Last week, I mentioned in a looking back/looking ahead blog that several new additions had expanded our food truck options beyond tacos. At the time, I made a note-to-self to finally blog on the wood fire pizza truck that popped up in November.
I stopped by the University Parks-Franklin food truck neighborhood on that errand on Wednesday and left with exciting info and some new-restaurant news.
Justin Duty was on the job at 900° Pizzeria and he told me the truck was owned by the Poppa Rollo's family. This is something I should have known before Wednesday, but it nonetheless surprised and excited me about the prospects for this truck.
In an effort to figure out how this fact escaped me, I went to Google and found the Trib had a story on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I'm not surprised I missed it because of the timing. Anyway, there's a rolling Poppa Rollo's pizza joint in our midst and that's a significant development for the foodie-minded.
But that's not all. Duty told me Poppa Rollo's is opening a new location in Westrock Centre on Hewitt Drive. He said the goal is to have that restaurant open by May 1.
WacoFork photographer Chelsea Santos and I braved the semi-cold to grab some pizzas at lunchtime. 900° serves only personal pizzas. Really, it's more like a small pizza. I think they're 8-inch pies, so two people could share one, provided that they're aiming for a light-ish lunch.
We ordered a Hawaiian, one with pepperoni, sausage and bell peppers and Duty wanted to make sure we tried the margherita pizza. You know how at Poppa Rollo's, they fill the pizza with quality toppings? Same deal at the pizza truck. The style of crust is different, but the overall product is the same high standard.
We got to go inside the truck and check out the wood oven. It's legit. Plus they keep the truck flanked with wood, so it's a constant reminder of the authenticity of the operation.
Duty admitted opening a food truck in November doomed them to slow weeks at the beginning of the operation. He said they're doing pretty well, though, all things considered. With the sun finally coming out today, the food truck lot at U-Parks and Franklin could see an uptick late this week.
One more bite: The Tribune-Herald posted an article on Wednesday stating that Uncle Mario's Brick Oven Pizza was coming to the new shopping center being built at Valley Mills and Lake Air. I was alerted to this by Trib staffer Olivia Messer's tweet, which eschewed the idea that we could have too many pizza joints.
(Cover photo by Chelsea Santos.)
