Food Trucks play a big part in New York culture, and now they are playing a part of New York EVENT culture. Why not grab the amazing new trucks popping up all over Manhattan, the ones that are are frantically followed by every foodie blog and city magazine, and make them work the night shift?
And they did. And we had, oh, about FOUR on a recent Thursday evening in our Gallery at Skylight West. Now everyone can understand the value of “Drive-In Access!” This was all for our Transperfect Springtime BBQ, where we hosted Pizza Moto, Mexicue, Souvlaki GR and the infamous Van Leeuwan ice cream truck.
Pizza Moto literally stopped at our doorstep on 36th street and set up “shop,” which means a fabulous steel oven on wheels, homemade dough, homemade sauce, sustainable AND creative ingredients. Piping hot pizzas were pulled out every couple of minutes, wrapping our building in mouth watering aromas of freshly baking dough. There was the “Fun Guy”–fungi!– a shitake mushroom and smoked mozzarella pizza, the white pies with fresh ricotta, and their infamous margarita …with pepperoni. Yum!
As he was manning the pies in the oven, Dave, founder of Pizza Moto, told me the story of how they got started. His very close friend requested that he find a way to make her oven-baked pizza at her wedding upstate. Because he couldn’t bake at her chosen wedding location, he simply decided to build an oven from scratch in his backyard, and use a trailer to drive it up for the big day! Now, that’s a good friend and an amazing wedding present. It was such a success, he started doing it for other friends, and one thing led to another. Dave promises us that he will build an oven that can be assembled on our rooftop as soon as we have an event that requests it. Any takers?
Mexicue served their specialty pork tacos with all the garnishes and a tasty hot sauce and Souvlaki GR offered tender spiced skewers of beef, lamb and chicken, souvlaki sandwiches and deliciously seasoned fries! And of course, the famous Van Leeuwan provided the dessert — guests loved the pistachio and peppermint chip ice cream flavors so much that by the time I was able to make a visit to their window, all that was left was chocolate. I was not complaining!
Once the guests had their fill of their pizza,the obviously innovative Pizza Moto switched to dessert, making speciality s’mores, also baked in their oven, late into the night! With servers taking orders and running food from the ground floor gallery to the extension of the party on our rooftop, a successful mini-delivery system allowed the food trucks to reach the guests mingling and lounging under the Manhattan skyline.
All in all, it was a casual, innovative, and delicious evening. And you don’t need an awesome party to sample this stuff. If you want to catch the trucks by day, do a little research, or find them on twitter scavenger hunt style!
