Today, some Xpress staff tasted an assortment of offerings from the Lowdown food truck, a new mobile sandwich shop opened by Nate Kelly, former chef of the Usual Suspects, the ever-popular late-night hot spot that was replaced by Avenue M last year.
Monday through Thursday, Nate and wife Cynthia Kelly can be found selling sandwiches and housemade local-blueberry-infused sweet tea at 425 Broadway, in the parking lot of the Citgo station across from Hillside Street. Fridays and Saturdays, the truck parks at 75 Swannanoa River Road.
The menu currently consists of four sandwiches, each unique and unanimously declared fantastic by the select Xpress staff who sampled the fare. At least that’s what it sounded like they were saying as they hoovered the Lowdown’s offerings over the break-room table.
The Lowdown offers a braised beef po’ boy with horseradish mayo and a crispy pickle. For the vegetarians, there’s a tofu “bahn mi” with lemongrass tofu, pickled veggies, fresh cucumber, cilantro and Sriracha mayo. Both are served on a crunchy-crust baguette, baked by Fiore’s, a restaurant owned by AIR-member Anthony Cerrato (the Italian eatery currently has two locations — downtown and south Asheville).
A very good smoked pork sandwich comes with pickled okra and coleslaw with a choice of red Memphis or mustard-style bbq sauce on Texas toast. There’s also a BLT with an extra “P” at the end that stands for mighty good pimento cheese with a little bit of kick. The tomatoes on this one were a yellow heirloom variety on the day Xpress visited.
For the kids, there’s also a grilled peanut butter and jelly with housemade strawberry jam.
We are officially fans.
Photos by Jonathan Welch
Tried the Lowdown at the True Nature fair. What a pleasant surprise! Great food, and the little touches like pickled okra in the sandwich were greatly appreciated. A wonderful addition.