Food trucks and carts across Louisville are giving immobile restaurants a run for the roses. Having trouble locating your favorite? When in doubt, head to the Flea Off Market, the first weekend of the month in the massive Fresh Start Growers’ Supply lot just outside NuLu. Here’s a guide to three of our favorites, with three more to come next month.
Get It on a Bun at Booty’s
Louisville natives Tammy and Craig Boutiette bought a food cart in 1996 after selling their personal tanning bed and hot tub. Three years ago, the couple’s “so-good-you’ll-smack-yo-momma” mobile diner hit the streets.
Frequent locations: The cart is downtown on Jackson Street in front of University of Louisville Hospital. “The hospital is a hub for out-of-staters,” Tammy Boutiette says. “The truck’s best location is at Chestnut Street between Floyd and Brook streets. They’re my first foodies, and they’ll be my last.”
Style of food: “I brought back old diner-type food, with today’s international flavors,” Boutiette says. Try the wasabi-balsamic burger.
Most popular items: Burgers, Jamaican jerk chicken, Not Yo Momma’s Nachos.
Name origin: “My last name,” Boutiette says. “I was nicknamed Mrs. Booty when I got married. It was a funny gesture that became a business.”
Holy Molé
When Max Balliet moved from the Bay Area in California to Louisville as a kid, he brought with him a love for authentic Mexican food. In June 2011 he opened Holy Molé, an eye-popping lime-green mobile taquería.
Frequent locations: Flea Off Market, Douglass Loop Farmers’ Market, catering events.
Style of food: “We started with traditional taquería-style tacos, and the personality we have spun onto it would be more of a modern approach,” Balliet says.
Most popular items: Fried fish taco (regularly available); soft-shell crab taco (special).
Name origin: “A girl I was dating at the time came up with the name,” Balliet says. “Obviously molé is something we do on the truck pretty often, so it’s just a cute play on moly.”
Red Top Gourmet Hot Dogs
Ryan Cohee opened Red Top Gourmet Hot Dogs in April. He’s from Flint, Michigan, which claims the coney dog as one of its own. He’s here to help our hot-dog game.
Frequent locations: 724 E. Market St. is the permanent location, open Friday and Saturday nights. “But I also do a lot of festivals,” Cohee says. And, of course, the Flea Off.
Style of food: “I use as much organic as possible, as much local as possible,” Cohee says. “Natural-casing hot dogs, handmade.”
Most popular items: The Louisville Coney: frankfurter on a steamed pretzel bun with beer cheese and coney sauce. The Red Top Dog: local Foxhollow Farms grass-fed beef hot dog on a steamed bun with coney sauce, balsamic coleslaw and local tomatoes.
Name origin: “It’s the fact that my cart has a big red top on it,” Cohee says. “And I was coming up with names, and I liked ‘red top’ on print. To be honest, the wife came up with it.”
Article written by Avery Walts
This article appears in the August issue of Louisville Magazine. To subscribe to Louisville Magazine, click here.
