LOCAL Houston | The City Guide August 2016 | Page 14

FOOD

FOOD TRUCKS
DESPITE THE EXCEPTIONAL CHALLENGES PRESENTED BY CITY BUREAUCRACY, THE FOOD TRUCK SCENE IN HOUSTON CONTINUES TO EVOLVE, OFFERING
CHEFS WHO ARE SUPER COMMITTED TO SOURCING HIGH-QUALITY INGREDIENTS THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHOWCASE THOUGHTFUL AND OFTEN SPECTACULAR CUISINE.
THESE ARE SOME OF THE MOST EXCITING TRUCKS ON THE SCENE. KEEP THESE FOLKS IN MIND FOR CLEVER AND UTTERLY DELICIOUS CATERING OPTIONS, TOO.
TOPOTRUCK | www.TopoTruck.com | @topotruck
Chefs Tony Luhrman and Mike Serva create their “post-modern
Mexican” cuisine borrowing from old, rustic cooking techniques that
they modify organically. “The ingredients are a huge part of that modification,” says Luhrman. They work with numerous local sources
,including Harrison Farms for pastured pork, produce from Atkinson
and Gundermann farms, and special ingredients like Pasilla chiles,
mamey fruit, Yerba Santa, epazote and flowering cilantro from
Canino’s and local honey from Reed Honey Co.
LUCKY FIG | www.theluckyfig.com | @theluckyfig
“I wouldn’t serve anything that I myself wasn’t comfortable eating,”
says Chef Luca Manfe. His farm-fresh, Italian-inspired cuisine begins
with locally sourcing whenever possible (otherwise organic) for produce, along with beef from 44 Farms, pastured pork from
Chappapeela farms, hormone/antibiotic-free/cage-free and naturally
fed chicken, organic eggs, local grass-fed milk and cream, along with
local and wild-caught seafood for his constantly changing/seasonal
menu.
RIPE CUISINE | www.ripe-cuisine.com | @ripecuisine
Natural Foods Chef and Registered/Licensed Dietician Stephanie
Hoban’s cuisine is rooted in made-from-scratch, organic whole, plantbased foods with innovative twists on traditional vegetarian classics to

shift people’s perspective about healthy food and meatless meals. As
Houston’s only all-vegan food truck, Hoban supports many local farmers with her seasonally inspired cuisine, including Gundermann Acres,
Plant It Forward and Animal Farm, among others. “We believe choosing organic is important as it’s lessening exposure to toxic chemicals
and ‘voting with your dollar’ to support practices that are good for the
planet.”
CRAFT BURGER | www.craftburgerfoodtruck.com | @craftburgerft
Ingredient-obsessed Chef Shannen Tune gets his all-natural beef from
Ruffino Meats in Bryan, TX. (Never, ever antibiotics or hormones,
100% vegetarian, non-GMO diet and minimally processed.) “It’s
scary how hard it was to find a product like this,” says Tune. Served
on custom Slow Dough buns, everything else is made from scratch.
He also sources from Houston Dairymaids.
FOOD MUSIC LIFE | www.foodmusiclife.org | @foodmusiclife
The huge mural on Chef Casey Guhl’s truck highlights the symbiotic
relationship between nature and man and his passion for sourcing
locally. Harrison Hog Farms, Dos Brisas farm, Plant It Forward and
Texas Kobe Beef (among others) allow him to execute his ever-changing, super-creative, minimalist, Italian-inspired cuisine. “Local food is a
story of the people … I just want to remind them what is around them,”
says Guhl.

By Jodie Eisenhardt
Photography by Collin Kelly

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L O C A L

| august 16