3 food trucks that brave Ohio winter

Just because you’re putting away the shorts and tank tops doesn’t mean you have hang up your warm-weather eating habits. Check out these winter-ready food trucks and carts to keep your local palette stoked:

Timmy’s Meltdown

Hot Spots: 12.14 @ High and Chestnut, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.; 12.19 @ 543 S Front St. 

If you want a soul-warming cup of tomato soup, and a grilled cheese sammie better than mom used to make, just point your feet toward the bright yellow food truck with the laminated, irreverent political memes velcroed to the front. Self-billed as “Purveyors of fine grilled cheese, great soups, anarchy,” Timmy’s has a full menu of melted goodness, and soul-bolstering warmth, all served with a notably fresh pickle slice, and available through a window; right alongside a wry grin from Timmy himself.

– Jeni Ruisch  

The Little Kitchen

Hot Spots: The truck is parked outside of Virtue Salon in Clintonville every Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will serve all through the winter.

Being vegan in Columbus isn’t nearly as hard as it used to be. The Little Kitchen food truck features an ever-changing menu of entirely vegan comfort foods like bountiful Buddha bowls and classic baked cinnamon sugar doughnut, as well as plant-based staples like smoothie bowls. Owner Chloe Graffeo is taking advantage the still-low saturation of vegan options in the food truck game. The key, she says: don’t try to be something you’re not.

– Rachel Komich

Sophie’s Pierogi

Hot Spots: 12.7 @ 1101 N Fourth St., 5 – 10 p.m.; 12.22 @ 258 W Olentangy St, 5:30 – 9:30 p.m.

You know what the best thing about food truck food? Any mobile chef worth his or her salt knows that it’s an arms race to compete for someone’s 10-spot, and in that vein, they try to make as much happen on that little paper plate or boat as possible. While the housemade pierogis take center-stage, it’s the way they dress them up that headlines the experience. Carmelized onions and sour cream are the traditional platemates, but Sophie’s ups the game with two of the greatest words in culinary vernacular: “compound butter.”

– Travis Hoewischer

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