Once and former Top Chef hopeful Ryan Scott, who lately has been busying himself with an endorsement deal and a catering business after leaving the employ of Mission Beach Café in ‘09, hinted to Grub Street back in April that he’d be “rolling” something out soon. “It took about nine months longer than I thought it would,” Scott tells Grub Street, but he now has a permit to operate a food truck on private property, and he’s going with it, debuting 3-Sum Eats this Thursday at Off the Grid in the Haight (4 p.m. to dusk).
Eater broke the news earlier, via Matt Cohen of Off the Grid, even though Scott was hoping to lie low the first week. As for the menu, “It’s kind of a play on everything I’ve seen the last couple of years while traveling,” Scott says, referring both to his stints with the Top Chef roadshow and his appearances as spokesman for Morningstar Farms. “I’m more busy than I’ve ever been, I’m just not in the restaurant spotlight. And for the truck, I’ve got a great sous chef from Sacramento, and the other sous chef is from Texas, and they’ve brought a lot of inspiration to what we’re doing.”
Scott’s not trying to get too fancy with 3-Sum Eats. He tells us, “It’s a hodge-podge of a lot of things… this isn’t five-star, this isn’t Commonwealth, this is just crave-able food — the kind of stuff you want after a night of debauchery or as an afternoon snack.”
The saucy name derives from the concept: Three columns with three items each: Sandwiches, Snack/Salad/Soup, and Desserts. The three sandwiches they’ll be launching with are a braised short-rib sandwich (shortribs brined and cooked for fifteen hours, with foccacia-style bread, horseradish aioli, shallot marmalade, fontina cheese, and uplands cress); a pulled pork sandwich with crispy fried plaintains; and vegetarian sandwich that Scott (who’s mostly veggie himself) promises will be “retarded,” and which may or may not be the Shroomburger listed on the web sample menu, with his own Thousand Island dressing.
Also, there’s the pun-rich tagline: Get Sauced, Tossed, and Sandwiched.
Scott says he loves the truck and the simple menu concept because of the versatility. This won’t just be a sandwich truck, in other words. There’s talk of tacos eventually, and they’ll be mixing things up weekly, with a beef tongue BLT debuting next week.
As for the desserts, the star looks to be the Kitchen Sink Crack Cookie: Lay’s potato chips, pretzels, butterscotch chips, and four-barrel coffee. Also, there’ll be a buttermilk cupcake with bacon, and a hazelnut-chocolate pudding with bourbon-spiked whipped cream.
There’s no regular location for 3-Sum Eats yet, but they’ll be making Off the Grid appearances, and they’re making some appearances at private events around town. If you know someone who might like a food truck to pull up to their house party, they’ve got a form to fill out online and Scott can easily customize an exclusive menu for the event.
Ryan Scott Contributes 3-Sum Eats to Food Truck-Dom [Eater]
Earlier: Ryan Scott Has Many Irons in the Fire [Grub Street]
