Food Truck Friday: Little G’s Mobile Pizzeria

I am a big believer in pizza.  It’s kind of my default food that I would happily eat at any time.  Unfortunately, it’s also not exactly a “health” food, so I try to be good and avoid those greasy pizza places in the skyway the same way I avoid the tempting skyway Chinese restaurants; pretend they don’t exist, look the other direction, keep on walking!

Which is why, after a few not-so-delicious food truck trips that I deemed unworthy of features on the blog, it was an easy decision which food truck to check out next.  Pizza!  You can’t go wrong with pizza!

Enter: Little G’s Mobile Pizzeria, which can often be found on 2nd Avenue and 6th Street in downtown Minneapolis.

The first thing I noticed upon walking up to the big red trailer is that there’s an actual wood-fired oven in this thing!  I’d had a half fear that they were going to be heating up Totinos or something but that giant brick oven hanging out of the back of the trailer assured me that this was going to be the real deal.

I briefly perused the 8 1/2 by 11 inch menu taped to the window, and asked the guy at the counter for advice: Orchard or Hot Hawaiian?  We decided that I should go wild and order it half and half.  No fancy beverage or side options here (just cans of soda, if that’s your jam), so $9 was my total.

Since it was one of the first chilly and windy days of fall, there were fewer people out and about downtown.  With no one queueing behind me, I passed the 10-minute wait for my pizza by chatting with Little G and his employee at the window.  They told me that they’ve been around since last summer, and that they’re planning to be downtown for lunches all through the winter!  The plan is to start taking online orders and to offer pre-paid punch cards to help minimize the standing-outside-in-the-frigid-Minnesota-winter time.   As for them, working in the trailer, they’ve got a built in heater with the wood-burning oven.

Soon enough, I had my 10-inch pizza and had grabbed a spot nearby to sit and enjoy it.

The first piece I tried was from the Orchard half.  Coated generously with apples, bacon, and gorgonzola cheese, sprinkled with toasted almonds and drizzled in almond oil, the Orchard hits hard with its deep and savory flavors.

On the other side of the pizza was the Hot Hawaiian, covered in cheddar cheese and topped with jalapeno slices and cubes of ham and pineapple.  While the Orchard brought the sweet and savory, the Hot Hawaiian killed it with the sweet and spicy.  I didn’t get the impression that the ingredients used on these pizzas were the kinds of “fresh, organic, local” ingredients that I’ve gotten used to expecting from these food trucks.  However, they worked so deliciously together that I didn’t mind the feeling that perhaps my bacon and ham didn’t come from a free-range pig (Is that a thing?  Just go with it).

The real winner here — what really sets Little G’s apart from the other downtown pizza offerings– is the crust.  It’s perfectly chewy and soft, not so thick as to overpower and fill you up too quickly, but sturdy enough to hold the weight of the plentiful toppings.  An important –and sometimes overlooked!– element of street food is that it must be easy enough to eat without utensils or on-the-go.  The best part about the crust is the charred, smoky flavors that come from cooking it in the wood oven.  Not only do you get the sweet/savory/spicy tones from the toppings, but you also get to enjoy another dimension of flavor when you throw all of that onto this smoky crust.

While there were certainly a few splotches of grease on my wax paper bag as I carried my two leftover squares back to the office, this pizza was nothing like the thin, greasy, limp slices of pizza I run away from in the skyway (although those do have their time and place, do NOT get me wrong here!).

Keep an eye out for Little G’s if you’re in the mood for a better kind of lunchtime pizza — you’ll be glad you did!

Service
Little G was warm and friendly, eager to share his passion for pizza.

Presentation
On a 10-inch cardboard circle, cut into squares, folded into a wax paper bag.

Taste
Nothing missing here, the taste was phenomenal.  I want to go back and try the Buffalo Chicken and the Taco pizzas that I’ve read great things about.

Value for Dollars
Between $7 and $9 for a whole 10-inch pizza.  It took a little self-control, but I managed to save a couple of pieces to eat cold with my lunch the next day.

Overall Food Truck Experience
Little G’s was great; it delivered exactly the taste and quality that I had hoped for.

Little G’s Mobile Pizzeria

Little G’s on Twitter

Little G’s on Facebook

Little G’s on Yelp

 

XOXO