Skillet

Quick and Easy
Highlights: “The Burger” will challenge your perceptions of a burger in the culinary spectrum
Location: One Trailer moves daily between four regular locations; also works special events. See website.
Forewarning: Long lunch lines, make sure you have time to stick it out, because it's worth the wait.

It was a regular Tuesday, a day in which I was mired in the corporate speak of “functionality” and “compelling calls to action” while the sun shown down on Seattle. My Pioneer Square office was awash in a golden glow, the back of my leather desk chair sticky from the heat of the skylight. At 11:30am, a coworker asked if I wanted to go to Skillet. Having no idea what Skillet was but grateful for an opportunity to “synergize” with the fleeting summertime, I quickly said yes.

We drove down First Avenue into the SoDo district, a place, suffice it to say, generally lacking in dining opportunities. “Do you see a trailer? It's supposed to be right here…” my coworker said. I was amused at the thought that we were taking an hour and a half to patronize a taco wagon, but by no means opting out. Then, I spotted Skillet--an Airstream trailer with a line thirty people long, parked in a dirt lot between two industrial buildings.

I strained to see the menu: Crab Cakes? Kobe Beef Burger? Prawn Sammy? Poutine!? To call it the best food to come from an Airstream trailer is hardly doing it justice. “The Burger” comes complete with cambazola, bacon jam, arugula, brioche, and is accompanied by Skillet's handcut, seasoned fries. It's cooked delightfully medium-rare and, at $8, is ready to do battle with any entrée in a bang-for-your-buck competition. The poutine--fries smothered in herb gravy and white cheddar--is as gourmet as any dish so inextricably Midwest could ever aspire to be.

The genius of Skillet is its embrace of quality ingredients (their Prawn Sandwich is topped with a horseradish crème fraiche and roasted shallots) coupled with its seeming disdain for all formality. Indeed, it's difficult to imagine a presentation more blue collar than a waxed-paper to-go box and a plastic fork. The only available seating at the SoDo location is a pile of creosote soaked railroad ties that will stain your business slacks worse than the fruity frescas on offer to help you wash down the pulled pork.

Skillet Street Food operates in four locations around Seattle each week; check their website for a schedule. A walk-up window in Pioneer Square is currently in the works. When open, it will surely compete with Salumi for the longest Friday afternoon lunch lines. May the best sandwich win.