TOLA-Rose Italian Eats paired with my building to do a soft launch this evening. It was pretty…read morecool. Roomie and I got dinner for free. But it wasn't just any dinner. It was a good, fast, warm, filling, and delicious dinner. Here's the run down.
They're in this mostly-black food truck with Italian trappings--the red/white/green flags, garlic braids hanging around, the aroma of sausages and freshly sautéed vegetables, and a family-run, incredibly friendly vibe. They have both a digital menu (flatscreen on the truck) and a hand-written chalkboard menu out in front of the truck. There are five food options, three drink options (all variations on "water"), and pudding cups for dessert. The food options range from $7-9, the drinks from $1.50-2.50, and the dessert comes in at a flat $3. So, depending on how big of an eater you are, you can have a nice meal between $10 and $20.
We grabbed a lasagna and a caprese salad, each taking a can of San Pellegrino sparkling water (flavor options available were lemon-mint, clementine, and sangria orange--I'd guess whatever is normally available from your typical wholesale market). For us, the food came in plastic containers. That was nice because we didn't actually eat right away and yet nothing dried out. We ran into our neighbors who had ordered sandwiches (meatball and garlic bread grilled cheese) and those came in open-faced trays with the checkered paper. All of us enjoyed our meals and walked away satisfied although I did supplement my salad with some popcorn and a movie later... I suppose the salad isn't supposed to be a meal, but I'm always a sucker for a good caprese.
Dish highlights and lowlights from the group (as reported, I didn't try everything): The lasagna wasn't pretty. Maybe I didn't carry it nicely, but it was a little bit "unmade" when we opened it up. That didn't stop it from tasting delicious. It was tender and generously flavored. The caprese was fresh, nicely proportioned (I always HATE it when a caprese runs out of something before the end, which didn't happen here), and had a good strong kick to the balsamic. I do wish there was a full meal-sized salad option, but at least it was generous with the cheese and bigger than your standard appetizer. It's good that roomie doesn't like fresh tomatoes, because I was not going to be sharing. The sandwiches both seemed to be made out of the same pre-garlic-bread mini-loaves. The meatball sandwich had 4 meatballs and provolone on the bottom, red sauce on the top. The meatballs were tender and juicy, but it seemed like there was a desire for more cheese. Chen Don, if you're listening, this is a revenue opportunity. Add extra cheese for $0.50 or extra XYZ for $ABC (cheese, additional meatballs, more sauce, peppers, you name it). If this works for you, feel free to thank me with a check--or another free food item. ;) Or just be wildly successful and name your first child after me. Back to the food. The garlic bread grilled cheese seemed to be not as much garlic as desired for this particular garlic lover, although the marinara dipping sauce seemed to be homemade with large chunks of garlic. Again, I'd recommend selling extra sauce and putting that as a recommended menu item.
Would I visit them again, if I were paying? Yes, but I'd ask for napkins. If anyone tries the pudding cups, please post a photo. I didn't ask but was wondering if these were something special or just standard wholesale cups from a large pack.
