Food trucks are all the rage these days and New Jersey’s Cinnamon Snail seems to be leading the leading the pack with countless awards and accolades. The Snail was voted best food truck in the country by readers of VegNews Magazine, it was awarded the people’s choice award in this year’s Vendy Awards and Gothamist recently named it NYC’s best food truck.
Chef Adam Sobel is the genius behind The Cinnamon Snail, and he’s truly a wizard in the kitchen. (Or the back of the truck, in this case.) The Snail is well known for their incredible sandwiches, but they also serve breakfast fare, salads, raw dishes and the most amazing pastries and donuts you will have the pleasure of partaking in. The food is vegan, organic and 100% delicious!
The Snail first hit the streets on Valentine’s Day in 2010, which is apropos, as this food is well loved by both vegans and omnivores across New Jersey. It used to be parked daily in Hoboken, but it moved on to the streets of NYC in 2011. Fortunately it can be found parked in the Garden State in Jersey City on Thursday evenings and at the Red Bank Farmer’s Market on Sundays. Snail fans in Montclair have been requesting a visit from their favorite food truck since it’s start, and were quite happy to have their wish come true at the end of October when it participated in the food truck rally at the Montclair Farmers Market.
Eager for a meal from my favorite sandwich artists, I hit up the food truck rally early, hoping to get there before the lines started. Honesty, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Cinnamon Snail parked anywhere without a line though, and it did indeed have the longest line at the rally, even at an early hour. My favorite Snail sandwich is the Creole Grilled Tofu Sub, which consists of grilled tofu in a deliciously messy spicy sauce, perfectly caramelized onions, arugula and tomatoes housed in a toasted baguette. I decided to try something new this time and had their seasonal special which was maple pumpkin glazed seitan with spiced roasted pecans, marinated kale & dark beer whole grain mustard on grilled baguette. Yes, that’s a mouthful, both figuratively and literally! Veggieguy’s favorite dish is the open-faced Korean Barbeque Seitan Sandwich, but he also decided to try something different and had the Maple Mustard Tempeh Sandwich. After our sandwiches, we split a French Mustard Seitan Cashew Cheese Cheese Tart, which was savory, melt-in-your-mouth pastry filled with handmade cashew cheese, tangy mustard and seitan, which is a “wheat meat” made from gluten. We got a box of pastries to go, including a cherry chocolate pretzel donut concoction and a cheesecake brownie for me, and Veggieguy’s favorite glazed donuts. We also bought a few donuts for friends in Pennsylvania (including The Snail’s famed Crème Brulee donut) who we were seeing later in the day, and they declared them to be the best donuts they had ever eaten.
Foodies across northern New Jersey are hoping that the Snail’s success at the farmers market food truck rally will be cause for their favorite food truck to be invited back to Montclair many more times in the future. In the meantime, follow the Snail on Facebook or Twitter to find out where they are parked daily. It’s pretty much guaranteed that there will be a long behind it, as the food is just that good.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, The Cinnamon Snail has been driving daily in the areas that have been hit the hardest to provide free hot meals, coffee and donuts to victims and rescue workers. Anyone wishing to help with their relief efforts can donate via PayPal to thecinnamonsnail@gmail.com.