Instant Reaction: Drewski's Hot Rod Kitchen
April 26, 2011
On my way home from work last week, I spotted Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen parked in front of the Monte Carlo. Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen is Sacramento’s newest food truck – a grilled-cheese focused gourmet mobile food vendor.
Longtime blog readers know that I have a soft spot for food trucks. The food is cheap and good, the people are entrepreneurs trying to make it a very tough industry in a difficult economy and their food is generally not available at a restaurant in the area.
Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen – like Mini Burger Truck – fits this description exactly. According to the Sac Bee’s early profile of Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen, owner Andrew Blaskovich “has run his own private catering company for the past six years, feeding such clients as Sacramento hard rock stars the Deftones, and events at the Hyatt Regency and Nordstrom. Blaskovich also worked in the kitchen at the Hyatt before starting his own catering company.”
What will receive less love from me are established businesses who use the food truck to expand. I understand that they are just trying to make a buck in this world too, and I respect that, but those more corporate food trucks (I’m looking at you, Jack in the Box) don’t excite me like the local entrepreneurs do.
Back to the review. Ordering only for one, I selected the Tricycle, a grilled cheese sandwich with aged havarti and extra sharp cheddar on sliced French bread ($3); a Korean short rib taco ($2); and was given a half dozen garlic and rosemary tater tots to sample ($3 for a full order).
The tater tots were a revelation. My reference point for tater tots are the crunchy, but bland, tater tots from the school cafeteria. While the Drewski tater tots may have started from the same mass-produced form, the garlic and rosemary seasoning were simply amazing. Combined with the crunch, I could have eaten only the tater tots for dinner and be totally happy.
I also loved the grilled cheese. This wasn’t the grilled cheese of your childhood. There was no sliced white bread with American cheese. It was a fresh French bread – sliced – with aged havarti and sharp cheddar. The sandwich was grilled to perfection and the cheese was nicely melted. I appreciate that they didn’t try to overload this sandwich with too many ingredients. It really only needs a couple – bread, cheese and butter. Drewski did them to perfection.
The Korean short rib tacos were also a hit. The only suggestion I’d make is that he gave me too much meat. (When’s the last time you heard somebody complain about getting too much meat?) The ginormous pile of meat threw off the balance of the pickled vegetables that went with the taco. I liked these tacos better than those found at Gogi Korean BBQ.
In short, I loved Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen. It has all the elements needed to be a successful food truck, namely good food and affordable prices. I hope to be lucky enough to catch it soon so I can try some of Drewski’s other culinary creations.
If you’re looking to sample the best of Sacramento’s mobile food scene, look no further than the Sacramento Mobile Food Festival (or SactoMoFo) at Fremont Park on Saturday, April 30. Sacramento’s Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen and Mini Burger Truck will be there along with many other local and Bay Area food trucks. For more information, visit SactoMoFo.com.
If you won't be able to make it, track Mini Burger Truck (Facebook | Twitter) and Drewski's Hot Rod Kitchen (Facebook | Twitter) via social networks to find out where they'll be.
Yum, I wish they would make over to our neighborhood.
Posted by: Kristi | April 26, 2011 at 10:03 AM