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From Pizza to Mediterranean Cuisine, Food Trucks Beef Up Summer Fare


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    By Robert C. Jones Jr.
    UM News

    Food Trucks

    Frankie’s Pizza has been serving up its square slices for 55 years in Miami, and for two summers at The Rock.

    CORAL GABLES, Fla. (May 20, 2015) – It had become something of a tradition. After every Southwest Miami High School football game, Candy Jackson and a few of her classmates would drive over to Bird Road and order cheese and pepperoni pies from one of their favorite hangouts, Frankie’s Pizza.

    “I guess you could say I was raised on Frankie’s,” said Jackson, who is now an assistant director in the University of Miami’s Office of Financial Assistance Services.

    So last Wednesday, when she looked out her second-floor office window in UM’s Whitten University Center and saw a Frankie’s Pizza food truck parked at The Rock, she immediately hurried outdoors to order a couple of the popular pizzeria’s famous square slices, a taste she hadn’t experienced in more than 15 years.

    “I didn’t even know Frankie’s had a food truck,” said Jackson, as she waited for her order.

    Indeed it does.

    And for most of May and early June, the truck and a handful of others featuring fare ranging from burgers to Middle Eastern cuisine have been serving piping hot meals to faculty, staff, and students looking for more lunchtime dining options now that UM’s food court and residential dining halls are temporarily closed.

    “They provide an option, something our students and employees don’t get all time, and they love them,” said Joey Sanchez, director of operations for UM’s food service provider, Chartwells, which has been inviting food trucks to campus for the past four years.

    Chefs prepare food inside the Moty's Grill food truck, which specializes in Middle Eastern cuisine.

    Chefs prepare food inside the Moty’s Grill food truck, which specializes in Middle Eastern cuisine.

    For the approximately one month period, during which some of UM’s dining spots have been closed, the trucks have been “a great complement” to those eateries that remained open, said Norma Perera, director of Auxiliary Services.

    Last Wednesday, Son P. Vo, a senior manager in Facilities Administration, was thinking about ordering a sub sandwich as he walked past The Rock and suddenly spotted the Frankie’s truck. He immediately recognized the name. Years ago, as a football player at Southwest High, he and his teammates would hold car washes at the Bird Road location to raise funds.

    “I’ve got to take a picture of this truck and send it to my mom. She’s crazy about Frankie’s,” said Vo.

    This marked the second year in a row for the Frankie’s truck at The Rock. The pizzeria’s brick and mortar shop on Southwest Bird Road and 91st Avenue has been selling pizzas since the 1950s, and many of its longtime and loyal customers are current and retired UM employees and Hurricane alumni.

    “We’re diehard UM fans,” said Renee Pasquarella, who, along with her sister Roxanne, now owns and operates Frankie’s. Their late father, Frank, started the business in 1955, moving from Steubenville, Ohio, to open a small shop on US 1 across from UM’s Coral Gables campus.

    Besides Frankie’s, other food trucks operating at the Rock on a rotating basis from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. until June 5 include Che Grill, Monster Burger, and Moty’s Grill. When the food court and dining halls reopen next week, the trucks will no longer roll onto campus, going on hiatus until the new academic year, when they and a few others will return for their usual lunchtime appearances near the Palm Court Fountain.

    Sanchez of Chartwells has developed a relationship with many of the food truck owner/operators, stopping by when they’re on campus to see how business is going. And in turn, food truck workers have developed a loyal customer base among students and employees, even knowing many of them by name.

    Sanchez admits he had his reservations about the trucks at first, “but only because it was a new idea for us and we liked thinking of ourselves as the food service provider of choice on campus.”

    “But in my years of experience,” he continued, “I’ve learned that competition is good. It brings people to the area. People like to have something different. They’ll actually eat at your place more if they know they have an option to go somewhere else.”

     

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