Dallas' first big-time food truck gets rollin'

Traditionally, Dallas' sidewalk food vendors have been limited to lemonade stands and bake sales -- not too appealing if you're not in the mood for sweets, or for arguing with an 8-year-old that for 50 cents could buy you a quarter-tub of that Country Time powder she's using. Christ, would it kill you to squeeze a freaking lemon? Now pulling up to better serve your stomach, Green House Truck.

Just debuting behind University Park City Hall after jumping through innumerable municipal hoops, Green's the dream of an ex-Routh Street chef and an ex-attorney who caught the food-truck bug via stints in Austin and LA: a quilted aluminum-sided, 26-year-old mobile catering rig equipped with a flat grill, pro-grade refrigeration, and a clean-burning propane generator, serving health-minded meals using mostly local ingredients, but hilariously none from Farmers Branch. Beyond soups and salads, the seasonally shifting menu will include the likes of lemon herb chicken, seared salmon, or miso flank steak served with rotating veggies and steamed brown rice, a steak ciabatta sandwich w/ grilled peppers & creamy walnut pesto, and seared organic beef'd "Ben's Firehouse Chili" -- overload on it, then spend the day loafing around the house hoping nobody calls. Further not-too-fatness includes baked sweet potato and roasted oven fries, desserts like fresh cookies and a "gooey chocolate cocoa brownie", and bevs from Addison Roasters coffees to green tea sodas by Steaz -- best ordered with the phrase "You know my Steaz".

Green's still working out legalities to regularly park downtown (across from the Nasher) and in the Design District, but it's already hire-able for one-day private catering gigs anywhere; it's also outfitted with 200ft-range 4G Wi-Fi, so you can catch that YouTube clip of you, telling a sweet little 8-year-old she can either give you back a quarter, or you're taking the whole damn pitcher.