Tortillaville
347 Warren Street
(next to Dogs of Hudson)
Hudson, NY 12534

Like most folks aware of current food trends, I am a bit obsessed by the food truck. I honestly believe they will be the dominant food trend for the next decade if not longer. Cheap to start – low over head – & laser focused in menu. If done right, it’s the perfect dining experience. Even though the Hut has a fixed physical “restaurant” location, I’ve spent a great deal of effort to design it as basically a food truck with a dining room.

On a recent trip to Hudson NY to visit American Glory BBQ, we stumbled upon the Tortillaville Truck while wandering down Warren Street. What was most interesting was their set up – like an outdoor cafe with a food truck kitchen. Even more interesting was the empty garage next to their location. Rather than attempt to open a traditional restaurant in the garage space, the Tortillaville folks choose to keep it simple.

Out of the tiny vending truck kitchen, the two owners crank out a variety of tacos, burritos & platas made fresh daily. All the standard meats – pork, beef, steak, chicken, fish & shrimp – plus tofu & beans for the veggie crowd.

As we were on our way to American Glory, I decided to go with a couple of tacos as a pre-Q appetizer.

I went with one pork & one beef. They are served trad style with two thin grilled corn tortillas as a base. The pork had a nice texture but could use a bit more punch. The addition of some hot sauce kicked it up a bit. (To be fair, I tend to like things a bit on the spicy side.) The beef was juicy & had a nice spicy bite. Both come topped with salsa fresca, guacamole, and queso fresco. At $2.50 a piece, they really are a perfect deal. Cherie & I shared them making it just enough for a quick snack. Definitely worth repeating again in the future.

Given the fact Tortillaville is run out of a truck & Hudson NY tends to get quite a bit of snow, it should come of no major surprise they are seasonal. The Hudson location operates from May to October then the operation moves south to the Florida Keys for December to March.

I heart ice cream. Good, thick, heart stopping ice cream. And if you toss in some interesting flavors and organic ingredients you get extra points and a revisit. It is the goal with the ice cream I make and should be the end result of anyone that makes ice cream (at least in my overly opinionated opinion).

When we were in NYC in May we came across the Van Leeuwen ice cream truck in Soho. Unfortunately, he was done serving and moving to another location, but informed us there was another truck over near the Soho Apple Store. And off we ran.

We had a scoop of ginger and a scoop of a special vanilla they were running. Both were amazing. Creamy, amazing flavor, felt great in your mouth.

So when we went back for our NYC food tour (aka Meat Coma 2010), we made a point to get back to the truck. This time we had Cinnamon and Strawberry.

The cinnamon was much more floral than the cinnamon ice cream I make. I like my cinnamon ice cream spicy. Mind you the ice cream was great, I just wanted a bit of bite.

The strawberry ice cream was like eating a creamy strawberry right off the vine. Great, super, wonderful, and any other word like that. This was by far, the best strawberry ice cream I had ever tasted.

So find that truck. The locations for the store (in Greenpoint, Brooklyn) and all of their trucks are listed on their completely mobile hostile website. A treat you must have.