Silver Spoon introduces street food to the south suburbs

Lori Midson

It was only a matter of time before urban street food went suburban, and first (that we know of, anyway) to bring the street food movement to suburban asphalt are bigwigs Chris Amato, Peter Kudla and Rob Kuck, the visionaries behind the Vallagio at Inverness, which will soon unmask several new restaurants, including a second Marco's Coal-Fired Pizzeria, Street Kitchen Asian Bistro and Russo's Kitchen and Tavern.

Bur first, there's the street mobile.

It's a super-sized airstream trailer called Silver Spoon, and it's parked in a dirt lot just adjacent to the super-sized lofts and retail spaces that are popping up rapidly in the Vallagio development. "Street food is the hottest food movement of the moment, and we wanted to jump on the bus, so to speak, especially since there aren't a lot of places to get food in this area," says Amato, who's often behind the trailer's open window hustling Vienna hot dogs and burgers.

Lori Midson

The trailer, which hawks breakfast and lunch, Monday through Thursday, from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; breakfast, lunch and dinner every Friday till 7:30 p.m.; and breakfast on Saturday till 11 a.m., is the brainchild of Kudla, also the CEO of Metropolitan Homes, and a New York native. "Peter has always been a fan of casual joints, and he thought that this would a great place to serve hamburgers and hot dogs," explains Amato. The board -- short and to the point -- also doles out breakfast sandwiches, oatmeal and zeppole, salads, scratchmade soups that change daily, french fries, sandwiches and shaved Italian ice that's brought in from Queens.

Business, says Amato, is booming. "On the first Wednesday after we opened, we sold 200 hot dogs in an hour and a half, so we're definitely generating traffic."

Lori Midson

And it'll likely generate more once the joint secures its liquor license, which, according to Amato, should be sometime during the first week in October. "People are asking for beer and mimosas," he says. Bloody Marys, too, but at this point, the license is for beer and wine only.

Unfortunately, neither will be available on September 10, when the Silver Spoon hosts a pig roast from 3 to 7:30 p.m. in the parking lot, complete with barbecue pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, housemade potato chips and basil-infused lemonade. That, says Amato, will be one of several events that the Silver Spoon will host in the upcoming months. He's talking to other street truck vendors, including Steuben's and Walt's Bistro, about partnering up for future events, both downtown and at the Vallagio. "We've got a lot of fun events coming up, and we're definitely wanting to do some of those events with other street trucks."

For more info about the Silver Spoon, go to www.silverspoondenver.com, or call 720-240-8948.