Skillet - Mobile Gourmet Or Guerrilla Cuisine?

When you are pondering the heights of good food, it's common to think of swanky downtown bars or bistros, or in upscale neighborhoods with terraced gardens and urbane clientele, perhaps in tony suburbs, with organic gardens out back, simple surroundings in the front of the house a wine list that goes out the door, and complex flavors. The last thing you think of, for good food, is a trailer in a parking lot, in an industrial neighborhood. And yet, this is where the culinary trail leads us.

This trailer brings good food to many areas in and around Seattle, changing locations daily. In fact, the only way to know where exactly it will be on any day is to check their web site weekly, updates by Facebook and Twitter are also available. Also available on their site have their menu, which also changes weekly. The chef, Josh Henderson, a 1998 CIA graduate, has worked in restaurants and later, as a private chefs for photo shoots, where he learned to cook on the road. He brings this know-how and inspiration to a custom decked out Airstream trailer. His concept, in his own words is as such:

We buy old Airstream Trailers, and outfit them so that they have a full commercial kitchen. We then go out to local office parks, events, farmers markets and provide impeccably executed and seasonably relevant bistro style food. Our market is people who really like food, and who appreciate food. Our goal is Seattle first, the west coast/world second.

This concept has earned him a 2009 Rising Chef: Restaurant Concept award from Starchefs.com. The one thing is, getting to wherever Skillet is, can be a challenge if you are not paying attention, and this makes the experience a little more fun. Because their web site (or more precisely their calendar, hosted by Google) is not entirely mobile web enabled, (sorry blackberry users) don't rely on your phone to get you there. Also, because of hiccups, or mechanical problems, Skillet might have to cancel a specific date's site. Smallie and I made the mistake of relying on a blackberry on our visit.

I admit, I messed up. I forgot what day it was, it happens: I work nights, I start my day on one day of the week, and end it in another. So i get confused. But I meet Smallie in downtown Seattle, hoping to get to the current parking lot that Skillet inhabits today, just south of the Fremont bridge (or as some call the area, the Peoples Republic of Fremont, possibly due to the statue of V. I. Lenin), but no Skillet. What happened? No Skillet? Were we led astray? So while Smallie and I attempt to figure out what happened, a coffee shack with wi-fi gives us the bad news, it's Thursday, not Wednesday. They were here yesterday.

So as we head back, in the opposite direction, into SODO, hoping we get there before closing, the clock ticking ever so close to 2:00 pm, closing time. Tick, tock, changing buses, tick tock, passing Safeco Field, tick, tock, until, at long last, a parking lot, a trailer, and a woman telling us they are closed. We check the time. 1:50. Seems today was a slow day, and they were shutting down early. Smallie asks if they'd please just do this one favor, after all, we'd come all this way, and since one of the places she wanted to visit, on her trip from Hong Kong was to eat here. They relent, and we order several things. After small talk about the weather, and Smallie taking pictures, the question was asked, 'are you guys bloggers?'

OK, now I'm amused. Smallie responds that she isn't, "Why do you ask?", the answer is because of the photography, and the insight that bloggers tend to order one of everything on the menu.

At least we left off a few things, I suppose. Finally our orders were served, they packed up. We set down to eat, in of all places, a bus stop. As we settled down, we see the trailer drive south into the distance.

But now for the food. A burger, of grass-fed beef, Cambozola (a French Gorgonzola) cheese, and bacon jam, with the fixin's.

The mouth feel is soft and nice, partly due to the bacon jam, which gives a good burger, just a touch of moistness, and a well-rounded flavor that tickles even the hardiest of burger-fans. This is some burger.

The first thing you notice about the Chicken Sammy is the size. It's enormous. Good, balanced flavor between the sweetness of the apple slaw and the savoryness of the chicken, but even for a person with as large of a mouth as my own. Bring a friend with you to eat this sammy.

I find it hard to judge the poutine, as my experience with the genre is limited, but with that in mind, I found the flavor delectable, with nothing out of balance, it even keeps well, as it is the only part of this meal that was not entirely consumed at the bus stop.

Finally, the asparagus soup, a lighter soup than you'd imagine, was well-flavored, and tasty enough to hold its own even among the heavy gutters in this culinary line up.

To me, this is guerrilla cuisine at it's finest. Clearly, in my mind is a paraphrasing of the line from the old TV series "the A-team". If you can find out where they are, and they are there, you just might be able to eat... At Skillet. In my mind, nothing short of an 'A' team would describe the food experience I have had, where getting there is half the fun.

Erik Sentell is a computer professional living on Bainbridge Island. His love and understanding of food came from his upbringing among the varied ethnic foods in New York City. Originally trained as an architect, he believes that food and cuisine can operate at multiple levels of understanding all at once, each influencing the final form. His love for good food was driven farther through travels abroad. He is married and with his wife, make delicious meals together. He also works full time for an unstructured computer data storage company based in Seattle.