New drive-up food truck serving salads and bowls in Vineyard is 'all the buzz'
10/05/2024 14:00
Vineyard • On a cold, windy Wednesday at lunchtime, a line of cars snaked through a gravel-strewn lot in Vineyard, in Utah County. The drivers were waiting at Center Street and Mill Road to place their orders at a new food truck, Tossd, which serves fresh salads and bowls.
One driver, Amanda Rager, who's a teacher at Freedom Prep Academy in Vineyard, said Tossd is "all the buzz" among the parents at the school. She said it was her first time ordering from Tossd, and that she drove there that day on the recommendation of a co-worker.
Another driver, Kristine Reynolds, said she loved the menu options. Salads and bowls "are my go-to," she said.
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A drive-up food truck isn't a familiar sight, but Tossd owner Kevin Santiago — who's also the owner of Heirloom Restaurant Group — said it's only a temporary format.
Eventually, he and collaborator Richie Stapler — co-founder of the fragrance tech company Pura — plan to establish Tossd as a brick-and-mortar restaurant with locations all over the state.
But even as it expands, Tossd will stay the same in one aspect: the drive-thru convenience, which is a key part of Santiago and Stapler's vision for the concept. The other key part is the food itself, with a focus on healthy salads and bowls that are more like something you'd find in a restaurant rather than on a drive-thru menu.
"Our long-term vision is to have spots that would be like Dutch Brothers or Swig or Sodalicious," but for salads, Santiago said.
'Fast' food that's anything but
Tossd is unique among the other eateries in Heirloom Restaurant Group, which includes sit-down concepts such as Communal, Black Sheep Cafe, Station 22, Pizzeria Seven Twelve and Bistro Provenance.
Santiago said the idea for Tossd came about because diners at Heirloom group eateries would tell him they loved the restaurants' salads but didn't want to always have to sit down and order one. Stapler also mentioned the hassle he and his wife would go through to get their kids out of the car to go eat out, and so he and Santiago started talking about the drive-thru idea.
For the Tossd menu, they collaborated with chef Colton Soelberg, who's also founder, chef and partner of meal service Mealhouse and founder of Communal, Pizzeria Seven Twelve and Chom. Frequent diners at those restaurants will recognize some of the flavors on the Tossd menu, Santiago said. Both Chom and Tossd have a Cobb salad on the menu, for example.
Other salad options include a Caesar and a "seasonal" salad that includes shaved Brussels sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes, dried cranberries, shaved parmesan and candied pecans.
The bowls — which are all served on a base of brown rice — are more substantial, such as the harissa marinated chicken bowl, which comes with charred corn relish, avocado, pickled red onion, tomatoes, zesty feta cheese and chimichurri sauce.
The menu is in a state of flux at the moment; Santiago said they're still taking in feedback from customers and getting things dialed in. Their "ultimate vision" for Tossd is to "collaborate with other chefs, and we'll have other chefs highlight their salads and bowls, just so that we have kind of an ongoing rotating menu," he said.
Until Tossd is ready to become a brick and mortar, Santiago said the food truck will stay in the lot at 773 Mill Road, right near Geneva Road. He said they plan to build the first physical location in Vineyard, "because we love that area." Once that restaurant opens, the food truck will become Tossd's catering truck, Santiago said.
In other Heirloom Restaurant Group news, Santiago said they plan to open a second Communal restaurant, in Vineyard, and a second location of Pizzeria Seven Twelve, around 2100 South and 2100 East in Sugar House. He said they are hoping to open those two restaurants around November.
