Lined up like a ring of mushrooms after a spring rain, a handful of food trucks circle Dewey Square Plaza waiting for hungry customers to arrive. April marks the launch of the 2014 spring season for Mobile Eats on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, introducing 15 new trucks to the lineup and four to the Boston food truck scene. Before the lunch rush begins, vendors walk around greeting one another with fist bumps and handshakes or cheers of hello while leaning out of the truck windows. Here is a sampling of the new ones.
It’s hard to miss the pink Bacon Truck with its anthropomorphized strips of bacon. The flavor-packed menu is simple with bacon-centric sandwiches ($7.50 to $9.50), sides ($1 to $3), and desserts like a chocolate-bacon truffle ($2.75). For the true baconophile, there’s a “bunch o’ bacon” ($3). Shortly after the lunch rush recently, the truck sold out of several key BLT components, specifically the L, but still had plenty of bacon. Bacon-scallion hash ($3), a variation on co-owner Sam Williams’s grandmother’s potato salad, mixes red potatoes with sour cream, mayo, and hunks of bacon, before griddling to a creamy, crunchy mess and drizzling with spicy aioli. www.bostonbacontruck.com
Whether you prefer a traditional sweet crepe with lemon and sugar or like to lunch a little more adventurously, Benny’s Crepe Cafe can cater to you. The truck’s menu provides savory crepes such as chicken pesto and Texas barbecue, with slaw and spicy pickles ($7 to $8), or try a sweet s’mores crepe ($5), rolled warm and stuffed with Nutella, graham cracker crumbles, and gooey mini marshmallows. Frank Shear’s grandfather, Benny, was a fruit peddler in Medford, and the truck carries on his tradition, he writes on his website, www.bennyscrepecafe.com
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Evan’s New York Style Deli is a no-frills maroon truck wrapped with a large photo of stacked deli meats. Evan Madoff, who runs Evan’s Deli in Marblehead, walks up and down the ever-growing line taking orders and running them back to the truck. Along with traditional sandwiches ($4.99 to $10.49), Evan’s offers creative salads, hot knishes ($1.50 to $3.99) in flavors like spiced sweet potato and spinach, and breakfast sandwiches and bagels. One signature, Evan’s Choice, is a dense stack of juicy roast beef, tender beef brisket, and tangy horseradish sauce on marbled rye. The wait can be nearly an hour. www.evansdeli.com
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There are several pizza-slinging trucks on Boston streets, but only Stoked Wood Fired Pizza Co. cooks in a real wood-fired oven. Making its debut this spring, the truck, owned by Scott Riebling and Toirm Miller, is fire-engine red and oven flames are easily visible through large ordering windows. The menu includes classics like pepperoni, cheese, and mushroom ($6 to $9), but also unique combos like Buffalo Brussels sprout pizza ($9) with piquant Buffalo sauce, gorgonzola dolce, pecorino romano, and raw, shaved sprouts. Each baked-to-order pie is a hefty 11 inches and can easily feed two. www.facebook.com/stokedwoodfiredpizza
Mobile Eats on the Rose Kennedy Greenway www.rosekennedygreenway.org/visit/food
Katherine Hysmith can be reached at kchysmith@gmail.com.