Food for the Soul

I’m hanging with the cool kids now. Yep. That’s how I roll. Well. Maybe not. But our new food truck fabricator is super cool. And the dudes who work there are super cool 😎, too.

We hopped in a taxi to have a tour and a design session at Skulls Garage. They are a secret workshop tucked behind a bunch of warehouses in a dodgy area.

The taxi driver did not want to let us out. He was so concerned for our well being he hung around afterwards for a bit. ‘Todo bien?’ The roll up door is nondescript in the alley. We were unsure if this was the right place. But we saw some of their handy work outside and gave the driver the high sign. 👍

The owner met us, pulling up in his big American black Caddy. Complete with a trailer hitch. Then he unlocked the door and took us inside.

I love places like this. Scrappy little businesses doing very cool stuff. People making things. Jeff was salivating. A real worksop with welding equipment! I get it. I was salivating, too, at all the possibilities.

And how did I find this seemingly rando place tucked so far north of Barcelona proper? Research and more research, and talking to people. It’s how I accomplish everything living in Spain. This guy is THE DUDE for the, just now, emerging food truck world in Spain. Before anyone tells me ‘But Kelli. There are plenty food trucks in Spain, already.’ I will tell you that I know this. But I’m not talking about Churros or something similar. I’m talking international street cuisine – tacos, rice bowls, poke’, and the like. And you don’t see a lot of that, in my experience, in Spain. I raised this with one of the guys. He said he thinks it is the culture.

‘People in Spain like to sit down. They linger over a meal. No one eats standing up outside. They don’t even buy coffee and walk down the street drinking it. But that is changing now with Covid. And with more international people’ he points to me‘ moving here. And younger people like different experiences.’

They said that putting a food truck on the Camino is a Brilliant idea. I concur. But I don’t think they were just blowing smoke up my skirt, as my Dad used to say, because they disavowed me of some of my ideas and steered my prior thinking a bit, with considerations I had yet to take into account. That is why you find experts and then listen to them.

We toured some models in the shop and out in the alley. They have some cool vintage Citroen vans they’ve converted. And some shipping containers and horse trailers.

Everything is custom, and they will build me whatever I want. So we sat down and mapped it out. I will have the proposal by Monday. Then we will finalize the contract and get started.

Before we sign on the bottom line I need to get a heads up on the timing of my bathroom building permits from the concello and the patrimonio. I can’t open without bathrooms. It will only take eight weeks before the truck is completed, and the bathroom/septic construction can be done in parallel. Single threading things is not my style.

I’m excited, but Jeff is pretty excited, too. Like me, he enjoys seeing dreams come to reality. Maybe one of these days, at long last in our mid-50’s, we will finally be a couple of the cool kids 😎