Sometimes a food truck represents a vendor's entire means of making a living, other times it's merely the mobile outrider of a chef's brand, like Ryan Scott's 3-Sum Eats. The truck made its public debut four weeks ago at Off the Grid Upper Haight, then promptly disappeared ― except at private events. Reached earlier this month by phone, Scott said, since its public roll-out, the truck has been in heavy rotation at private events.
Scott, the home-town hottie who landed a spot on Season 4 of Bravo's Top Chef, parlayed some of his TV exposure into the launch three years ago of Ryan Scott 2 Go, a catering company. Scott told SFoodie he'd been mulling the idea of a food truck even before it became a fashionable notion. "I think ― maybe at the beginning of last year ― I got together with my team and thought starting a truck would be a 4-5 month project," Scott said. He had his eye on a permanent space from which to operate. "Then, 9 ½ months later, we lost it."
Scott found his truck a year ago in Vegas, a 22-footer he calls Betsy, tricked out with a restaurant-size deep-fryer and 4-foot griddle. He still wants to find a five-day-a-week spot in the Financial District, but permitting remains daunting. Until then, it's the occasional Off the Grid event for 3-Sum Eats, whenever it hasn't been hired out for a private catering gig. As for the trucks he admires? "The boys at Spencer on the Go set the standard in the city," Scott said. "I hope to follow in their footsteps."
Follow us on Twitter: @sfoodie. Contact me at John.Birdsall@SFWeekly.com
