Maranta plant shop sprouts food trailer
The popular plant shop Maranta in Bronzeville has sprouted a new business: a food trailer called Tostada by Maranta.
The trailer, which sold out nearly two hours ahead of schedule at its debut Wednesday, sells four kinds of tostadas and two kinds of agua fresca.
The chef is Dominique Alvarado, who formerly operated Algo Dulce, selling Mexican sweets: agua frescas, the lightly sweetened fruit juices; fruit cups with sauces; and paletas, the frozen pops. Alvarado is partners with the Maranta owners in the new business.
The trailer is open 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. It’s parked outside the Black-and-brown-owned plant shop at 1739 N. King Drive, just across the street from the statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Tostada’s partners had originally planned a brick-and-mortar location, until the pandemic scuttled that, Alvarado said.
“We obviously wanted to do Latinx food, but everyone does the same stuff; how can we be different?” Alvarado said, recounting the partners’ thoughts about the business. Tostadas, she said, are simple but lend themselves to creativity.
“I’m a concoction person,” she said: She knows when ingredients sound right together.
The four tostadas are pork belly, chicken, soy chorizo and mushroom.
“The one that everyone is super crazy about is pork belly,” she said. Alvarado toasts chile de arbol and combines it with honey, sherry and fresh herbs to sauce the crisped pork belly. Refried black beans are spread first on all the tostadas; this one is also topped with Mexican sour cream, mojo sauce and queso fresco.
The chicken tostada is paired with tamarind slaw. The other half of the menu is vegetarian or vegan. “I just feel like it has to be inclusive,” Alvarado said.
She tops soy chorizo with guacamole, cotija cheese and citrus rajas; on the vegan mushroom tostada, poblano and red onion combine with adobo sauce and are topped with guacamole and creamy cashew-citrus slaw. Each tostada is $7.
The trailer also sells Alvarado’s agua frescas for $3; opening flavors were lavender horchata and mango mint.
Her aim is to buy local produce and meat to top the tostadas, which are from Tortilleria Zepeda in Madison. The tortilleria makes the dough for the tostadas from scratch, first nixtamalizing organic Wisconsin corn.
Alvarado plans to operate the trailer even in winter. Lunch hours could begin in a couple of weeks, she said.
Contact dining critic Carol Deptolla at carol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 2242841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.