Question: what fills the air with divine scents and pops up outside once the Rochester snows finally melt away? That's right; food carts! Yeah, yeah; flowers do, too, but no one's ever salivated over the thought of sinking their teeth into a succulent grilled daffodil. The problem, unfortunately, with this sunshiney bounty of sidewalk vittles is that it isn't exactly spa food, and it's nearly impossible to walk away feeling particularly proud of your otherwise quick and inexpensive lunch choice. David Potwin noticed this culinary void and did something about it.
Beginning last month, Potwin's mobile food venture, charmingly titled Lettuce B. Frank, has spent its weekdays parked at Crittenden Boulevard and Whipple Circle, within that bustling little city within a city known as the University of Rochester Medical Center. And, as befits a business with a hospital in its backyard, Lettuce B. Frank specializes in a more conscious form of eating than you'd normally find at a local food cart, with items like a veggie melt ($4), consisting of fresh seasonal vegetables on a whole-wheat pita, as well as an indulgently juicy slider ($4.50) made from locally raised Seven Bridges Farm beef on a grilled English muffin. Oh, toppings with that? Potwin makes his own, offering a meatless hot sauce with chopped-up soy dogs, piquant pickled jalapenos, bright cucumber relish, and pickled red onions with just a whisper of a sweet spice.
It was actually those deliciously sassy onions, along with a tangy, smoky chipotle mustard, that Potwin recommended to complement Lettuce B. Frank's yummy carrot hot ($3.25), boiled and flavor-brined by Richard Schaeffer - he's the man behind Rochester's Original Carrot Hot - then given a bit of grill char by Potwin. It's an ingenious alternative to a Zweigle's or a Jumbo Smart Hot (both are available; $3 and $3.50) and a creation that Potwin, a vegetarian himself, enjoys chatting about with his customers. "I love being here to interact, tell people about the food and where it's from," the former pastry chef says of his new role on the front lines, also a place where Nutella and crushed almonds find their way into a dessert pita ($2.50) that is then grilled for a gooey, chocolate-filled finish.
Lettuce B. Frank is located at Crittenden Boulevard and Whipple Circle. Sandwich prices range from $3 to $4. It is open Monday-Friday 11 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information, visit www.lettucebfrank.com.
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