With the “food truck” mobile eatery trend on the rise, hungry folks on-the-go can find everything from cupcakes to sushi along Valley roadways. So it’s no surprise that we’ve even got a few rolling restaurants devoted to pizza. Dean Medico, owner of food truck Pizza Luca, has the secret to creating perfect portable pizza: “Our ingredients are simple, but of super high quality,” he says. “Every ingredient in our pizza, except for the basil, is imported from various regions in Italy — and our wood-fired oven provides a char and baking that doesn’t happen any other way.” The truck — which opened for business in last April — is actually a classic 1952 Chevy flatbed pickup outfitted with an oven, sinks, and other necessities of a functioning pizza kitchen. “At first I thought I’d get a trailer and attach it to a truck. But that would be about 30 feet long, so we decided to condense the two,” Medico says. “I wanted to keep the rustic look of old farm truck, so we added mahogany and brass fixtures. It’s got a lot of style.”
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Left, a pizza Luca pie. At right: Pizza Luca owner Dean MedicoMedico grew up around the food industry — some family members owned pizza shops — and while he “avoided it for years,” he eventually took Italian culinary courses at the French Culinary Institute. “I worked at several restaurants around New York and I loved the process of creating food, but I decided I’d rather launch my own business,” he says. “And it’s been a success so far; we’ve received great feedback.” Pizza Luca can be found parked three times a week (weather permitting) in Mount Kisco, plus at farmer’s markets and other events around the region. Learn more about locations on their Facebook and Twitter pages.
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A Dobbs Ferry restaurant called the Cookery launched its DoughNation pizza truck, offering traditional Naples style wood-fired pizza at various farmer’s markets in Westchester. (While it was a popular eatery, at press time, the Cookery was temporarily closed. Visit its Web site for updates.)
And sometimes a food truck is so popular that its owners decide to set up shop. This is the case for Calabria Pizza in New City. The original Calabria opened in Orangeburg in 1989, and mobile service began in 2007. After much success, Calabria Pizza of New City began serving pies in 2011.
» More about Pizza Luca food truck
» More about The Cookery’s DoughNation pizza truck
» Return to Pizza and Pizzerias in the Hudson Valley feature story
» Find a Hudson Valley pizzeria
