2019s looking to expand the menu because \u201cthere\u2019s only so far you can go with cupcakes.\u201d Maybe so, but she\u2019s refreshed the ubiquitous confections with new ideas like banana cake with chocolate peanut butter frosting and gluten-free chocolate with orange buttercream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July\/August 2014
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