À La Cart, the popular permanent Milk District food truck venue, has opened a second location in SoDo, a mere three miles away as the crow flies, if the crow takes the same route as Google Maps recommends.
The new location is a bit bigger than the original, with eight vendors – three more than the Milk District – surrounding a larger central lawn of artificial grass with patio tables and shade umbrellas. There also is a spacious indoor space with long communal tables and a bar area for beers, wines and cocktails. (The larger seating capacity allows the SoDo ALC to serve liquor.)
A couple of friends and I stopped in recently and strolled from truck to truck considering what we wanted to order. The mix here includes Spanish, Mexican, Filipino/Hawaiian, sushi, burgers, pizza and German.
Most had menus posted, though one truck’s list was largely blacked out. When we asked the person in the truck what was available, he told us to go to one of the tables and click on the QR code to see what was being served. He didn’t seem too busy at the time and I thought he could have offered a friendlier response and maybe try to sell us on his great food, but no. I figured I had seven other opportunities to choose among.
I settled on the tapas sampler from Barrio Españolo, whose owner greeted me with a hearty hello. My friends wandered across the artificial green sea to 503 Latin Fusion and ordered chicken tacos and a carnitas torta.
Ordering and payment is done on touch screens at each truck – my how the food trucks have evolved from the early cash-only days. You enter your text number and get an alert when your order is ready for pickup. Oddly, shortly after I placed my order at Barrio Españolo, I received a text message from Black Magic Pizza that my order was ready. Black Magic was two trucks away and I had only glanced at its menu before moving on.
While I waited for my order, I requested a wine at the bar. The young woman popped open the can it came in and poured it for me – into an actual glass glass, which I thought was a nice touch.
My platter seemed set up to serve two people, with doubles of chicken skewers, ham croquetes, jamon Serrano on tomato bread and a central stack of patatas bravas drizzled with spicy cream. The chicken was tender and the ham sandwiches were delicious.
The tacos were OK, plenty of meat served in corn tortillas and topped with chopped onions and cilantro, plus pico de gallo and salsa verde.
But my other companion’s torta was the winner, a big sandwich with chopped pork, melted cheese and chopped tomatoes on toasted bread, accompanied by crispy chips. Very nice sandwich.
We chose to sit inside because clouds looked threatening. Maybe it was our proximity to the trash receptacle but there were a lot of flies about. I noticed tables outside had whirlygigs that I assume were meant to shoo them away. Be prepared to eat one-handed.
À La Carte is owned by April and Dustin Williams, who brought the idea from Oregon. It’s a good idea, a nice setup and a dandy addition to SoDo.
À La Carte SoDo is at 2207 E. Michigan St., Orlando (map). It is open for lunch and dinner daily.
