Say friggin' hello to Dallas's first roving "friggitoria", Gennarino's: a proudly blue & white truck serving fare common to Napoli piazzas but otherwise hard to track down even in Italy, hand-painted with hometown symbols like Pulcinella (an archetypal figure in Neapolitan theater), Vesuvius (the volcano immortalized in...a Sufjan Stevens song!), and San Gennaro (the patron saint of Naples, who protects against Vesuvius, but not Sufjan Stevens). They'll be rolling out the minute the truck's finished (hopefully today), so here's what it's all about:
Familia: The truck's run by 3 brothers: Rafaelle, a Neapolitan pizza apprentice who met his Houstonian wife while she was studying abroad; Armando, an Italian army paratrooper who served in Afghanistan; and Alessio, who's been doing gourmet studies since 14, an age when the kids in America's favorite thing to do is Totino's.
Fried Apps: Re-purposed leftovers typically eaten pre-pizza, these include arancinos (risotto balls w/ tomato/meat sauce or saffron) and timbalos (pasta balls incl. spaghetti & meatballs and fettuccine alfredo), plus polenta triangles and pizza fritta -- golden dough topped w/ sauce & mozz, it's a sort of dream snack for after you've topped yourself with sauce.
Non-Fried Mains: Traditional lasagna, plus a Hefner-triplets-hot trio of paninis: eggplant Parm, caprese, and, loaded with tomato-sauced meatballs, braciola, pork shoulder, mozz & Parm, the Granny's Sunday Gravy, a dish grannies traditionally spend all Sunday making, which makes you wonder why Italian men don't live with their moms' moms.
Going above and beyond with service, they're offering free delivery via Vespa provided you're within five miles of wherever the truck's located, buy $10 worth of chow, and, most importantly, make an initial truck visit to introduce yourself -- because whether in Naples or North Dallas, people should take the time to friggin' say hello.
