Movable feasts

MANILA, Philippines - ‘We drew inspiration from the Halal Guys of New York,’ says Gab Sobrepena of Shawarma Bros.

Where can you get lamb steak cuts served with two kinds of sauce, salsa and biryani rice for only P200?

One early Friday evening, we found a queue at the Shawarma Bros food truck at Capitol Commons and busy hands on the other side of the truck’s counter serving just that.

There are other items on the short menu: shawarma rice plates and wraps, all priced at P150 each. It’s gourmet food on the go you can afford.

It is perhaps this combination of affordability and novelty that has made the food truck business the big thing it is today. Indeed, it has come a long way from its early days, when it was said to cater to workers on US construction sites.

In our own local scene, we have those ubiquitous jeepneys transformed into mini-canteens near office buildings that are permanently parked rather than mobile. With the modern-day food truck, it has suddenly become chic to eat out on the street.

“We drew inspiration from the Halal Guys,” says Gab Sobrepeña, one of the five partners behind Shawarma Bros, referring to the popular food stand on the corner of 53rd St. and 6th Ave. in New York City. The partners were schoolmates at the Ateneo, four of them from way back in grade school to high school and college.

You might still remember the shawarma craze of a couple of decades ago, with meat cooked on a slowly rotating vertical spit. Shavings of the cooked meat are then wrapped in a flatbread or pita together with vegetables and other condiments.

In its present reincarnation at Shawarma Bros, the meat is cooked on a griddle rather than a spit and served on a plate (a biodegradable packet, actually) with rice.

They had initially wanted to serve all their shawarma products only with rice. Besides the Lamb Steak Rice, their menu also includes the Chicken Shawarma Rice and Beef Shawarma Rice, which happens to be their bestseller. 

“But we had people asking for the wrap, so we decided to add that to the menu,” Gab relates. So they now also have Beef Shawarma Wrap, Chicken Shawarma Wrap, and The Mashup Wrap, which is a combination of beef and chicken, two kinds of sauce, salsa and biryani rice, all wrapped in pita bread.

The wraps are pressed in a panini grill for that extra aesthetic touch.

You would think that’s a lot of action taking place inside a regular food truck, but smooth workflow was assured by careful planning.

Atoy Customs, an award-winning local shop popular among auto enthusiasts that customizes cars as well as the mobile homes of high-profile entertainers, customized the truck. A Shawarma Bros partner, Abe Castro, designed the truck’s layout inside as well as the graphics painted on its body outside. He chose the dominant color, yellow, which is appetizing to the eye, he said. They also fitted an LED TV on one panel of the truck, where they run videos about food trucks.

As one of the first food trucks in the metro, they are advocates of the growing food truck movement and are members of the Food Truck Association, which started with only three to four trucks. At the Capitol Commons that Friday night, we counted over a dozen food trucks doing brisk business deep into the night.

“There is strength in numbers,” says Paolo Layug, another Shawarma Bros partner. He had his first encounter with food trucks in Los Angeles. But it goes beyond just the concept of food trucks, he says. Ultimately, it is still the food that matters. “You must have an outstanding product,” he says.

Based on their apparent success, that must be exactly what they have. “We know of people who’ve come to Pasig all the way from Alabang just to taste our shawarma,” Paolo says. They have found their niche and can hold their own beside other trucks that vie for the same hungry crowd, peddling the whole range — from burgers and buns to lechon and crispy chicken skin to gelato and milk tea, among others.

Social media has done its part in getting the word around, says Rammy de Claro, another Shawarma Bros partner. On Facebook you can track their current location. They also cater special events, private and public gatherings. They go to Capitol Commons from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Tuesdays to Sundays, with extended hours on weekends until 12 midnight.

That Friday night at Capitol Commons, the Shawarma Bros partners were present in full force, except for Joey Reyes, who is currently taking further studies at the University of Hawaii.

They have big plans for the future. The space, which serves as their commissary at present on C. Raymundo St. in Pasig, will soon be expanded into a concept restaurant bearing the same successful Shawarma Bros name, Gab reveals, just like their inspiration, the Halal Guys, who reportedly have plans to open their own restaurant in New York’s East Village, if they haven’t already.  It must be the natural progression of successful food trucks. But they will still continue with their Shawarma Bros food truck, Gab assures. Even with their eventual brick-and-mortar versions, it looks likely that ever-convenient food trucks are here to stay.

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The Food Truck Park at Capitol Commons is at Meralco Avenue corner Shaw Boulevard, Pasig City.

For inquiries, contact 0917-8346834, or follow @shawarmabros or FB, Twitter and Instagram.