I Ate This: Skillet Food Club

Posted Aug. 22, 2007 at 1:52 pm by Jess Thomson

What: Skillet Food Club

Where: This is a very good question. Their GPS locator told me they'd be somewhere in South Lake Union, but when I showed up at 264 Westlake, I found a parking lot with no trailer. Turns out Josh and Danny have set up shop temporarily in the alley east of the 200 block, right below the KIRO sign. As the crow flies, it's behind an Asian import store called East to West.

When: 12:30 today, for lunch

Cost: $14 for a chicken sandwich ($8), a Jones Soda ($2), and a little bucket of poutin ($4).

Would I eat it again? In an instant. I hope their little Airstream has babies.

Official Tasting Notes:  

Skillet's menu is small, and for now they're just offering a few things from it each day - so today it was either Kobe beef sliders, a salad, or a sandwich. 

After trying a (recyclable) spoonful of the bacon jam they put on their sliders, which is what I really wanted from them - mmm, the essence of 10,000 pigs - I decided on a hazelnut-crusted chicken sandwich, served with a zingy, crisp apple-fennel slaw and a good slathering of roasted shallot aioli. The chicken's crunch and tenderness reminded me of Steelhead's buttermilk-fried chicken sammy; where Steelhead's is the ultimate classic fried chicken sandwich, Skillet's is its more creative counterpart. I shoveled it in without stopping to wipe the mayo off my face, despite the fact that I could quite easily see my messy reflection in the side of the Airstream.

This is poutin, which translates to "upscale cheesy fries": good fries (maybe could have been a bit crispier, but then again, i wanted until I'd downed my sandwich to get to them), topped with an earthy herb gravy and little cubes of sharp Irish cheddar. I really wanted to shove my entire face into the cup, rather than waiting the few precious seconds it took me to move my hand from the cup to my mouth for each bite.

Today, these boys really had the trailer park setting down pat: There was the soft hum of a good generator, a few cranes towering overhead nearby, hot sun reflecting off the dirty pavement, and the consistent thump-thump of of a nearby construction site. But they're only here on Wednesdays and Thursdays, for the time being. And you know what? With food like this, I'd follow them just about anywhere.

Insider Tip: Here, that's a two-part question.

Inside? Yeah, I wondered the same thing. How do they make food like that in a friggin' trailer? Good planning, that's how. Here's what it looks like:

 

And tips? They don't take 'em. Danny, one of the owners, just stands out front taking orders in his cute Kentucky drawl, and actually asks you not to tip when you sign your credit card slip. If you insist, the tips go to the cook who's not the owner.

Are these guys for real? I want a trailer at my birthday party. 

Topics: I Ate This

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