The Box Lunch

I was heading to Iowa City for a spur of the moment concert trip with Writer Danielle, acting as scribe for the nonce (don't ask). So naturally, I checked out the food truck scene there. Honestly, and this is no slight to Iowa City, I wasn't expecting to find anything.

Much to my surprise, I did come up with two active trucks. Nice. Time to make friends and see what's up. Radio silence. That's fine, a quick check on the twitters told me that Box Lunch was already at a car wash and Local Burrito was likely not out.

Problem is, I discovered this around noon and we wouldn't hit Iowa City until 4:30, give or take. I was thinking there would be little chance the truck would still be out. I mean, it was a weekend and that would be more than a two-hour stop (this is me thinking like a Chicago food truck fan).

We got a late start and we weren't making up time. But just shy of 5 o'clock, Box Lunch replies letting me know they are at the car wash. "Epic!" says I. But we are about an hour later than our planned arrival. Would they still be there?

Why, yes. Yes they would.

So after a quick hotel check-in, we reclaimed the road and, sure enough, the truck was still out. Fantastic. Time to get some pre-concert grub going on!

Chris saw me approach, snapping away, and greeted me with "You must be Kevin," to which I replied "Is it that obvious?" Sadly he had the menu board in hand, and proceeded to 86 what he said is their most popular item: the shrimp tacos.

Alright then, since this would likely be my only visit, I asked about the next best thing. That's when he described their bacon guacamole grilled cheese with cilantro sauce. Dude, you had me at bacon. To that I added fries and a fresh strawberry banana shake. My scribe apparently has cheese issues, so she opted for the California burger, fries and a shake.

Sadly, the windy day claimed my fries, but since the truck was getting ready to close up shop for the day, Liz twisted my arm with a suggestion of chili cheese fries.

This is my first out of state truck. Well, I’ve had out of state trucks passing through Chicago, but that doesn’t count. It was great to compare food truck culture and I’m looking forward to more trucks in more states. It was especially interesting to see the reactions to Chicago’s silly time limits and distance rules. The Box Lunch was parked right next to a Burger King.

Two states down for my Patriot challenge, only 48 to go!