Keep On Truckin’ is BDCwire’s epicurean summer food truck column. Every Tuesday, we showcase the best four-wheel fares roaming the streets and attracting lines of cultish foodies.
It’s hard to argue that the bacon trend is going out of style when the average American consumes about 18 pounds of bacon per year. And as a bacon lover myself, I must assert that bacon is in fact a true gastronomic star when properly prepared (must be crispy!) and used to elevate instead of dominate other foods. While more than half of all U.S. homes keep bacon in their fridge at all times, no longer are the sizzling strips being relegated to the sidelines as a simple breakfast side dish.
Enter The Bacon Truck. Two bacon-loving friends serving upscale versions of your favorite downhome dishes with recipes that highlight the versatility of bacon and its adaptability to all dishes. Co-owners, Sam Williams and JJ Frosk, spent their fair share of time working the grill and prepping the line on a number of food trucks here in Boston, but have since joined forces to start The Bacon Truck and bring the bacon buffs of the city what they crave, despite the ever-expanding health food craze.
“There are plenty of bacon lovers out there, I mean, we love bacon, but we also thought it would be a great concept to introduce to Boston, since so much of the food truck scene has become inundated with health food,” says Williams. “We thought why not put out a counter measure to that, and thus the Bacon Truck was born.”
Even the truck’s most indulgent menu-item, The Hangover – a monstrous and meaty grilled sandwich, exploding with thick-cut strips, havarti cheese and bacon hash, and topped with a not-too-runny fried egg – will leave you squealing with delight sans any oncoming pangs of heartburn. From the Turkey Club to the B.L.T 2.0 – truck-roasted red peppers, baby spinach, herbed goat cheese, and of course, bacon – Boston’s Bacon Truck uses their locally sourced applewood-smoked slabs judiciously, almost as a seasoning ingredient, establishing a new bar for cooking and using bacon in this way.
“We wanted to come up with a menu that was very bacon-centric, but at the same time had food that you could eat once a week for lunch,” says Williams. “We didn’t want everything to be overly decadent and greasy.”
This mantra is best demonstrated with their infamous Bacon Scallion Hash, an innovative rendition on a classic dish that was not only named one of the top ten bacon dishes in all of Boston by Zagat, but has become a beloved fixture amongst the mouth-watering, stomach-growl-inducing, sensory-overloading bacon creations that the truck has to offer.
“We had been making my grandmother’s potato salad recipe, but it wasn’t really selling that well,” says Williams. “One day I was just messing around on the truck and decided to throw some of the potato salad on the grill, and before we knew it, the potato salad turned hash became one of our top-sellers.”
Their mission is straightforward. Do simple food as good as possible. And that they do. Their namesake is plentiful and available in many delicious ways. Using fresh and locally-sourced ingredients, The Bacon Truck offers a variety of dishes with a special emphasis on adding a new spin to old favorites.
[Photo Credit: Taylor Wojick]
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