One of the best things about working in an office in downtown Salt Lake is that recently the downtown area has gone through a bit of a renaissance and there are so many cool and fun things to do. Events include a free lunch time concert series at the Gallivan center, the Tuesday evening summer farmers market in pioneer park, gallery stroll—a monthly art gallery open house event, many new restaurants opening seemingly every week and even an amazing science museum with alternating content displays (right up our alley). Probably the favorite new event that has come together over the last few years downtown for this crew of misfits—and one that give us the opportunity to hob nob with all the Chase Bank Building and Wells Fargo Tower apparatchiks (soulless corporate peons that they are) is the awesomely conceived and haphazardly executed Salt Lake food truck Thursday smorgasbord!
The Food Truck festival is every Thursday at 11:00 AM and is located in the alley directly behind the Gallivan Center stage in the shadow of the Wells Fargo tower. Every Thursday between 6 to 10 different food trucks park in the alley, fire up the fryers and grills and open up for business. Wandering from truck to truck one can find a plethora of different options, Sushi (yes-sushi form a truck!), wood fired pizza, Peruvian delicacies, Japanese bento boxes, Pakistani food from Waki Paki, Italian submarine sandwiches from SubMarino’s; heck, the better burger truck even servers a great burger and fries and the venerable chow truck is always serving up different Asian haute cuisine. This is a great addition to the Salt Lake food landscape—affordable homemade hot ethnic foods all available within 100 feet or so for lunch! Salt lake is finally growing up (a bit) and the best part is that the alley where all this happens every Thursday is a mere half block from the ThoughtLab mothership at 56 Broadway!
We seriously implore you all to come check it out this week and join us every Thursday, and since we usually do give actual food reviews in this section of the blog we have a couple of Food Truck recommendations for you! Firstly, you should definitely try Susanne Chow’s food truck, The Chow Truck, it is the OG of the block here at food truck Thursday having been one of if not the first food truck on the streets of Salt Lake. The Chow truck serves, what they term Asian haute cuisines which are basically small plates of different Asian inspired goodies, the menu consists of different Asian tacos, slides and salads served with your choice of protein. The standout for me at the Chow truck is the fried calamari, which is blue corn dusted and served with a spicy Asian mayo sauce—it is crazy to say, but yes the calamari from the truck is awesome.
My favorite truck at the smorgasbord however, is the Lewis Bros truck, run as you might expect by the Lewis brothers Oliver and Charlie. The Lewis brothers grew up in the Bay area, one of the meccas for food truck culture and they were able to bring a wide array of delicious ethnic street foods their chalkboard menu. The Lewis brothers basically have taken all the things that they like to eat and rotate them through their menu. Everything form ban mi Vietnamese sandwiches to falafel pitas are represented and are done well. My absolute favorite here though is the kim-chi hot dog, a regular natural casing crispy griddle seared frank served in a poppy seed roll with spicy pickled Korean cabbage; think of an Asian version of a New York City street dog with kraut and you are on the right track. Served with mustard if you like and oh so delicious-makes you want to go to their FB page, find their location and order 2 immediately—if not sooner!
