WILMINGTON — Chef Keith Rhodes’ food truck, which has criss-crossed the city for several years, now has a permanent home.
The food truck, a spin-off of Rhodes’ award-winning restaurant Catch, has set up shop at many of Wilmington’s breweries, most of which lack kitchen facilities. But now ‘Catch the food truck‘ will be in full-time residence at Flytrap Brewing in downtown Wilmington.
Flytrap Owner and Brewer Mike Barlas said the partnership is long standing.
“Our relationship with Chef Rhodes goes way back,” Barlas said. “He was there at our grand opening with his Wing Star food truck.”
Barlas added, “We’ve both grown. For a long time they’ve wanted a permanent home for the Catch food truck. At the same time, we were transitioning to larger brew equipment. We’re to that point now where we can handle larger crowds with eight to 10 of our own beers on tap. We always thought about Catch as a good fit for here, and so we talked to them and it just all kind of worked out.”
According to Barlas, Rhodes and Flytrap are still working out some last-minute details. He would say that the the food truck hopes to serve both appetizer-sized small bites and full sized entrees. Barlas also said having Chef Rhodes’ food truck on location would hopefully lead to future food and beer events.
“We’ve had some great events here already,” Barlas said. “We had Chef Rhodes recreate the Phun (Rhodes’ former Asian tapas restaurant) menu. We’re looking forward to planning specials to pair with beers, and having Chef Rhodes incorporate some of our beers. There’s a lot of great stuff coming, it’s just a perfect synergistic pairing.”
Barlas said the Pepe’s Tacos truck will still make its weekly appearance on Friday nights. The Catch food truck will be open Saturday through Thursday.
“We open at three, so the truck will probably open between 4 and 5 and stay open until 8 or 9. We’ll be there for the after-work appetizer and beer crowd, and then later for the sit-down dinner crowd. Sundays we’re still working on, but it will probably be an afternoon thing,” Barlas said.
‘Catch the food truck’ will start its residency June 1 at Flytrap, located at 319 Walnut St.