If you're starting to hear the murmurs about Zavrozita in the Valley, you've got your ear to the pavement. This local food truck is really starting to pick up some steam in the word-of-mouth department.
Starting off in the Whitman area food truck lot (where most trucks go to die), Zavrozita IMMEDIATELY sent a message to the competition in town. We do authentic food, we do it for the right price, and HEY...dare you to come down and check us out because we do it really, really well. I was dazzled alone by the social media pictures of the food before I even tried it. Following their presence in town for the last 4 months, I was also immediately impressed by their fearless move to embrace the late-night bar & college crowd- something I have rarely seen attempted and certainly not by a food truck. This may or may not be successful in the off months, but it certainly is refreshing seeing someone go for it.
I digress.... Other than some questionable exterior design & signage, these guys are busting the doors open on social media and people are responding. Word is starting to spread and if you're like me, you're waiting for those first rounds of feedback to reach your ear-holes.
Flashback to last night: Zavrozita's FIRST night at Burwood Brewery. Potentially the first night away from the mellow blips of the food truck dock and the occasional wandering college kid or drunken tourist that wandered off too far. This seemed to be the trial-run according to Burwood's website. You just got called up to the "Bigs", Zavrozita! I was excited, as were many others I knew in town. I know how these first nights can go if you're not properly experienced with volume, though; we went for it for it with LOTS of trepidation and a little hope.
What we experienced was absolutely a lack of foresight on the part of the truck and certainly a telegraph that this was an inexperienced and overwhelmed crew. Waits were excruciating. Had the folks around us warned us, we would have moved on (as we had brought our hungry kids) and tried them another time. It would have even been nice for the owner to let us know average wait times and concede that they were a bit over their heads. I would have understood completely. Instead, we paid up front, and began our obscenely ridiculous hour-and-a-half wait for 2 tacos, a side of "mexicorn" and a Cuban sandwich. One we sat down, the grumbles from hungry patrons around us finally piped up all about. The people across from us were at 45 minutes and the other table was an hour. Yikes. This was going to be a LONG night.
We checked in with her at the hour and 20 mark and they seemed to be confused at first, but then promised we would be expedited. Was our order lost? Who knows. I think the real frustration was the blahzay attitude of the staff. They could see customers losing patience and ticket times were abysmal, but it didn't seem to get them moving any faster or acknowledge the mess. Yes, "keep your cool" when the ship is sinking, but don't leave your clientele in the dark. Acknowledge a wait-time when it gets past 30 minutes. Send out some free chips or something. Give them a 10% off coupon on next visit. Gauge them. (Sigh) Again, I digress....
Why then am I giving it a 4-star? Because, well, the food ended up being just what it looked to be: insanely delicious & creative Mexican cuisine coming out of a food truck that seemed to be barely doggy-paddling the whole time we were there. This food has heart. Creativity. Perfect balance. Flavor profiles that will dazzle. This food SINGS. SERIOUSLY.
I left that night like I can imagine most people did: sort of shaking off and forgetting how damn long it took to get that first bite. Here's the deal: at the end of the day, the ONLY thing that will save you from poor execution and a disaster of a wait-time, is really, really damn good food. Zavrozita: you ran the gauntlet and survived. AND HOW! I will be back for more. I'll just keep it to the weeknight, off-dinner times for now. ;)
