food truck

‘Food Dude’ Brings All Natural Dishes to N. Lynn Street

By ARLnow.com

There’s a (relatively) new food truck in town.

‘Doug the Food Dude‘ has been cruising the streets of Rosslyn since the beginning of the month. The truck serves a varying menu of all-natural (MSG and preservative-free) dishes. Today’s specials included parmesan-crusted salmon, Italian sausage albanese, steak  fajita egg roll and a variety of wraps.

Doug — who’s the one wearing the chef coat and shorts — says his journey to food truck entrepreneur started when his daughter developed food allergies to MSG and preservatives about five years ago. Because those two ingredients are found in so many restaurants and prepared meals, Doug had to harness his own passion for cooking to become an amateur chef, of sorts, for his daughter.

Eventually Doug left the government publishing business and decided to use his all-natural recipes as a basis to launch the truck. He serves breakfast and lunch on N. Lynn Street in Rosslyn on Mondays and Fridays. He travels to Tysons Corner on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Mobile Food Business Ramps Up As the Weather Warms Up

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 2:10 p.m.) Food trucks and carts were out in force around Welburn Square in Ballston today. With temperatures reaching into low 70s, workers flocked to the square for some spring-like outdoor dining.

The proprietors of the BBQ Bandidos truck, who continued serving their signature sandwiches and cemitas through the cold weather months, said business has picked up considerably. Across the street, a long line extended from the bright pink Curbside Cupcake truck.

Meanwhile, the broadcast team behind the Taco Carrito cart said they had just returned from their winter hibernation this week and were pleasantly surprised by demand today. The tiny two-person cart was sold out by 1:30 p.m.

Sauca has successful first week in Rosslyn

By Uriah Kiser

Amy Hornbeck ordered Beef Shawarma for lunch Friday from the Sauca food truck in Rosslyn.

It was one of the few things on the menu with ingredients she recognized, and because it was the first time she’d seen the truck in the neighborhood she wanted to give it a try.

Last week was the first week Sauca had set up shop in Virginia, offering dishes like Mumbai Butter Chicken with garam masala and saffron rice, the Mexicali Fish Taco with mango pico de gallo and hot chili sauce, and the Medi Veggie with hummus, kalamata olives and dill yogurt sauce.

“I came because it looked interesting to me and I wanted to try it, and it’s close to my work,” said the Hornbaker, a consultant.

Before coming to Rosslyn, the Sauca truck spent its days in Washington’s Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods, building buzz and a loyal group of eaters with a taste for international flair. They hope to do the same here. (more…)

‘Spiedie’ Sandwich Draws Crowds

By Uriah Kiser

A food truck with atmosphere and sandwiches with strange names had office workers in Rosslyn lining up Friday to get a taste of the “Bing.”

Bada Bing DC parked near the Rosslyn Metro station, offering their assortment of cheese steaks and Spiedies – cubed meat marinated in herbs and spices, cooked over a flame and then sandwiched with toppings in between a submarine roll.

Mozzarella cheese, tomato, barbecue sauce, and cheddar cheese were just some of the ingredients available for Spiedies.

The sandwiches on his menu all have their own names like The Don Ho, with soy ginger glaze, carrots, green onion and crispy rice noodles.

With its unique menu and being in operation since October by a former New York City chef, the Italian-themed Bada Bing DC is a quick escape from the ordinary. (more…)

Police Inspections of Food Trucks Continue in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

It’s like an initiation rite for new food trucks in Arlington.

For several weeks, the newbies are subjected to a barrage of visits from police officers, who themselves are responding to complaints from local businesses. Most of the complaints are made when the trucks are in Rosslyn or Crystal City. In almost every case, an officer responds, checks the truck’s license and leaves after verifying the truck is licensed and not illegally parked.

We started paying attention to this trend in October, when the BBQ Bandidos truck was the target of police visits (see photo, left). In December, we felt compelled to write about the Bada Bing truck’s travails as it was inspected at least eight times.

Now, the Big Cheese truck is becoming a frequent destination for license-checking officers.

On Friday, while the truck was parked on North Lynn Street in Rosslyn, police were called to check its license.

“Showed him my permit and he was on his way. I love Arlington,” truck owner Patrick Rathbone tweeted at the time. Today, while the truck was serving customers in Crystal City, another call for police.

“The police checked my permits then moved but the yellow jacket [Crystal City Shops] security guys are lurking,” Rathbone wrote.

According to Arlington Police spokeswoman Det. Crystal Nosal, police must respond whenever they receive a complaint.

“Dispatchers are required to send officers out,” Nosal said. “We cannot pick and choose what calls we go to.”

Nosal also noted that the detective in charge of issuing vending licenses will often respond to specific complaints and will make random checks of food trucks he does not recognize.

Big Cheese Truck Makes Crystal City Debut

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 2:40 p.m.) The Big Cheese truck made its first publicly-announced appearance in Arlington today.

Hawking $6.50 gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, the truck parked in Crystal City around noon today and attracted a few dedicated food truck aficionados willing to brave the blustery weather.

“Craft cheese with a ‘C'” is how owner Patrick Rathbone describes the difference between his grilled cheese and the pedestrian grilled cheese your mother used to make. (Sorry, mom.)

Ingredients include artisan Cowgirl Creamery cheeses, caramelized onions, grilled mushrooms and hardy bread. The end result is certainly the fanciest mobile grilled cheese this side of the west coast, where there are at least two other grilled cheese trucks in operation. You’ll want to take the sandwich out of the aluminum wrapping quickly, however, so the bread doesn’t get soggy.

The Big Cheese, operating out of what was once the Rebel Heroes truck, is licensed to operate in the District and apparently attracted a crowd near L’Enfant Plaza earlier this week.

Owner Patrick Rathbone, a Rosslyn resident, said he was undeterred by the comparatively slow business on Crystal Drive and is still planning on splitting his time between the District and various Arlington locations. Also in his plan: serving french toast at the Courthouse farmers market.

Big Cheese will be making its first hire in the next week, which should allow the truck to serve customers more efficiently. (Each made-to-order grilled cheese takes two minutes per side to grill.)

A marathon runner and triathlete, Rathbone says pulling off the launch by himself required physical and mental stamina.

“There are definitely some marathon days,” he said. “I’m doing everything.”

Rathbone says his long-term goal is to open a brick and mortar restaurant, something the owners of the District Taco and Pupatella Pizza carts were successful in doing this year. He says the food truck allowed him to start a business for a tenth of the cost of opening a restaurant.

The truck could return to Arlington as soon as Friday. Follow Big Cheese on Twitter to find out where it’s going to be next.

(more…)

RIP Rebel Heroes, Mazel Tov Big Cheese Truck

By ARLnow.com

The insurrection has been quelled.

Arlington’s Rebel Heroes truck has closed for good, reports Tim Carman.

The banh mi sandwich truck launched to critical acclaim and long lines in April. It apparently did not generate enough business to justify its existence for another year.

Carman, who just defected from Washington City Paper to the Washington Post, says that Rebel Heroes served its last customers on Oct. 8. A month later, the business was closed and the truck was sold, without so much as a tweet announcing the move.

Like Che Guevara, the Rebel Heroes brand will live on in the memory of its followers. The truck itself, however, is soldiering on. It was sold to a local restaurant manager who has converted it into The Big Cheese — a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich truck.

We’ve been following the truck on Twitter as it prepares to launch in Arlington. When it does, be sure to pour out a little of whatever gourmet soda it sells, in memory of our fallen comrade.

Update on 12/9/10 — From the Rebel Heroes Facebook page:

Hi Rebels, As some of you have heard from the media today, we’ve had to take the rebellion back underground. We’re all working on other projects and between everything that’s happening with our own projects (such as graphic design work/ consulting forme and babies arriving in the Spring for some of us–we are a family business after all) and the amount of resources (time being a major one) it requires on many levels, it’s best to go out on top! I can’t express how much I’ll miss seeing all of our regular customers. That’s really what kept me and the frontline team (Liz & Eileen) going all those crazy days on the hot truck. But I don’t want to say there won’t be another revolution! Anything can happen! Thanks so much for your support and patronage. We won’t forget all of you! You all rock! Please feel free to hit me up at [removed] :) — xoxo, TAN

Blind Item: Food Truck Follies

By ARLnow.com

It’s been a while since we did a blind item, but this one was too ridiculous to pass up.

Which Rosslyn and Crystal City businesses have been calling the police on the new Bada Bing sandwich truck? Cops have shown up at the truck at least eight times since it launched just over a month ago, we hear.

Officers show up, dutifully check out the truck’s license and examine whether it’s parked legally, and inevitably leave without finding a violation.

Two businesses in particular have been very proactive about calling the cops when Bada Bing shows up in their neighborhood.

“It happens at those two locations pretty much every time we go there, sometimes multiple times per day,” said Bada Bing owner Nicholas Terzella

New Food Truck Launches In Virginia Square Today

By ARLnow.com

Today is the first day in business for Bada Bing Cheesesteaks and Spiedies, a new Arlington-based food truck.

What is a Spiedie, you ask? It’s an upstate New York delicacy — a sandwich made with marinated meats cooked over an open flame.

While the truck’s name doesn’t exactly convey an aura of culinary sophistication, the man behind Bada Bing is Nicholas Terzella, a trained chef whose resume includes fine dining restaurants in Napa Valley and Palm Beach.

Terzella, who has also worked as a private chef for an actress in Manhattan (he won’t name names), says he will be serving gourmet seasonal side dishes in addition to sandwiches. Needless to say, it’s not often that you hear the words “truffle oil” uttered by a tough-looking guy selling cheesesteaks out of the side of a truck.

Terzella, a Centreville resident, says he’ll be operating the truck as a full-time business in Arlington, though he’s hoping to eventually start selling in the District once the DC government starts issuing vendor licenses again.

Bada Bing will be stationed outside the Virginia Square Metro station tonight and tomorrow. Next week the truck will start on a regular rotation around Ballston, Clarendon, Rosslyn and Crystal City.

More photos after the jump.

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BBQ Bandidos Sling Sammys and Cemitas in Rosslyn

By ARLnow.com

There’s a new mobile food vendor in town, and it’s just one of a host of new mobile lunchtime options that are sprucing up the tired Rosslyn food scene.

BBQ Bandidos served up their first sandwich less than three weeks ago, but already they’re developing a loyal customer base.

“It’s awesome, it’s authentic… you can taste the smokiness of the meat,” said India Hubbard, who along with several co-workers were getting lunch from the truck for the second time. Hubbard said they’ll be back soon to try other items on the menu.

BBQ Banditos serves up American barbeque sandwiches and Mexican cemita sandwiches –all either $6.50 or $7.00 — along with $1 chips and $2 bottled sodas.

Co-owners Shawn Lucas and Nathan Spittal both came from the restaurant industry, where they have a combined 17 years of experience and most recently held the titles of general manager and executive chef.

Lucas said they came up with the idea for the truck just three months ago.

“We were mad that there was no good barbeque in DC,” he said, explaining the idea’s genesis. He noted that the truck licensed only in Arlington — “for now.”

“We really like Arlington, we like Rosslyn,” Lucas said. “The people around here are really friendly… we have regular customers after two weeks, it’s great.”

The truck recently went to the inaugural Curbside Cookoff in DC, and captured third place. Other than that adventure, Lucas says, the truck has not ventured far from its regular lunchtime spot in Rosslyn.

Lucas attributes the truck’s success thus far to the lack of good food choices for local workers.

“I’m not going to say any names, but they’re all on that side of the street,” Lucas said, motioning in the direction of Chop’t, whose manager allegedly threatened to call the police when the truck parked in front of the restaurant recently.

(A police officer checked on the Bandido’s permits just before our interview. It’s unclear if the officer was there after receiving a complaint.)

Rosslyn workers are “kind of tired of the same lemming line that’s impersonal and corporate,” Lucas said of his brick-and-mortar competitors.

He may be on to something. Around lunchtime today, at least four food trucks and carts were parked along Lynn Street, and all had sizable lines. With Rosslyn’s hoped-for restaurant renaissance happening at a snail’s pace, it seems that mobile food vendors are swooping in to provide more selection and sophistication — a quirky, homegrown alternative to the chains.

(more…)

Coming Soon to Arlington: Mobile Pizza

By ARLnow.com

An outfit called Flippin’ Pizza, which just rolled out a pair of mobile pizzerias in Fairfax County, is applying for a mobile food vendor license in Arlington.

Much like the DC Slices truck, which occasionally serves private events in Arlington, the Flippin’ Pizza trucks bake the New York-style pies in the truck and then sell them at various locations around town. Two slices and a drink from the truck will cost you $5. Flippin’ Pizza, of course, announces the location of their trucks via Twitter.

The company says they expect to launch a truck in Arlington later this fall.

For those following at home, the pizza saturation warning level in Arlington has just hit condition red.

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