Cleveland's First C-Town Chow Down

It can be argued who started the food truck craze in Cleveland. Of course, the Seti's Polish Boys truck has graced the exterior of Dean Supply on East 30th Street for quite some time. But it wasn't until about a year ago when then co-owners, Chris Hodgson and Jeremy Esterly, started the buzz and eventually opened the very popular Dim and Den Sum that the food truck craze officially became "on." A lot has happened in a year's time.

Today's gathering of food trucks on Lincoln Park in Tremont represented the first time that so many different styles of food had converged at a single location. The good folks from the Jibaro World Food truck suggested the gathering and fortunately, this event appears like it will be monthly, especially given how popular the food truck idea has become. Starting at 11:00 am on Sunday, March 27th, eight of the area's prominent trucks lined West 11th Street and began serving up food to the crowd. By the time I got there, around 12:30 pm, what I encountered truly qualified as masses of people. Even with the temperature hovering around 32 degrees Fahrenheit, it didn't stop at least a thousand cold and hungry people from showing up.

Here was a shot of the crowd from the northern end of the park:


And here was a shot from the southern end:


Before getting in any one particular line (because trust me, with the crowds today, you had to pick just one), I decided to walk down the line and take a picture of each truck participating in the first C-Town Chow Down:

Seti's Polish Boys

Fahrenheit

Dim and Den Sum

Traveling Treats from Cakes Plus

StrEat Mobile Bistro

Jibaro World Eats

Umami Moto

Babycakes

After walking the gauntlet, I decided on trying out StrEat Mobile Bistro, in part because good friend and former owner of Market Gourmet @ Montrose Jeff Winer was now on board, and partly because fellow foodie Stuart Spivack was waiting in line and had texted me to get my attention. Between the time I joined him in line and the time we made it to the front was probably a good thirty to forty minutes. I was concerned as we approached today's menu that we would get to the front and find that they were all out of food.

Fortunately, they still had some items left:


After placing and paying for our orders, we simply had to wait just a few minutes before we could finally collect our food. Miraculously, we found a small table in the park where we could sit for a few minutes and eat.

Here was a shot of Stuart's Asian Ginger Turkey Sandwich:


And we each ordered some of the waffle fries:


While these pretty much felt like a fried-from-frozen product, the fry job on them was actually pretty good. Since StrEat had been moving through so much product, pretty much anything out of the fryer was hot and fresh. These particular waffle fries had a bit of a spicy kick to them, probably from a bit of cayenne in their seasoning. On a frigid day, these were a nice way to warm up inside.

While Stuart went for the sandwich, I went for the Buffalo Macaroni and Cheese:


Studded with tender white meat chicken, buffalo sauce, and various vegetables, the macaroni and cheese was a modest success. The flavor was good, but as one could imaging, holding cooked pasta for a long time before serving it led to it being slightly mushy. Nothing terrible, mind you, and given the number of people each of these food trucks fed today, actually quite remarkable. That being said, were I served this at a "normal" food truck visit (where there weren't 990 other people competing to be served), I might have been a bit less forgiving.

Our main meal now finished, Stuart and I thought about packing it in, but decided to give the Traveling Treats by Cakes Plus food truck a try in order to finish our meal with something a little sweet. Stuart decided on a simple brownie pop (if I remember correctly), but I decided to get two of their brownies to go for later-in-the-day consumption.

First up was the Raspberry Chambord Brownie:


And second was the Triple Chocolate Brownie:


Both were immensely dense and almost fudge-like. Both had great flavor. However, both were a bit too sweet and the texture had an almost crystallized sugar-like grain to them. I liked that they contained chocolate chips, as this contrasted nicely with the smoothness of the brownie batter. On the whole these were okay, but I didn't find myself clamoring for more.

All in all, a very successful trip up to Cleveland to experience some of the latest food truck offerings. While the event officially ended at 3:00 PM, by the time Stuart and I were standing in line waiting for our dessert, most of the trucks had already run out of food. The second C-Town Chow Down is this coming Sunday, April 17th in Lincoln Park from 11 am until 3 pm. Since the weather is supposedly going to be much nicer this time around, I am expecting that the number of people could easily double from last time. My advice to you, gentle reader, is to get there early, early, EARLY! Better yet, go with friends, and then you can each stand in a different line so that you can experience a variety of foods.

I have to admit that I find the allure of the food trucks to be compelling and they definitely add a coolness to Cleveland's already cool dining scene. I encourage you to head out to Lincoln Park on Sunday and discover a bit of this cool all on your own. Perhaps I'll even see you there.

This Just In ... News You Can Use

I don't often put up posts talking about current events or linking to other items I find on the web. However, today I have some happy and some very sad news. Let's start with the sad news first.

I learned just yesterday that a favorite local gourmet market and sandwich shop, Market Gourmet @ Montrose, will be shuttering its doors for the last time today at 3:00 PM. I received a message from Jeff Winer, owner and chef, stating that while he made a valiant effort to stay profitable over the last ten months of existence, with the lack of customers and the skyrocketing food costs, it just didn't make sense to continue losing money. While I have no financial stake in Market Gourmet, this has been my go-to lunch spot for the last six months at least twice a week. I personally will miss his sandwiches, especially the homemade roast beef and the roast turkey.

Roast Turkey Sandwich on Pretzel Bun

Homemade Chicken Enchilada Soup

Because he needs to get rid of as much inventory as he can, all wine has been marked down by 15% and the other gourmet items have been marked down a WHOPPING 50%! Market Gourmet carried high-end chocolates, oils, vinegars, spices, cheeses, charcuterie, and many middle eastern items. While I am sad to see Jeff's hard work end this way, it just goes to remind me that making it in the food service industry is incredibly difficult. Jeff had great products, but many times, having a great product just isn't enough to succeed.

Jeff's next move will be to join the crew of the StrEat Mobile Bistro food truck in Cleveland. Which serves as a very convenient segue to my next, happier topic for this morning.

This coming Sunday, March 27th from 11 AM until 3 PM, there will be a conflagration of food trucks happening at Lincoln Park in Tremont, Ohio. While Dim and Den Sum sort of started the mobile food truck craze in Cleveland, there has been an explosion in available options for diners willing to track these trucks down. Represented on Sunday will be:

- Seti's Polish Boys
- Dim & Den Sum
- Cakes Plus
- Traveling Treats
- Umami Moto
- StrEat Mobile Bistro
- Jibaro
- Pranzo Forno Wood Fired Pizza
- Oh! Babycakes

From what I've been told, there will also be live entertainment, although exactly what, I'm not entirely sure. The weather forecast this morning indicated dry, cold weather for Sunday, but hopefully a nice warm front will move in and make this a sunny and warm outing for lots of hungry customers. It appears that this may be a fairly regular gathering if enough interest is generated, so I plan to be there to grab some snapshots, lots of food, and will write it up on the blog for all of you to see for yourself.

And, finally, my happy news.

When I did the inaugural Lenten Project last year, honestly, it was a time in my life when I had a lot of time on my hands and was looking for something exciting to do on a Friday night. At the time, I don't know that my blog was popular enough for me to get more than a smattering of interest from curious readers. When I contacted Lisa Abraham at the Beacon Journal and told her of my plans, I'm sure her first thought was probably, "Whatever, crazy person!"

But, by mid-summer, I noticed that quite a few people had read part or all of the original Lenten Project series, and by the time I was contacted by Lisa to do an actual newspaper article on local food bloggers (Mike Vrobel, author of the fantastic blog DadCooksDinner being the other blogger she interviewed), she made a point of mentioning the fact in her article about my Herculean fried fish and pierogi journey.

After announcing the schedule for this year's Lenten Project, I was surprised to see many more people engaging me through email, Facebook and Twitter making suggestions, asking questions, and generally being interested. While the list of churches, clubs, and organizations from which I drew was the one published in the Akron Beacon Journal, fellow food blogger Alicia and her husband Hans from Poise in Parma have embarked on their own version of the Lenten Project, looking for good fish fries in their neck of the woods. In fact, as an extra treat next Friday, April 1st, we will (hopefully) be teaming up forces to review a fish fry somewhere between Akron and Parma.

Not to be left behind, Lisa Abraham ran a piece in the food section of the Akron Beacon this week doing her part to contribute to the fish fry love that is happening during Lent. Instead of evaluating church fish fries, she went out to the local fast food restaurants (which included Swenson's, too) to see who had the best fish sandwich. While I don't know that I'd want to eat five fish sandwiches in a day (much less a single sitting), I admire her willingness to go that extra mile for her readers.

Well, that's it for now, folks. I'll be having my final sandwich, the roast beef on pretzel bun at Market Gourmet for lunch today, and then it's off for two fish fries for dinner. Feel free to join me at either dinner if you'd like, I'm always up for some company. In case you are curious, my fish fry schedule is on the Community Calendar on the right hand side of the blog.