Enjoy summer fare with a lineup of award-winning Denver food trucks
By John Lehndorff
The Denver metro is home to many well-known and award-winning food trucks serving everything from burgers and pizza to burritos and lattes. Those who think food trucks dishing out “street food” is taboo haven’t become hip to the state’s celebrated on-the-go food revolution.
Coloradans are serious about enjoying the outdoors and have embraced food truck cuisine at festivals, markets, tasting rooms, fairs and suburban intersections—with more than 600 food truck businesses dishing out global cuisines in Denver alone. In 2023, tryother.com ranked Denver as one of the “8 Best Cities for Food Trucks in the U.S.” Here are a few crowd favorites.
Mexican Fix
Dos Gringos food truck has been serving locals since 2016. Two lifelong friends and Colorado natives, Jesse Trujillo and Santino Lochi, bought the two-truck business two years ago. Dos Gringos typically serves its tacos, burritos and bowls at brewery tasting rooms and private and corporate events. One of its most popular items is the battered fish tacos.
ON THE MENU
Tacos, foil-wrapped burritos and bowls topped with carnitas (shredded pork), carne asada (steak), chipotle grilled chicken, beer-battered fish or black beans. Tacos on corn tortillas include shredded lettuce or pickled red cabbage, chipotle sauce, pico de gallo, cilantro and shredded cheese. The Moby Dick bowl is Mexican rice topped with beer-battered fish, black beans, chipotle sauce, pickled red cabbage, pico de gallo, pickled jalapeno and fried tortilla strips.
Find the truck location and more information at dosgringosco.com
By The Slice
As the mother of five, Melinda Carbajal is used to serving crowds. As CEO and co-owner of 10-year-old Simply Pizza in Centennial, she operates pizza trucks and hybrid pizzerias in shipping containers, selling at busy places like the Denver Zoo and Buckley Air Force Base.
“We bought the business about five years ago. I got my husband drunk and we decided pizza would be a good new career,” she says with a laugh. Carbajal’s Simply Pizza pies have since taken home awards in pizza competitions from Naples to Las Vegas.
Simply Pizza slings slices made from Italian flour baked in a hickory-fired oven from its heavy-duty 26,000-pound truck. “We make a very thin, New York-style crust that makes it easy to carry,” Carbajal says. (Think of the opening scene of “Saturday Night Fever.”)
ON THE MENU
Pizza varieties can include Belgium Farmer: extra virgin olive oil, smoked bacon, roasted Brussels sprouts and goat cheese sauce. Right-Hand Man: red sauce, mozzarella and hand-cut uncured pepperoni. Also available are vegetarian pizzas and Caesar salads.
Find the truck location and more information at simplypizzatruck.com
Farm Fresh
Bringing the flavors from Colorado’s farms and ranches into down-to-earth settings is the vision behind Farm to Truck Colorado, which has served its comfy cuisine at Denver-area tasting rooms and corporate and private events for a decade. “We’re especially proud of the Colorado-raised meats we use, the grass-fed beef and lamb in the burgers,” says Bronson Kandel, owner of the mobile food business. The pork for pulled pork sandwiches on brioche buns comes from another local company, Denver’s Tender Belly. Even the food truck’s vegetarian wrap has a local connection with a unique crunchy, high-protein mix of Colorado-grown hempseeds with chia, quinoa and lentils.
ON THE MENU
Western Showcase: beef burger on a brioche bun with cheddar, pulled pork, bacon, fried onions, pickles and BBQ sauce. The Lamb Burger: lamb on a brioche bun with greens, fried onions, goat cheese and mint aioli. Farmer’s BLT: thick-cut bacon, greens, tomatoes, pesto and garlic aioli. Sandwich sides include apple coleslaw, pesto macaroni salad and yellow curry potato salad. The truck also serves brunch sandwiches, including The Classic with bacon, fried egg and cheddar and more.
Find the truck location and more information at farmtotruckco.com
John Lehndorff is the former Dining Critic of the Rocky Mountain News. He hosts Radio Nibbles on KGNU. Podcasts: kgnu.org/category/radio-nibbles
