Forget mariachi bands and sombreros pinned to the wall. Truck, a new Mexican restaurant in Bedford, feels more like a charming country cafe. There are rustic wood paneled walls, robin’s egg blue-painted chairs, vintage pendant lights, wire baskets holding pumpkins. Large lit-up letters spell out “TRUCK” in a cool art installation on one wall. Dividing the restaurant are floor to ceiling wooden sliders with “BEDFORD” spelled out in weathered paint.
Housed in a former truck stop, hence the name, Truck is an exciting development for locavores. While most farm-to-table restaurants in Westchester offer classic American fare, Truck has grass-fed beef tacos, local veg enchiladas (sourced with vegetables from Connecticut farms), and Captain Jeff’s fried oysters (raised in Westport, CT and featured in Bloomberg Business Week).
A drink called NY State Sangria is made with apples from local orchards. Truck’s menu lists 16 local farms as the “Farms that Feed Us”; they always use sustainably raised organic meats.
After years living in Washington, DC, which is a hotbed of ooey-gooey, smoky Tex-Mex, I found myself in a roasted chili wasteland up in Westchester. You can get decent-enough Mexican at Blue Moon in Bronxville, Harry’s Burritos in Larchmont or Mariachi Mexico in Armonk, but the dishes are often the same rice and beans mixed ten different ways.
Every plate at Truck is fresh and full of flavor. The seriously-smokin’ Santa Fe Stacked Enchiladas are layered with cheese rather than rolled, smothered with New Mexican red chile sauce, and topped with microgreens and chipotle crema. The carne adovada taco is stuffed with slow-cooked sustainable pork shoulder, a perfect balance of cumin, ancho chile and garlic, that sits happily in a no GMO taco shell.
House-made stone-ground chips and salsa (and guac) should not be missed. Kids are easy to feed here. You can buy tacos individually (at $4.50 a piece) and order rice and beans, both organic, as sides.
Lucky we made reservations. On a recent Saturday night, my husband and I stepped into a packed house with people spilling out into the parking lot while they waited for a seat. Parking is limited, and there’s no valet so we parked at the hardware store across the street. We sipped Tumbleweed cocktails (Del Maguey ‘Vida’ blanco mescal, cranberry, pineapple, lime and bitters) at the teeny corner bar while we waited. We didn’t bring our baby with us, but we vowed we’d come back next time with our wee one. Actually, we’ve been talking about going back since.
Truck, 391 Old Post Road, Bedford; 914-234-8900. Open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday; closed on Sundays and Mondays. Open for lunch Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 to 3:30pm.
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Thanks so much for such a lovely, well written write-up! See you soon!