I went out to Williamsburg over the weekend, and when I walked out of the Bedford Ave station, there were two food trucks by 7th St. One was a Mexican truck called Tacos Morelos that I have seen before but never tried. The other was called the Real Good Truck, which I later found out was only a week old.
To cut to the chase, I ended up trying both trucks. I rationalized that you need to be fully fortified to do holiday shopping these days – but in reality, I’m just a glutton at heart.
We will be writing about the Tacos Morelos truck in the next day or two, but are writing about the Real Good Truck first because it had the more interesting menu. The Real Good Truck serves wafflewiches – sandwiches that use freshly-made waffles as the bread. They also have an interesting backstory on the meats they use.
I asked Matthew what he suggested, and after getting a few good choices, I settled on the jalapeño cheddar bratwurst ($6).
Click through to read about where the meats come from, what their plans are vis-a-vis coming into Manhattan during the week, and whether lunch was Real Good.
The owner and chef, Matthew Maichel, told me his family has a ranch in Montana that is over 100 years old called the Maichel Angus Ranch. All the meats used on the truck come from his family’s ranch, which they package and sell under the name Big Sky Black Angus. He showed me the packages of bbq beef brisket, jalapeño cheddar bratwurst and andouille beef sausages that are served on the truck. Matthew also gave me a small taste of the bbq beef brisket, which was delicious.
First Matthew poured some batter into the waffle maker, then sliced the brat and put it on the griddle. He then put the brat on the cooked waffle, added some honey mustard, and folded the waffle over into a sandwich.
The first bite of the brat was nice and beefy with a little cheddar cheese flavor. By the second bite, the jalapeño and mustard kicked in, giving the brat a real bite. You could see pieces of jalapeño in the sausage, as well as the cheddar cheese.
The waffle made for an interesting bread choice. It definitely stood up to the filling and didn’t fall apart. It was a little sweeter and less yeasty than bread, but did not come across as a dessert. That has more to do with the dessert toppings usually put on waffles.
I asked Matthew whether he had any plans on coming into Manhattan. He expects to at some point, but two things need to happen first – he has to add another waffle maker to the truck, and he needs to hire more staff.
We know what happens when food trucks try to serve Manhattan lunch crowds without enough staff or equipment – it gets ugly real quick.
You can check out their website here, facebook here, and follow them on twitter here. The Real Good Truck has also been added to our Mobile Munchies twitter feed here.
