Wood-fired pizza with cremini mushrooms and truffle oil.
Thai chicken basil dumplings.
Softshell crab with corn salsa.
Pork belly po’boy with Creole tomato sauce and roasted garlic slaw.
Argentinian crepes filled with dulce de leche.
For these fresh tasty bites and so much more, you’ll want to belly up to a food truck.
Yes, indeed, a food truck.
“Believe it or not, our top seller is our ‘grown up mac and cheese’ with smoked pork shoulder and kale,” said Suzanne Nighswander, who owns Creme of the Crop, a farm-to-food truck and caterer, with executive chef Ryan Jackson, who worked with renowned chefs Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Jean Joho and Graham Elliot Bowles and competed on the Food Network’s “Guy’s Grocery Games” before launching the business three years ago.
Food trucks are kitchens on wheels manned by experienced chefs driven to reach a larger audience. They can be found dishing up unique fare at a craft brewery, farmers market or special events near you. And just as kids hunt down the ice cream truck by its song, you can track down a favorite food truck via Facebook, Twitter, Chicago Food Truck Finder and other mobile apps … or just by following our guide below.
Why? Because it’s fun and delicious. And because ordering food from a window has grown up and gone above and beyond the mass-produced nugget.
Sourcing organic produce from Gray Farms in Watseka and meat from Tamblyn Farms in Manteno, Creme of the Crop’s ever-changing menu, for example, has touted pork schnitzel with bacon vinaigrette, Strawberry pain perdu (French toast) and chicken chorizo nachos with Mornay sauce and pickled jalapenos.
Elsewhere, the Ofrenda food truck— one of dozens participating in Saturday’s sold-out Food Truck Social at Lincoln Park Zoo — specializes in gorditas, handheld masa cakes cut open in the middle and filled with carnitas, green chilies and cilantro and topped with pico de gallo and avocado puree.
Brothers Fernando and Ernesto Torres launched Ofrenda in November as a natural extension of having grown up in the restaurant business. Their parents Jose and Carmen Torres have owned El Meson Express, in Cicero then Berwyn, for three decades.
“I want to reinvent some of the dishes and make them my own,” said Fernando Torres, who attended Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago and worked in fine dining for several years.
Ofrenda translates to “offering” and is named in honor of the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) tradition of leaving offerings in the form of favorite foods on the graves of loved ones.
“Everything we do has a deeper meaning to it,” Torres said. “When we were younger, my brother and I decided when we passed away our favorite dish would be gorditas. Our mom would make them for the restaurant and at home. To make them is difficult and requires a certain finesse. A lot of people know tacos or tortas, but we want to show off a memory from our childhood.”
Torres also collaborates with area craft breweries to create dishes using various brews, such as a mole sauce from a new chocolate stout at BuckleDown Brewing in Lyons.
Besides, beer and food just go well together.
“People like to have food while they drink beers and then some people stay longer,” said owner/brewer Brett Semenske of Imperial Oak Brewing in Willow Springs. “It helps us out because we don’t have a kitchen. It also helps the food trucks out because they have a ready made crowd here.”
Food trucks are proving restaurants aren’t the only places offering varied menus. Whether you have a hankering for a beef brisket sandwich or something more exotic like an empanada filled with béchamel sauce, sautéed onions, cheese and nutmeg, there’s likely an accommodating food truck parking soon near you.
“I try to mix it up as much as possible whether it’s pizza or barbecue or Korean or Chinese or Mexican,” said Kristian Bonde, an Imperial Oaks manager in charge of booking food trucks every Friday and Saturday evening.
Gourmet grilled cheese with duck bacon, caramelized poblano peppers or grass-fed ribeye has folks following the Schaumburg-based Toasty Cheese food trucks all over the suburbs.
“We found a secret recipe to make the bread perfectly crispy and we have lots of fun toppings,” said Caitlin Ritzema, director of catering for Toasty Cheese. “We make a point to go north, west and south.”
While food trucks do big business in Chicago, with regular events at Daley Plaza and Willis Tower, and most are based outside the Southland, the mobile eateries do cruise on out to our neck of the woods where brewery managers and event planners know to track down the popular restaurateurs well in advance.
“All of us who do special events know food trucks are in high demand,” said Pam Dennis, owner of Fetching Market, pop-up flea markets with food and music held in Munster, Ind., and at the historic Ford Hangar in Lansing. “Food trucks are really an essential part of doing these markets because they have to be mobile. They pull up, start a generator and boom, they are ready to go.”
Are you ready and hungry? Let’s go food truckin’ …
Friday:
Two Soldiers and a Marine Food Truck, 5 to 9 p.m. at Metal Monkey Brewing, 515 Anderson Drive, Unit 900, Romeoville; 815-524-3139; www.metalmonkeybrewing.com
Soho, 5 to 9 p.m. at Imperial Oak Brewing, 501 Willow Blvd., Willow Springs; 708-330-5096; www.imperialoakbrewing.com
Toasty Cheese, 5 to 10 p.m. at Hailstorm Brewing Company, 8060 186th St., Tinley Park; 708-480-2268; www.hailstormbrewing.com
Saturday:
Copper Oven Pizza, 5 to 9 p.m. at Imperial Oak Brewing
Wednesday:
Creme of the Crop, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at First Midwest Bank Customer Care Center, 3800 Rock Creek Blvd., Joliet (800-322-3623); 815-954-8767 or www.cremeofthecropcatering.com
Thursday:
Creme of the Crop, 4 to 7 p.m. at Manteno Farmers Market, Main and Division streets, Manteno; 815-468-62260.
Friday:
Pizza Boss, 5 to 9 p.m. at Imperial Oak Brewing
Mario’s Cart, 6 p.m. at Hailstorm Brewing Company
Creme of the Crop, 6 p.m. at Evil Horse Brewing, 1338 Main St., Crete; 708-304-2907
Roaming Hog with Solstice restaurant, 6 to 9 p.m. at Werk Force Brewing, 14903 S. Center St., Plainfield; 815-531-5557; www.werkforcebrewing.com
May 28:
Ofrenda, Blue Nose Brewery, 6119 East Ave., Hodgkins; www.bluenosebrewery.com
Rogues Curbside Kitchen, 4:30 to 8 p.m. at Pollyannna Brewing Company, 431 Talcott Ave., Lemont; 630-914-5834; www.pollyannabrewing.com (food truck schedule posted)
Gino’s Steaks, 5 to 9 p.m. at Imperial Oak Brewing
Creme of the Crop at Kankakee Farmers Market, South Schuyler Avenue and Merchant Street, Kankakee; 847-630-6100.
June 3:
Ofrenda at BuckleDown Brewing, 8700 W. 47th St., Lyons; www.buckledownbrewing.com
June 3 and the first Friday of every month (year round):
First Fridays, food trucks and in-store samples, 6 to 9 p.m. at Archer Liquors, 5996 S. Archer Ave., Chicago; 773-582-4767; www.archerliquors.com
June 11 and second Saturday of each month (through November):
Grumpy Gaucho, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Plainfield Public Library, 15025 S. Illinois St., Plainfield; 815-436-6639; www.grumpygaucho.com
Special Events:
June 3 and 4 — Second Anniversary Party at Imperial Oak Brewing, with food trucks including Toasty Cheese, Yum Dum, Roaming Hog, Ofrenda, Gino’s Steaks and Cookout on Wheels plus a retro arcade, hourly barrel-aged tappings and the release of Russian imperial stout Quiet Giant; 501 Willow Blvd., Willow Springs; 708-330-5096; www.imperialoakbrewing.com
June 4 — Foodie 5K, the Northern Illinois Food Bank’s second annual fun run/walk fundraiser with gourmet food trucks, entertainment and a kids’ zone, Joliet Speedway, 500 Speedway Blvd., Joliet (Entrance off Laraway Road at Gate 5); Northern Illinois Food Bank 630-443-6910; www.solvehungertoday.org
June 4 — Lemont Beer Fest, annual event with craft beer, food trucks and entertainment, parking lot of Bottles and Pollyanna Brewing Company, 400 block of Talcott Avenue in Lemont; 630-914-5834; www.lemontbeerfest.brownpapertickets.com; www.pollyannabrewing.com
June 11 — Greenbush Market, Greenbush Brewing Co. and its Greenbush Brisket Van, The Open Bottle, 7101 W. 183rd St., Tinley Park; 708-263-0449; www.theopenbottle.com
June 11 and 12 — Pilsen Food Truck Social, second annual event with more than 25 food trucks, 18th Street at Allport in Chicago’s Pilsen community; www.pilsenfoodtrucksocial.com
July 9 — Fetching Market, food trucks, music, beer and wine garden and flea market, Centennial Park, 900 N. Centennial Drive, Munster, Ind.; 708-895-9465; www.fetchingmarket.com
Vickie Jurkowski is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
