For some time, I've had philosophical issues with food trucks. When the food truck craze first hit four or five years ago, there just seemed to be this aimless attitude that food truck owners - and even municipalities - had in regard to where they could do business. When owners of established brick-and-mortar restaurants complained - and rightly so - to local municipalities about the seemingly arbitrary regulations governing food trucks, local governments and health departments knew they had to reign in what was turning into a quickly growing - and a very unorganized - kitchen economy. Some food trucks eventually fell by the wayside when rules, regulations, and permits came into play helping to level out the playing field. But others began to prosper when they discovered a whole new venue where they could set up - the fast growing microbrewery sector. While I have had a somewhat cynical approach to food trucks over the years, when they team up with local breweries to provide food while you can enjoy a craft beer - well, I'm all for that. And one of the food trucks that we've discovered at one of our local breweries is Floyd's Burgers & Sliders. And we went to have a burger at Floyd's one recent evening over at Wake Brewing in Rock Island.
Austin Mills was one of those who saw an opportunity in the growing business of food trucks and started renovating his parents' 1978 Winnebago in the spring of 2016. His main job was working at a Jimmy John's and he wasn't in any hurry to turn the camper into a burger joint on wheels. However, in the summer of that year, the city of Davenport announced that they would sponsor a trial program for food trucks to congregate on evenings once a week for the month of September in public lots in the downtown area. (A lot of downtown restaurants were, understandably, upset with this - and, at the time, I sided with the restaurants on this issue.) But the trial was more of an experiment by the city to find out what they needed to do to regulate and weed out the ones that wouldn't comply with rules and regulations.
When Austin Mills found out the city was going to do this pilot program for food trucks, he quickly dove into the complete renovation of the camper into a food truck. He missed the first week of the program, but was open for the second week. Mills served his first burger as Floyd's Burgers and Sliders on September 13, 2016. Over the years, Mills has expanded his menu to include vegan burgers and some interesting sandwich options. Floyd's Burgers & Sliders has built up a loyal following in the community and Mills regularly posts his schedule and specials on their Facebook page.
My wife had been to one of the local breweries with a friend when Floyd's was serving burgers. She told me about it and pointed out to me that Floyd's would be at Wake Brewing that Friday evening between 5 and 8 p.m. - they're normally at Wake on Friday evenings through the spring, summer and fall. We decided to head over to Wake - a place that we have been to many times to have a beer.
Wake Brewing has been around since November of 2017 and is owned by the brother team of Jason and Justen Parris. Jason had been working at Rock Island Brewing Company (RIBCO) as the events and booking coordinator, while Justen was an engineer at the Exelon nuclear power plant near Cordova, IL. I know of both brothers through mutual friends, and Justen used to come to pool parties at our neighbor's house in the past.
The brothers were musicians who started playing together in various bands about 25 years ago. They toured with a couple bands, playing mainly on the East Coast, and also backed various hip-hop artists long before groups like The Roots were doing that type of thing. While on tour one time, the brothers walked into a bar/pizza place in Athens, GA and innocently asked for a pitcher of Guinness for them to share. The girl behind the bar looked at them funny and said that they didn't have Guinness, that the bar only specialized in craft beers. The young lady suggested a beer they should try - a Grant's Perfect Porter from the new defunct Yakima Brewing Company in Yakima, WA. The brothers immediately loved the beer and started to find more craft brews on their tour up and down the East Coast.
After getting off the road and getting back to the Quad Cities, Justen Parris started to fiddle around with making his own beer at home. About a year later, Jason got involved with his brother's hobby and the two networked with other home-brewers in the area. They decided that the Quad Cities needed another craft brewery - there were only 3 at the time - and opened Wake in the fall of 2017. Today, there is something like 15 craft breweries within a 30-mile radius of the Quad Cities. And for a beer aficionado like myself, that's a good thing.
Wake Brewing is located where Illinois 92 splits just east of downtown Rock Island, across from the Quad City Botanical Center and the QCCA Expo Center. (see map) Parking is available on the side of the building that houses Wake, but that night with Floyd's make-shift camper/kitchen in the lot, the only parking available was behind Wake.
My wife and I went in to get a beer and they always have a lively selection of music playing at Wake. A diverse selection of artists such as Ben Howard and Hippo Campus were playing that evening on the microbrewery's modest sound system that also pipes music outside to their beer garden in front of the building. My wife and I got a double dry-hopped pale ale that they had on tap, one of the many rotating styles of craft beer Wake features.
The tap room at Wake is pretty small - it doesn't seat many more than probably 30 people, and now less than that with COVID-19 restrictions in place - so we ended up seated at one of the all-weather picnic tables outside. There had been a threat of rain earlier in the day, but by the time the line of storms came to the Quad Cities it had pretty much squeezed out all the rain, save for a few sprinkles that fell on us at Wake. The cool air behind the front that came through was a welcome relief from the hot and humid weather we had been having.
The Floyd's food truck has a colorful mural on the back side, but has a minimalist logo on the side where the order window is. The logo is similar to the artwork Gerald Scarfe did for Pink Floyd's epic album "The Wall" over 40 years ago. I immediately caught the "Floyd's Burgers & Sliders" and the "Pink Floyd" connection with the logo.
The menu is located on blackboards on the ground next to the food truck. Austin Mills has come a long way over the past four years as his initial menu only featured two items. He has six different variations of burgers on the menu - including a veggie burger - as well as five different types of sliders (four per order). The "Rhythm and Bleu" burger features bleu cheese, bacon and a chili garlic sauce; the "I'm Yer Huckleberry" is topped with cheese, crispy onions, jalapeños, bacon and a barbecue sauce; and the "Dyin' for Hawaiian" sliders consist of ham, cheese, bacon, pineapple, and Thousand Island dressing on four slider buns. Floyd's also has grilled sandwiches including the "Foghorn" consisting of a roasted chicken breast, cheese, bacon and barbecue sauce; the "Basket Case" that features ham, cheese, bacon, a fried egg, and their garlic/chili sauce; as well as a classic grilled reuben sandwich.
On this particular visit, they also had a special that evening - the Birria burger. It consisted of slow roasted birria beef - a staple in authentic Mexico cuisine - on top of two burger patties finished with chihuahua cheese, a honey/hibiscus sauce, and came with a side of chipotle sauce. I paused for a moment as I looked that over and thought that sounded really good.
As I was waiting in line to order, I heard a voice call my name from inside the Floyd's food truck. It was an old acquaintance who I used to work with at outdoor concert events in downtown Davenport a number of years ago. Actually, we had come across one another just a week before when my wife, her sister and I went out to Crust to have some pizza one evening. We hadn't seen each other for a long time and here he was back in my life working for both Crust and helping out Austin Mills from time to time in the Floyd's food truck.
I almost got the Birria burger, but for the first time eating at Floyd's I wanted to go with the regular ol' cheeseburger - the "Royale with Cheese". My wife said she wanted the same thing. I also got a small order of Floyd's hand-cut fries for us to share. About 15 minutes later, I went over to the food truck and picked up our order from my long-lost friend.
The burgers and fries were served in small paper food boats and condiments (mustard, ketchup, mayo) were available in packets next to the napkins. The American cheese was oozing out from under a soft egg bun on top of the two flat-grilled burger patties. The taste of the burger was fantastic. The beef had the crispy edge that you get from mashing down the meat and having it cook in its own juices. My wife had already experienced a burger from Floyd's and she said, "I knew you'd like their burgers." I did - a lot. They were juicy, flavorful and had a great flat-grilled beef taste. And the fries were also very good. They had a bit of a seasoning on them that didn't overpower the taste. They were crunchy on the outside, but had that great flaky potato consistency on the inside.
We had a recent experience with Floyd's again. My wife and I had taken a few days off to travel for vacation and we got home on a Sunday afternoon. Not really wanting to go to the store and find food to make at home that night, my wife suggested we look up where Floyd's Burgers & Sliders would be that evening. It turned out that they were at one of our other favorite breweries in the Quad Cities, Crawford Brew Works over in Bettendorf. (see map) Crawford has been around since May of 2018 and features a number of very good beers that we like including their "Kinda-Kolsch" German-style summer beer, and their "Get Off My Lawn" IPA.
Floyd's had set up their food truck there and we went out to have some food and a couple beers. This time, their special was a cherry-smoked beef brisket topped with Boetje's mustard, pickled cucumbers and onions, and fresh dill. I really wanted to get a burger from Floyd's, but I had to pull the trigger on this sandwich.
The sandwich was served on grilled rye bread and featured thick chunks of brisket that had a hint of a smoky flavor to it. The Boetje's mustard gave the sandwich a nice kick, but the pickled onions and cucumbers helped balance out the spiciness of the stone ground mustard. The fresh dill was hardly noticeable with all the other taste sensations that were going on.
My wife got the "Royale with Cheese" burger again and it smelled so good as it came off the grill. We just got the sandwich and burger this time - no fries. So, after I finished my sandwich, I determined that the smell of burger was too overpowering for me. I had to go get one. I got it to go, but it turned out that my wife wasn't quite ready to leave Crawford Brew Works. So I ate the burger while having another beer. It was a great ending to what had been a great vacation for us.
I'm starting to come over to the side of the food trucks - especially when they camp out at any one of the microbreweries we have in the Quad Cities. But I'll put Floyd's "Royale with Cheese" up against any cheeseburger I've had in the area. It was a great burger and I'm sure that we'll be looking up on their Facebook page to see where they're parked some future evening.
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