Conscious Cravings

- Location:  Longhorn Food Court - 1901 Rio Grande St. - @Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd
- Hours: Monday -Saturday: 11 AM - 8 PM
- Telephone: 512-782-0546
- Website: www.consciouscravingsaustin.com / Facebook: Conscious Cravings / Twitter: ConsciousCrvngs

- Cuisine: Vegetarian

Rishi Dhir spent four years as an auctions trader on the Philly stock exchange before looking for something more laid back to do.  As a vegetarian, he had created unique recipes based on his own dietary needs and thought he had something that might hold up with the general public.  As such, he heard about Austin and the trailer food scene and opened Conscious Cravings in August of 2010.  His menu is mostly hot wraps and cold sandwiches.  Rishi loves to eat the Black Bean Slider Wrap, and his customers report the Chimmichurri Seitan Wrap is sure to please.

The name Conscious Cravings was developed to inform people the food is healthy while also being short and catchy.  What does Rishi say the best part about Conscious Cravings is? “The fact that I’m allowing people to have affordable healthy tasty food that is not offered widely.  It’s cheap, healthy, organic, and environmentally food.”

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.”

Turf N Surf Po'Boys

- Location: Downtown - 2nd St. & South Congress Ave.
- Hours: Sunday - Wednesday: 10 AM - 3 PM
               Thursday - Saturday: 10 AM - 3 PM / 5 PM - 3 AM
- Number: 512-965-4679
- Website: www.turfnsurfpoboy.com / Facebook: Turf N Surf Po’ Boy
- Cuisine: Sandwiches - po'boys, to be exact

photo credit: JTpics.com

I liked cooking before cooking was cool,” states Ralph Gilmore of Turf n Surf Poboys.  Ralph brings his background not only in the restaurant industry but also his experience in designing and building custom homes and choppers to the table as the designer and chef of his trailer that is currently located downtown.  After buying the most raw and rustic unit he could find, he began molding the cart with a turf and surf feel.  The majority of the items on his décor are recycled and he used less than 5% of wood in his build-out.  Continuing with the overall green feel of his food trailer, Ralph buys his produce locally.  “I just wanted to do something that gives back to the people,” he explains about his choice to buy from Austin-area farmers.  

Most proud of his fried shrimp, it is also his best-seller.  Having opened in April of 2010, he has some advice for new vendors: “Watch out for August.  The heat factor, getting back to school, and last minute vacations puts you in the hole if you don’t have the capitol to get through it.  But if it’s your dream, stay with it.”

I don't think Ralph is hiring, but as the sign states - I will work for poboys!

photo credit: JTpics.com

Short Bus Subs

- Location: Roving - follow website and twitter to learn location
- Hours: Tuesday - Saturdays: hours vary according to location
- Number: 512-535-7827
- Website: www.shortbussubs.com / Facebook: Short Bus Subs / Twitter: ShortBusSubs
- Cuisine: Sandwiches

Eric Klusman hails from a sandwich shop family in the Midwest but he got to Austin as quick as he could.  Alongside his brother Dane and business partner Ryan Campion, the three opened “Short Bus Subs” in August of 2009.  The concept to serve cleverly named quality sandwiches out of the window of a 23-foot school bus actually came to Eric in a dream.  After the economy had crashed, he decided instead of opening a shop he would do something a little less expensive so the Short Bus Subs idea was born.

“The Principal” is Eric’s personal favorite item and he claims to eat one everyday.  Similar to a club, it has swiss, bacon, ham, turkey, roast beef, Dijon, lettuce and tomato.  “The Bully” is probably their best seller, which is their version of an Italian sub.  With six vegetarian sammies to select, the “Hot Teacher” sells like hot cakes and includes a tomato/garlic pesto spread with mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, and marinated/roasted Portobello’s.  The bus does not have one location.  They roam freely to catering events and deliver to offices.

Sugar Shack BBQ

- Location: UT Campus area - 24th & San Antonio St.
- Hours: Monday - Friday: 7 AM - 7 PM
- Number: 512-464-1151
- Website: www.sugarshackbbq.com / Facebook: Sugar Shack BBQ 
- Cuisine: BBQ, breakfast tacos

Sugar Shack BBQ was started out of a love for 70’s retro music and back yard bar-b-ques by partners Mark Avalos and Mark Stimak.  If you’re thinking about joining Mark and Mark in the Trailer Food revolution, they have some words of wisdom, “Don’t get fooled by places that have a lot of car traffic.  That’s the number one misconception.  If you see a place that has a ton of cars driving by you think that place will do well – but really foot traffic is the key.”  Indeed, Sugar Shack gets plenty of foot traffic at their log-cabin-shack on wheels which is a favorite place for many students to eat just behind Dobie mall on UT campus.

Playing with the college environment and their theme, their menu includes fun items like the Notorious PIG and the Bama Jammma.  The Sugar Shack’s best seller is their pulled pork with a mustard base cole slaw followed closely by their chicken breast sandwich with a white BBQ sauce.   White sauce you say? That’s right, the guys at Sugar Shack love all kinds of BBQ, not just Texas-style.  Their white sauce is a mayo-based  Alabama-style BBQ-sauce along with 6 or 7 other ingredients.  Not available in bottles yet, their red BBQ sauce is also a fan favorite. 

Torchy's Tacos

- Location: South Austin Trailer Park & Eatery - 1311 S. 1st St - @Elizabeth 
                   Other, various locations can be found on their website. 
- Hours: Monday-Wednesday: 7 AM - 10 PM / Thursday & Friday: 7AM - 11 PM / Saturday: 8 AM - 11 PM / Sunday: 8 AM - 10 PM
- Number: 512-366-0537
- Website: www.torchystacos.com / Facebook: Torchy’s Tacos / Twitter: TorchyTaco
- Cuisine: Tacos - breakfast, lunch & dinner

Ask anyone in Austin where their favorite place to grab a taco is and you’ll likely hear “Torchys!” in response.  Torchy’s five founding partners are Bob, Farrell, Rebecca, and Jay with Mike Rypka as the chef behind the team.  Having been a chef at MTV, Dell, Chuys, Lucy’s Boat Yard and beyond, putting together delectable flavor combinations with tacos as the vehicle was right up his alley and his consistently good recipes are the reason behind Torchy’s rapid success.  In addition to their trailer, they now have multiple other brick and mortar locations and have expanded into other cities. 

Down at the South Austin Trailer Park and Eatery where Torchy’s trailer sits, you can enjoy tacos under the shade of the Live Oak trees that overlooks Bouldin Creek.  The names of their tacos are equally shady with such crowd favorites like the Dirty Sanchez.  In addition to their normal menu, you can look for such specialty items like their Turkey taco with mole during November.  What should you get?  The ‘brushfire’ and the ‘fried avocado taco’ is hot on my list.

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.