the Zubikhouse

- Location & Hours: 
  Tuesday - Friday: 8 AM - 2PM - 3447 Northland Dr.  
  Saturdays: 9 AM - 1 PM - 4th and Guadalupe @Austin Farmers Market
- Telephone: 512-751-1989
- Facebook: The ZubikHouse
- Cuisine: Texas Czech - kolaches, sandwiches, dessert

Andy Zubik and his brother Jason have been in business with the Zubikhouse in October or 2009.  With over 20 years of experience in the food industry roaming from Austin to Durango, Houston and beyond Andy came up with a mouth watering menu for his Texas Czech cuisine.  So how does he make this seemingly contradictory fusion work? “Kolaches and other traditional items that are a pretty big staple in Czech cuisine have a lot of weight to them. German/Polish/Hungarian winters are so long that they eat a lot of meat potato dishes.  But when you get to Texas and have 7 months of heat, it doesn’t translate as easily.  You have to be more creative with the heat.  For example, we do fried strawberries and chipotle pecan pie ice cream.  At some point the chef goes back to their roots –what they grew up with, what they started cooking.”

Andy is a big advocate for local business and leads by example by buying from local farms such as Full Quiver, Richardson, Fredericksburg beef, Slovacek and Kocurek.  He says, “If you want a good strong economy you have to have a strong local economy – I can do my part with my business by buying local products.  If I have my way, we will get nothing but local products and keep those dollars here and not sending them overseas or far away.”

Coolhaus

- Location: Roving - follow website and twitter to learn location
- Hours: Roaming everyday - hours vary according to location
- Number: 512-743-7601
- Website: www.eatcoolhaus.com /  Facebook: COOLHAUS Ice Cream Sandwiches /Twitter: coolhaus_AUSTIN
- Cuisine: Dessert - ice cream sandwiches!


Christine Aldrich & Nathan Hathaway were friends for many years and partners in life before picking up the torch for Coolhaus, a choose your own ice cream and cookie adventure in the trailer food business in early 2010.   In a merge of food and architecture, Nathan made the 1984 vintage mail truck from Los Angeles what it is today.  With a background in food and a love for baking, Christine manages the flavors that are as non-traditional as they are delicious.

Despite Christine’s claims to be a baker-extraordinaire, since she is producing and selling in such large volume she doesn’t get to make the cookies and creams herself.  With personal favorite items on the menu like mascarpone and balsamic fig on snickerdoodle or coffee toffee on a chocolate cookie, rest assured many hours of quality control have gone into consideration of their super fine menu. 

Perhaps Nathan’s love to scream for ice cream was founded during his first job as a dishwasher at age 15.  He and crew purchased a 5 gallon bucket of mint chocolate chip that they would eat a heaping bowl every day in the pursuit of satiating their appetites.  Christine also has fond ice cream memories including ice cream socials on Sunday afternoons in Michigan, or the ice cream shop that her University ran via their dairy.  Regardless of where they got their sweet tooth, Christine and Nathan can be found roaming the streets and events of Austin with Coolhaus.

Powdered Sugar

- Location: Longhorn Food Court - 1901 Rio Grande St. - @  Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd 
- Hours: Tuesday – Saturday: 12 - 8 PM
- Facebook: Powdered Sugar
- Cuisine: Dessert


Amber Glowski is a social work student at UT.  Although she wasn’t technically in the food industry prior to opening Powdered Sugar in August of 2010, she brings up a good point: “Food has always been a part of me.  I’ve been eating and grocery shopping and cooking most of my life, so food is something everybody’s around no matter what.”  She bought her 1964 Shasta trailer from Kristin Gunn, who formerly operated Sugarstar, her ‘Martha Meets Metallica’ cupcake business out of the same trailer. 

In Amber’s words, “I started this business with an observation.  It’s such a piece of Austin culture – this isn’t a big thing in other big cities in Texas, Austin has it first.  I tried food trailers and I realized no one was doing funnel cake.  To me it seemed obvious: people are used to eating funnel cakes out of a truck.  Plus there is no where to get funnel cake year round – you can’t go to a store and get a funnel cake.”

Amber remembers being about 7 years old and eating her first funnel cake where she grew up at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo but not all of her customers were raised with funnel cake fun.  “It’s fun to find people who’ve never had one in their life that are 45-50 years old.  The funnel cake also spans generations from little children who are so excited or more mature people who have grown up with funnel cake – that grew up with it in the 50s and 60s – it’s fun to see their reaction.”  Amber reports the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo sold some 100,000 funnel cakes earlier in March of 2010. 

The funnel cake was traditionally made in cast iron skillet over a burner.  It is Dutch in origin and outside of the being well known as a ‘fair’ food, it is still very popular in Pennsylvania where large Dutch and Amish communities exist.  With Amber’s vision, Austinite’s can now relive the excitement and wonder of fair time funnel cake by visiting her “Powdered Sugar” trailer year round.

Counter Culture

- Location: UT Campus area -120 E. North Loop- @Avenue F
- Hours: Wednesday - Saturday: 12 - 8 PM
                Sunday: 12 - 6 PM
- Telephone: 512-897-2602
- Website: www.countercultureaustin.com / Facebook: Counter Culture / Twitter: CCVegan
- Cuisine: Vegan & Raw foods


Sue Davis traded one art form for another when she moved from a black and white fine art printer in the photography world to a chef in vegan restaurants.  She has been a vegetarian since the early 90’s and has been eating a vegan diet since 2002.  Originally from Massachusetts, she moved to San Francisco in the late 80s, to Austin in 95, and spent some time in LA before returning to Austin to develop her vegan trailer food business.

Sue opened Counter Culture in July of 2009 with a small basic menu that includes mainly sandwiches, salads, raw food and desserts.  The Philly Seitan is probably her best seller and it’s not hard to see why since she makes the seitan herself without the help of preservatives.  You won’t find any tofu on Sue’s menu, she feels like it’s everywhere and is used as a substitute for meat too often.  Rather, she makes everything from scratch.  Since she doesn’t over advertise about her vegan menu, it’s one of her favorite things to serve an unknowing citizen and have them be pleasantly surprised.

In addition to her background with photography and culinary art, Sue is a vinyl record collector and former DJ.  She has singer/songwriter-style acoustic music at her trailer during Sunday brunches.  Sue rationalizes, “A brunch tab can get pretty high if you order mimosas, but here it’s different.  Every Sunday I do a different themed brunch from Southern home cooking to breakfast burritos, and you can bring whatever you want to drink.”

Osmo's Kitchen

- Location: Southside - 801 Barton Springs Rd
- Hours: Monday – Saturday: 11 AM – 6 PM
- Telephone: 512-514-1727
- Facebook: Osmo's Kitchen / Twitter: OsmosKitchen

- Cuisine: Italian & Cajun fare

Kent & Robin O’Keefe each had over 20 years of combined cooking experience under their belt when they met at the Culinary Institute of America in New York.  Prior to starting their food trailer, they had a catering company in Austin called Two Bodacious Chefs.  They picked Austin because it seemed to be a good spot between his hometown of Houston and her hometown in New York where they both felt at home.  Their Osmo’s Kitchen trailer developed out their love of culinary arts and has a two-boots concept offering a combination of Italian and Cajun cuisine.

When you walk up to the trailer with unique paintings on the side, you’ll hear some Zydeco music coming from the trailer in addition to Stevie Ray Vaughn, Ray Charles, Alman brothers, Led Zeppelin, and ZZ Top.  If you ask Kent, his wife’s Sicilian gravy with meatballs and pasta takes the cake, but their best seller happens to be the Blackened Catfish Poboy with spicy slaw.  He says the best part about the business besides the actual cooking is interacting with the customers and seeing people enjoy what they have prepared.

Hola Aloha!

- Location: Southside - 2113 South Lamar
- Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 12 PM - 4 PM

              Saturday: 12 PM - 5 PM

- Website: www.holaaloha.com / Twitter: holaaloha

- Cuisine: Shaved ice and gourmet waffles made with homemade fruit syrup. 

A former entertainment wardrobe stylist and set designer, it wasn’t Chella’s intention to start a food trailer business.  She was back in town after touring with a ballet company doing wardrobe when a dear friend of hers approached her about a coffee trailer start up.  After some initial research, Chella offered the shaved ice idea.  With her friend’s heritage in Hawaii, and her growing up in West Texas with Raspados (the latin version of shaved ice), the snow cones made more sense to her although she was serious about providing a healthier option for the summer time snack.

Inspired by her Aunt Mary who always made everything from scratch with fresh ingredients, without using recipes, Chella serves only wholesome homemade goodness out of her trailer.  She makes all the syrups with organic juices and flavors, generally fresh fruits and berries.  Depending on the ingredients she will use organic cane sugar or agave nectar for the sweetener.  Her personal favorite is the Lemon Ginger syrup with Coconut ice cream at the bottom and her equally delectable best seller is the Strawberry Basil with a sweet leche dulce cream.

Bananarchy

- Location: Southside - 600 South Lamar Blvd. - @Barton Springs Rd.
- Hours: Monday – Saturday: 12 PM - 9 PM
- Telephone: 214-883-3473
- Website: www.bananarchy.net / Facebook: Bananarchy / Twitter: bananarchy_atx
- Cuisine: Dessert - Frozen Bananas

University of Texas student Anna Notario was watching a marathon of “Arrested Development” episodes when it dawned on her that the family in the show was on to something big with their frozen banana stand.  She shared the idea with her friend Laura Anderson who ended up writing her thesis on the experience of trying to open the stand.  Once that paper was in play, the girls got more serious about the big idea.  The bought an ex-lemonade stand from Fiesta Texas off of craigslist and opened shop in May of 2009.


Laura and Anna, both native Texans met as house mates with a group of almost 30 people.  The house is owned by a college pastor and many of the people who lived their were somehow associated with it.  Both girls are well traveled, Laura having spent some time studying in Mexico and Anna in Thailand on an 11-month mission trip helping with a range of projects including girls in the sex trade industry and countries heavily afflicted with AIDS.

Although her favorite item on the menu changes everyday, Laura really likes the chocolate covered with cinnamon, the Afternoon Delight, or Vanilla with Cinnamon.  Their best selling dipper is chocolate, and their best selling topping tends to be toffee or reeses pieces.  In addition to selling frozen bananas, the bananarchists enjoy having events with bands playing.  At their first Bananarchy Awareness Party they had a band that played video game music in rock form while party-goers held ‘fight the man’ signs and dressed in banana costumes.  This party was their record day for sales, selling 229 bananas.

Hero's Frozen Treats

- Location:  Longhorn Food Court - 1901 Rio Grande. St. - @Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd
- Hours: Tuesday -Saturday: 11:30 AM - 7 PM
- Telephone: 512-961-3372
- Website: www.herosfrozentreats.com / Facebook: Hero's Frozen Treats / Twitter: HerosAustin
- Cuisine: Dessert - Frozen Yogurt
 
Although Dustin McMillian’s “Hero’s” shaved ice trailer is super-hero themed, the business is actually named after his Town Lake Animal Shelter adoptee, Hero.  Half Rottie, half hound, she doesn’t come to work with Dad because of the health food regulations, but Dustin serves free dog treats for his canine visitors.  With a background in online marketing, Dustin’s creativity is evident in multiple aspects of his business.  From the name of the size of the cones (small for a ‘villain’, medium for a ‘hero’, and large for a ‘super-hero’) to the quirky board outside with daily Chuck Norris factoids the Hero stand is ripe with eclectic humor that Austinites of all varieties appreciate.

The frozen zombie is a crowd pleaser with shaved ice as fine as snow on top of a frozen yogurt.  You can select flavors for both.  The best selling shaved ice is the Tiger’s Blood, which is a combination of berries and coconut.  When you walk up to place your order, you can hear a mix of indy rock and Dustin’s current favorites playing off of Pandora: Bowling for Soup, Japan Joy, Against Me, What Made Milwaukee Famous, and of course the Foo Fighters ‘Hero’ is on a constant loop.

Dustin got his start in the trailer food business after being laid off from different websites he was working on, which was common given the current economy.  He was surfing on craigslist when he stumbled across a trailer park that wanted trailers, so he explored the idea.  After becoming excited about trailers in general both as a consumer in Austin and as a business opportunity, he decided to embark on a unique trailer version of frozen yogurt.  Dustin says, “I love being my own boss and having my own trailer.  I really like customer service – I like interacting on a daily basis with customers and representing my brand as I want it to be represented.” 

The Mighty Cone

- Location: SoCo Trailer Eateries - 1603 South Congress Av. - @Monroe
- Hours: Tuesday - Thursday: 11 AM - 9PM 
              Friday & Saturday: 11 AM - 11 PM  
              Sunday: 11 AM - 9 PM
- Telephone: 512-383-9609
- Website: www.mightycone.com / Facebook: The Mighty Cone / Twitter: The Mighty Cone
- Cuisine: Upscale trailer food - sliders and fried (cone-shaped) items

Jeff Blank owned Hudsons on the Bend for over 25 years here in Austin before making a debut in the street food scene. Having mad success at the Austin City Limits Music Festival for 8 consecutive years with the 'Mighty Cone', he thought he would do a trailer to see how it was accepted. And accepted it was. People like the Hudsons' quality with the low price. In fact, they have reported seeing people in Hudsons' on a Friday night and then at the Mighty Cone on a Saturday lunch (in the same dress). We don't blame her - some folks just can't stay away from a Hudsons' prepped meal.

Jeff's favorite part about the business? "We have Low Brow Fun with a High Brow Attitude". The chicken and avocado cone is his personal favorite and a best-seller. But what exactly is a Mighty Cone? This street food concept was developed for festival goers to have a tasty yet inexpensive food option. Jeff teamed up with Executive Chef Robert Rhoades to create a unique batter for the chicken, which they wrapped in a tortilla and dropped into a paper drink cone. While they have a variety of toppings, the original Hot 'n' Crunchy Chicken Cone comes with a mango-jalapeno slaw and ancho sauce. How could you refuse the fusion of southern fried goodness, mexican flare, and ease on the pocket book for a hefty meal you can walk around with?