A Movable Feast Food Truck Delivers Elevated Eats
While Shawn Sweeney browses farmers markets, vendors often inspire him to make dishes on the spot to serve from his food truck, A Movable Feast.
That’s how he crafted creamy, cheesy grits made with Mud Run Farm stone-ground corn grits and local squash, tomatoes, cheese and milk.
“It’s fun to watch the gears going as he’s shopping and building items on the fly,” says truck co-owner and Sweeney’s wife, Angela Kukla. “[It’s] like his own version of ‘Chopped.’ ”
The Youngstown natives launched A Movable Feast in 2018 after Sweeney spent a year and a half as the founding chef at the Hoppin’ Frog Brewery taproom. Sweeney wanted to bring that elevated fare to a food truck that serves what’s fresh and available.
He loves to collaborate with market vendors, including Canfield-based Mamalagels Bagels. Its Sriracha everything bagel is a unique bun for the popular Youngstown hot chicken sandwich ($13), which features a hand-breaded, seasoned and fried chicken thigh, arugula and bread-and-butter pickles and is served with truffle fries. Rather than making the chicken fiery, the subtle heat comes from the bagel.
“It’s our take on a Nashville hot,” Kukla says. “It’s just enough heat without being overpowering.”
Some dishes are creative twists on classics, like the halo double cheeseburger ($13) that is surrounded by a crispy ring of melted cheese. Others are dishes Sweeney hopes to introduce to Northeast Ohioans, like a poke bowl ($13), similar to what the couple had on their Hawaiian honeymoon. The refreshing light dish features cubed raw tuna marinated in gluten-free tamari soy sauce, Japanese sticky rice, a Sriracha mayo drizzle and seasonal vegetable garnishes that might include wakame seaweed salad, carrots, radishes or pickled mushrooms, which Sweeney gets from Miller’s Mushrooms in Canton.
“Miller’s Mushrooms has the most pristine, beautiful mushrooms, and they’re locally grown,” he says. “They can make the dish pop.”
While the couple lives in Green now, they return to Youngstown for food truck events. With inventive dishes and Sweeney’s on-a-whim specials, they hope to expand the palate of the region and bolster the food truck scene.
“We do restaurant quality food,” Sweeney says. “It changed the perception of what a food truck does.”
Find It: (2022 dates) Aug. 10, North Canton Farmers’ Market; Aug. 13, Wild for Wine Akron Zoo; Aug. 20, PorchRokr Music and Art Festival; Aug. 27, Akron Pride Festival; facebook.com/amovablefeastakron
Another Culinary Delight:
Kitchen 212
Launched during the pandemic, executive chef Mike Hamlin presents a flavorful global Akron food truck that gets raves for artisan fare like a steak sandwich ($14) with marinated flank steak, caramelized onions, arugula and chimichurri aioli on toasted ciabatta.
Find It: (2022 dates) Aug. 11, 13 and 25, Kent’s North Water Brewing Co.; Aug. 12, Cuyahoga Falls Downtown Fridays; Aug. 18, Embassy Parkway Lunch; Aug. 20, PorchRokr Music and Art Festival; kitchen212.com