Category Archives: Food trucks

Yet another food truck — this one with ‘cue

May 17, 20134:14 p.m.

The food truck news. It never stops.

Now there’s news of a new barbecue food truck — Big Daddy’s Smoked Shack, owned by barbecue expert John Nielsen.

Back in 2009, Nielsen had a restaurant called  Big Daddy and Lil’ Mama’s Smoke Shack, which operated at 828 W. 11th in Riverside, the spot that now houses Squeezer’s Palace. That restaurant closed, but Nielsen has been dreaming about the food truck ever since.

Get your curly pig tail end over there.

Nielsen has converted a 24-foot RV into a mobile food truck, and he sets up from 4 to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at a spot at 4800 W. Central. Soon, he’ll expand his Saturday hours to 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Next Friday, May 24, he’ll also be open for lunch from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 1947 Founder’s Circle, near Via Christi on 21st Street just off K-96. He hopes to add more truck time as the business grows, and he’ll be updating followers as to his whereabouts on his Facebook page.

Big Daddy’s, which also caters, serves brisket, ribs, pulled pork, chicken, turkey and things such as smoked stuffed jalapenos and smoked mushrooms.

For more informaion, call 316-871-1438.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , Filed under Barbecue, Food trucks, Just opened | Comments

Hopperoni Express has hit the road

May 17, 201310:15 a.m.

The new Hopperoni Express food trailer has a wood-fired oven inside to bake pizzas on the spot.

Wichita Brewing Company & Pizzeria’s food trailer – the Hopperoni Express — went out for some test runs earlier this week and will return to the streets on Saturday.

The trailer is fitted with a full-sized wood-fired pizza oven and will park at various places, seven days a week, serving 1o-inch pizzas.  For the first few weeks, the truck’s manager — former kitchen manager Stephen Zinda — plans to take the trailer out once a day, either at lunch or dinner time. The location will be posted on the Hopperoni Express Facebook page. Eventually, he plans to have it out for both lunch and dinner daily.

For now, the trailer is offering two of Wichita Brewing Co. & Pizzeria’s best-known speciality pizzas: the Around the Horn, which is a supreme pizza, and the Gregorian Feast, topped with Italian sausage, roasted garlic, mushrooms, caramelized onions, mozzarella and red sauce. Patrons also can order single topping pizzas with items such as sausage, cheese, pepperoni or the restaurant’s signature hopperoni : pepeproni infused with hops.

The pizzas are $6 for a single topping or $8 for a specialty.

On Monday, the truck will be parked from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot of Brittany Center at 21st and Woodlawn. The following days’ schedules will be on the Facebook page soon.

Wichita Brewing Co. & Pizzeria is at 8815 W 13th St. For more information about both businesses, call 316-440-2885.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , Filed under Food trucks, Just opened, Pizza | Comments

Food truckers rallying again on Sunday

May 16, 201310:14 a.m.

The Flying Stove food truck

Wichita’s food truckers, headed up by the guys at the Flying Stove, have decided to start putting on monthly food truck rallies, usually on the last Sunday of the month.

This month, to avoid Memorial Day weekend, the truckers are gathering a Sunday early. The usual suspects, including the Flying Stove plus B.S. Sandwich Press, .SCakeface, Espresso To Go Go, and R&J Concessions will gather from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday at WaterWalk Pavilion. The rally is starting to attract festival-type concessionaires, too. This month, Bakerman Concessions, which specializes in cinnamon rolls, will join the crowd.

The gathering will also have live music, and representatives from the Kansas Humane Society will be there ready to perform on-site adoptions.

Expect the rally to grow in June. Two new trucks, The Hopping Pita and Let’m Eat Brats, have said they’d like to join in, too.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , , , , , , , Filed under Food trucks, Uncategorized | Comments

Food truck of the week: BJ’s Smokeshack

May 7, 20134:04 p.m.

A look at some of BJ’s sizzling, smoky goodness

It’s raining food trucks.

Today, I heard from another set of truckers preparing to hit the road. Jennifer and Brad Vieux hope to get their BJ’s Smokeshack on the streets by the end of the year. (They already have a Facebook pageup and running.)

Brad is a longtime barbecue hobbyist whose meats are so good, he often sells them to friends and acquaintances. He’s employed as a business development director for a local aviation company and will keep his job. Jennifer will staff the truck with help from her 15-year-old daughter and mother-in-law, who’s about to retire.

The truck will serve items such as pulled pork, brisket, ham, ribs, chicken, and specialty sandwiches plus homemade sides. They’re currently searching for the perfect truck and plan to park it at various places around town. They’ll also set up at area festivals.

The couple recently attended a meeting of the local food truck community, where they were welcomed and encouraged by the owners of The Flying Stove, Cake Face and others, Jennifer said.

“We’ve talked about this forever,” Jennifer said. “And we thought, ‘You know what? This is a perfect time because food trucks are getting so popular.”

I’ll let you know when BJ’s Smokeshack is ready to roll.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , , Filed under Barbecue, Food trucks | Comments

The Hopping Pita rolls out on Wednesday

April 29, 201310:28 a.m.

The Hopping Pita, Melad Stephen’s new food truck that will be led by well-known local chef Roni Attari, will officially open on Wednesday.

Attari said he will park the truck near the corner of First and Mosley in Old Town and will open from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The menu, which is peruse-able on the Hopping Pita Facebook page, offers items such as beef and chicken schwarma in pita as well as pitas filled with fish and falafel. There’s also hummus, tabouli, baba ghanoush, baklava and fresh brewed mint tea.

The Hopping Pita owners had hoped to have the truck out much earlier than now but were plagued by several problems, including a broken generator. Attari is still deciding where he’ll park and serve each day, but customers can find the truck via the Facebook page.

As summer approaches, it’s suddenly raining food trucks. Just in the past few weeks, Wichita Brewing Co. & Pizzeria said it would open a food truck called Hopperoni Express within a month. A local German cook said she’ll open Let’em Eat Brats sometime in May. And another pizza food truck, The Rolling Dough, is planned for later this year.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , , , , , , Filed under About-to-open, Food trucks | Comments

German food truck about to hit the streets

April 22, 20132:50 p.m.

The food trucks just keep rolling and rolling and rolling out. The latest one is German.

Manuela English plans to open Let’m Eat Brats, a German-themed food truck, sometime in May. It’ll serve German brats on crusty bread, warm potato salad, German cabbage, bierocks and strudel, among other items.

English, who is of German decent, has been working as a baker at Green Acres for the past eight years. She’s lived in the United States for 20.

Her children are grown and gone, and she’s decided to give the food truck biz a try. “I figured I’d jump on the wagon, so to speak,” she said.

Let'm eat these

Let’m eat these

The truck will park at various spots around town, although English is not sure exactly where just yet. She’s been getting tips from the owners of Espresso to Go Go and The Flying Stove. 

She’ll start with lunch only but may move into dinner, depending on how it goes.

I’ll let you know when the truck hits the streets.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under About-to-open, Food trucks, German food | Comments

Pizza food truck will join the Wichita fleet

April 11, 201312:26 p.m.

The Nestleroads: Dough rollers.

Another food truck will hit the Wichita streets — this one serving wood-fired pizzas.

Joseph and Cherre Nestelroad plan to open The Rolling Dough within the next six to 12 months, Joseph said.

He’ll be the dough maker, she’ll be the cook, and they’re now searching for a truck that will accommodate a wood-fired oven.

“I just felt like we needed more variety in the food truck scene,” Nestelroad said.

The Nestelroads specialize in “fusion” style pizza, he said, and they like to play around with recipes that mix pizza and comfort food. A recipe for chicken enchilada pizza is among those they’re most excited about.

The pair have held a vareity of jobs of the years. At the moment, Joseph works for an engineering firm — until the truck gets rolling.

Watch this blog for updates.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under About-to-open, Food trucks, Pizza | Comments

Espresso To Go Go will stay put put

April 9, 20134:56 p.m.

Espresso To Go Go’s future home

One of the many things that happened while I was gone with the Shockers: Another popular food truck decided to go stationary.

Espresso To Go Go, the mobile coffee shop that  Warren and Ann Tandoc opened last August, will move into a permanent location starting in May. It’ll be in a tiny, 650 square-foot space in the corner of the Zelman building at Douglas and St. Francis, so it’s not really designed for lingering. The couple plan to keep the name Espresso To Go Go because they’ll still specialize in coffee to go, though there will be about 10 bar stools for those who want to sip-in.

The menu will offer the same gourmet coffee drinks that the truck serves, from lattes to espressos. They’ll also have a limited number of food items from their friends at Cake Face, another food truck that’s planning to park.

Warren and Ann Tandoc

As for the trailer, a 1973 Airstream Land Yacht: It’s a little too large and gas hungry for the Tandocs, it turns out. They’re looking for a place to park it so that it could serve as a second, drive-through location. But nothing’s turning up, so if they don’t find a space soon, they’ll try to sell it.

Coffee fans can follow the progress of the new shop on the Espresso To Go Go Facebook page — or right here on this blog.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , Filed under About-to-open, Coffee, Food trucks, Uncategorized | Comments

MMM Sandwiches has its own spot

March 19, 201311:01 a.m.

Michael Awesome-Noyes

When a food truck grows up, it parks. Apparently.

Earlier this week, MMM Sandwiches owner Michael Awesome-Noyes opened a stationary cafe in the Thorn Building at 8300 Thorn Drive, near 37th and Rock. It’s called MMM Sandwiches Hole in the Wall Cafe, and the menu features a long list of sandwiches plus salads and some breakfast items. Recently, the Cake Face food truck owners announced that they’re also planning a stationary spot, and another local truck has hinted to me that it’s looking for a spot, too.

Awesome-Noyes, who no longer is a one-man act now that he’s brought on employee Dustin Cenneno, says he’s not planning to give up the truck entirely. He’ll likely hit the road more often for special events rather than just for weekday food service, he said. He’ll take the truck to the 1/2 Grass Festival at the Shamrock next weekend and also is in talks to partner with a downtown bar, where he’d park on Fridays.

The hours for the tiny new cafe, which is open to the public, are 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For more information, call 316-806-4301.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , , Filed under Food trucks, Just opened | Comments

Schwarma truck to be called The Hopping Pita

Feb. 22, 20134:12 p.m.

Initially, they were going to call it Pita Hut.

Then, Melad Stephan, his son, Jordan, and chef Roni Attari thought better of it.

They’ve decided to call their Lebanese food truck, which should take to the streets soon, The Hopping Pita. 

That name beat out several other clever runners up, including my personal favorite — Eat a Pita.

The Hopping Pita’s launch has been slightly delayed by recent weather developments, but it’s close, Stephan said. He shared this photo of the finished, green product.

I’ll let you know when it’s ready to go.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under About-to-open, Food trucks | Comments