Add Shell’s Coastal Cuisine to the fast-growing list of food trucks in town. The brand new truck is already trolling St. Louis streets, dishing up shrimp melt sandwiches, Cuban sandwiches and other Southern Florida and island fare.
The three-person crew aboard Shell’s Coastal Cuisine includes owner Shelley McMahan, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu who worked last year catering to Major League Baseball players and the media at the Cardinal’s Club, then spent the off-season working on a food truck before getting her own set of wheels. Assisting McMahan are Becky Gonzales, another recent Le Cordon Bleu grad, and soon-to-be culinary school grad Linda Wagoner.
McMahan is part of the business incubator program at St. Patrick Center and is using the St. Patrick space as a commissary kitchen. All of the food being dished out of the Shell’s truck, however, from those mouthwatering sandwiches that come with freshly made sweet potato chips to a variety of tacos, is cooked on the truck.
Shell’s Coastal Cuisine frequents the city of St. Louis, parking near the Barnes-Jewish Hospital complex on Mondays and Wells Fargo in Midtown on Wednesdays. The truck will soon also be venturing into St. Louis County.
A Man And His Meal!
Shell's Coastal Cuisine Food Truck - St. Louis, MO
The street food truck phenomenon is sweeping the nation and St. Louis is starting to get in on the craze. Within the past 18 months, St. Louis went from having no food trucks to having a dozen trucks on the street today. The trucks mainly serve the downtown and Central West End areas with some exceptions. While I was in town, I made it my mission to find a food truck and test out the St. Louis food truck market. That's when I hit my first roadblock. I wanted to find a truck for dinner and I learned that none of the trucks in St. Louis have dinner service. So it took a little strategy to work out my schedule, but I was able to make it work. The next big concern was deciding which truck to frequent. After some diligent menu research, I settled on Shell's Coastal Cuisine.
On Wednesday, I found the truck serving lunch on the campus of Wells Fargo Advisors. The truck has a fresh, beach theme and as I approached I could hear island music playing from the truck. It was incredibly hot the day I went to eat there and despite the heat, the staff was very friendly. McMahan took my order and unfortunately I didn't arrive in time to get the Blue Heaven's Shrimp Melt. I was momentarily sad since that is the menu item that made my mouth water when I did my research. However, the smell of steak on the flat top grill inside the truck made up my mind for me. I ordered the steak tacos and sweet potato chips as a side.
My food was served quickly and I chose to have my tacos on corn tortillas. The truck offers both corn and flour tortillas. They also provide a number of different hot sauces. After setting myself up, I took my first bite and was immediately pleased. The tortillas were soft and warm and the steak was juicy with a nice crust on the outside. The sweet potato chips were crispy and the sweetness of the chips were well balanced by the dusting of salt. The chips were $2 and the two tacos were $7.50. With a soda, my total bill was $11 and I was delightfully full.
