Wood-fired and on the move
Warmer weather is here, and food trucks are filling the streets again with various cuisines at local markets, outdoor activities, and around the Capitol. Here is another Q&A in our occasional series on area food trucks and their operators. This week, we talked with David Britton, owner of Pies on Wheels.
How did Pies on Wheels come to be?
We started in 2009 when the economy was questionable. We were closing a restaurant we had in Saratoga, so we took our last little investment and started a food truck which had a wood-fired pizza theme. We bought a truck off of ebay and we had it built here locally. We started the first year with parties and it’s developed over the last 12 years into a prosperous and enjoyable business.
We started with pizzas, which are really fun to make and often the expenses are pretty controllable because the ingredients by themselves are often not overly expensive. Now we also offer options like paella and plank salmon on the churrasco grill.
How would you describe Pies on Wheels food truck’s culture?
We source locally as needed. That is in the DNA of our operation. We’re a seasonal farm community, but if we’re doing roasted beets or sides of asparagus, there’s a lot of menu items on there that we can source. Even the mainstream stores in
town have local sections.
The ovens and the equipment we use are the finest available. Especially to be portable and travel, and to get the quality of pizza that we offer. I used to work for Ritz-carlton. We did
an event in Palm Springs and they had this wood-fire oven that they were moving around the property with a forklift, and I thought to myself, “That is absolutely the coolest thing I’ve