By Diana Greenhut | Anchorage Press
WHEEL GOOD FOOD
Street food is an integral part of city culture. Food trucks, or “mobile kitchens,” are becoming increasingly trendy throughout the country and allow for creative culinary minds to bring quick, often unconventional, food to those who wander city streets.
Anchorage is no exception to the craze, but as of now food trucks in Anchorage seem more like a sweet memory of warmer weather. Remember the Spenard Food Truck Carnival that opened in April 2013 and gathered every Thursday until September, enticing crowds with local musicians, performers, and imaginative mobile kitchens? In many cities throughout the world, food trucks sprinkle the streets all year round and are a dining lifestyle to many city-dwellers, downtown business workers, and tourists. But what happens when you live in a city that is frozen for half of the year?
While there aren’t a lot of smiling faces wandering the sidewalks of Anchorage looking for a bite to eat this time of year, one mobile kitchen, Wheel Good Food, manages to stay out of hibernation and wheel its culinary innovations through the streets every month of the year.
When I track down Wheel Good Food, it’s at Town Square Park for the Crystal Gallery of Ice event. Ice carving artists are transforming huge slabs of ice into magnificent sculptures while my companion and I stand shivering in front of the big yellow truck.
Kathy Robinson, a homegrown Anchorage girl, UAA Culinary Arts grad, and co-owner of Wheel Good Food, is down-to-earth and very passionate about her business. She steps down from her mobile food kingdom to chat with me. Robinson and her husband, co-owner Richard Geiger, set off on their mobile food endeavor in 2012 with their original truck, Bombolina. Since then, they’ve had such success that they added a second truck, Sonho.
Robinson and I muse about how it seems nearly impossible to find other food trucks in Anchorage this time of year, and I ask her how she and her team are able to keep their business running every winter.
“The desire,” Robinson says. “The desire is about the only reason we’re able to do it.”
Desire is undoubtedly what you need to maintain a thriving food truck when it’s well below freezing and sidewalks are empty of all but slush and ice. Robinson affirms that they do have fewer customers in winter, but their loyal patrons still brave the harsh weather and push through the muck to get to Wheel Good’s food.
“We’re able to work a full day at minus-15 degrees. It’s unpleasant, but we can do it!” she says with a chuckle.
The two trucks have different menus, but both offer unique takes on American lunch classics. They’ve got sandwiches, soup, fries and even doughnuts, but all with a twist and all for under $10.
At Sonho, I order the beet sandwich ($7.50) and am charmed when I see the fuchsia color of it. The ciabatta bread manages to stay crisp and doesn’t get too soggy despite the juicy beets and the delicious sweet and tangy signature dressing. Also on the sandwich are pickled red onions and Alaskan sprouts. It’s a vegetarian’s dream.
More menu items include the caribou sandwich, BLT wrap, polenta fries, and sweet potato tots. My companion orders a beef brisket sandwich, and I ask Robinson what her signature dish is.
“What do your loyal customers always come back for?” Without skipping a beat, she hands me a to-go box and says “These. The bombolinas!” My jaw drops when she explains what exactly her bombolinas are: Nutella (chocolate hazelnut), ricotta doughnut holes covered in a thick layer of sugar. Heaven.
At this point, we’ve successfully purchased our sought-after food and feel satisfied with our food truck experience, but we’ve seen firsthand why they aren’t popular in the Anchorage winters. An Anchorage food truck in January is a mobile “frozen novelty,” only I don’t mean an ice cream cart. Trembling from the cold and looking for a warm and dry place to eat, we decide with an awkward laugh to go back to the car.
Cheers to Wheel Good Food for admirably braving its way through fierce winters with its spectacular food, thus allowing Anchorage to keep up with the food truck trend that has hit the nation. And cheers to warmer weather — may it come soon and bring on the competition, because the food truck experience is innately fun, but more so when the weather is sweet!
