Freezie Fresh
La Loncherita Salvadoreña
Master Food Truck
If you’re looking for the punctuation mark to your grand food truck escapade—or if you just want a little treat because you work hard, dammit—look no further than Xzavian Cookbey’s Freezie Fresh, a monument to Thai rolled ice cream. Basically, Cookbey takes vanilla custard plus whatever flavors you’d like, and there are many, and then he prepares it all on an ice-cold pan, or what he refers to as the “anti-griddle.” Everything blends in moments and the new concoction, now completely flat, is rolled up into satisfying, well, rolls, and placed in a cup. Take that, scoop and cone of yesteryear! So long, non-flat ice cream! You’ll find Freezie Fresh at Meow Wolf quite often, but elsewhere, too. Cookbey also tells SFR he ramps down slightly in the winter, so depending on when you’re reading this, you should get while the getting’s good.
We have to give it up to Israel Francisco Haros Lopez for this one. The local artist and founder of the Alas de Agua Collective turned us on to La Loncherita Salvadoreña last year, and it fast became one of our favorites. Why, you ask? Simple—pupusas. The Central American dish is kind of like an extra thick corn tortilla in flavor, though its masa structure is puffier and more substantial with the glorious added option of cramming it with delicious filling. Salvadoreña has the choice to try either corn or rice flour masa, and at $2.50 apiece, they are a steal. Go simple standby with the bean and cheese version, get yourself a pupusa with chicharron (we know more than a few folks who’ll be thrilled to hear about that) or try the calabacitas version for that squashy goodness. At last count, 10 were available, but who even knows what the future holds?
All hail the mini food truck park at Paseo de Peralta and Old Santa Fe Trail—host to a gathering of new and familiar trucks that’s practically perfect for people who live or work downtown and want to get out of waiting in long lunchtime lines. Master Food Truck is one such eatery, and its lineup of burgers, tortas, gorditas and sopas (all $9.50) pretty much nails it. Add in a special breakfast that comes in either burrito or sandwich form, and you may have just found a quick to-go option for those mornings you’re running late but your stomach gets to rumbling. Also find other specials in the bright red truck that might actually not even be a truck …
1352 Rufina Circle (in the Meow Wolf parking lot), freeziefresh.com
1741 Llano St., 316-2228
502 Old Santa Fe Trail, 522-9472
It’s Greek to Me!
Santa Fe BBQ
Bruno’s Pizza
Opa, ya buncha nerds—Greek food is here in food truck form, and you should all be psyched. Meet It’s Greek to Me!, a mouth-watering bastion of gyros ($11), keftedes, or Greek style meatballs ($11) and souvlaki ($11). Even better? All the dishes come with a Greek salad and fried potatoes. It’s Greek to Me! has a pretty decent dessert menu as well, from homemade scones ($3) and rugelach ($2) and a Greek/ Americano coffee which, we’ll be honest, we aren’t quite sure what it is, but we’re excited to find out. You’ll find this bad boy in the same Old Santa Fe Trail food truck court we we were just talking about.
Just up the street on Old Santa Fe Trail, you’ll often spot Santa Fe BBQ, a shrine to all things BBQ and the sort of thing that almost (and we mean almost) gives Texas or Kansas City a run for their money. Run by a fellow who goes by Steve “The Meat Man” Schmidt, Santa Fe BBQ is a no-fuss affair, with racks and half racks of beef and baby back pork ribs ($9-$24), sandwiches to make your head spin in pork ($9), brisket ($10) and—gasp!—pork and beef sausage ($7) varieties. Find gargantuan turkey legs ($10) and good old-fashioned corn on the cob with butter ($3), too. Just make sure you save room to try a little bit of everything. Or, y’know, go there a lot. Sorry, vegetarians.
You’d probably think a wood fire pizza oven couldn’t fit into a food truck, and you’d be wrong. DEAD wrong. Meet Bruno’s Pizza, one of the most intense but delightful food truck experiences of all time, and one you’ll often see at the Santa Fe Brewing Co.’s mothership location on the outskirts of town or its downtown Brake Room. The truck that’s operated by siblings Angelo and Angelica Bruno boasts a collection of family recipes from their grandfather as well as his parents—natives of Naples and Tuscany. You know what that means? Bruno’s is Italian AF; thinner and a little crispier than you might be used to. Plus, there’s the whole adjacent-to-beer thing going for it. You’ll also find Bruno’s at various events throughout the city, so make sure you pop by the website (brunos.biz) before you go searching.
502 Old Santa Fe Trail, 699-5651
600 Old Santa Fe Trail, 573-4816
Various locations, 690-0966 S F R 2 0 1 9 - 2 0 2 0 R E S TA U R A N T G U I D E
27