IT’S NOT BEYOND the tracks, it’s not just a coffee house, and it’s not made of wood.
But like the Sugar Shack of song, the espresso — as in espresso milkshakes — tasted mighty good.
Ditto the root beer floats and the Chetzemelta grilled cheese made with Mt. Townsend Creamery Seastack, caramelized onions and fig spread.
Gourmet takes on comfort food is the theme at the Sammie Shack, Port Townsend’s latest entry in mobile food culture.
Parked at the corner of F Street and San Juan Avenue, it is the collaboration of Dana Nelson and Wendy Edwards.
“We liked the idea of grilled-cheese sandwich trucks,” Nelson said.
It was seeing the empty trailer, formerly Rocket Coffee, on the corner that got Nelson and Edwards thinking about opening their own business.
Knowing that gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches are the hot new craze in food trucks from Los Angeles to New York, they got a mobile food permit, leased the trailer and started grilling sandwiches.
They expanded their menu when they realized they needed a broader appeal than the big-city grilled-cheese trucks, which travel to different locations.
Expanded menu
So they added an albacore tuna melt, a grilled bacon and white cheddar with arugula, a San Juan jalapeno popper sandwich and Sloppy Joe sliders.
Sandwiches, which are on Pane D’Amore bread, are on the menu Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
For variety, there are two theme days: Taco Tuesdays (filled with carne asada [beef] or chicken chile verde) and $5 Burger Fridays, with the option of gourmet local cheeses.
“I’ve tried them all, and I like the Trailhead,” Nelson said, referring to a Mt. Townsend Creamery cheese.
Prices are modest: $3 for the basic grilled cheese or the Sammie Meal, a kid’s cheese sandwich, fruit treat and drink. Milkshakes made with hard ice cream are $2 for a small, $3.50 for a large. Root beer floats are $3.
“We want to be there for the neighborhood and the school kids,” Nelson said. “We really like the high school kids to hang out. Two-dollar milkshakes make it affordable, and it’s definitely working.”
At noon, the red trailer draws parents with toddlers and preschoolers.
Arriving for Burger Friday on their tandem bike were Jonathan Stafford and daughter June Moon Stafford, 4, who live up the hill. It was their second visit to the Sammie Shack.
“We had the tacos, and they were great,” Jonathan Stafford said. “We came back for the burgers.”
Lance Kruse brought sons Rylen, 3, and Kaleb, 1, to the Sammie Shack to meet their mom, Jennifer Kruse, for lunch.
A teacher at the high school, Jennifer was on her lunch break. The family lives up the street.
‘Our new hangout’
“This is our new hang-out,” she said. “We’re thrilled there is something on the corner in our neighborhood.”
For Beth Cahape, a gardener, it’s a quick place to have lunch where she can “come as you are” in her work clothes. And she can bring her Labrador retriever puppy, Jake.
“Jake and I love the Sammie Shack,” Cahape said. “Jake gets a dog biscuit and loves to play in the big water bowl.”
Middle school students walking home from Blue Heron form an after-school rush after school, Edwards said, while high-schoolers walk or drive.
The Sammie Shack’s location is also on the Rhody Run route, so Edwards went down the Sunday of the race and passed out water and small cups of macaroni and cheese.
Port Townsend artist Amanda Kingsley created the Sammie Shack logo — a sandwich in high-top tennis shoes holding a milkshake — that was painted on the side of the red trailer.
Nelson said she and Edwards referred to the business as the Sammie Shack from day one, but it was just a working nickname.
After spending weeks trying to come up with something catchier, they realized they couldn’t better it.
Some customers take the name at face value.
“People will ask, ‘Who’s Sammie?’” Nelson said. “We jokingly say, ‘I’ll be Sammie one week, and you be the next.’”
Northwest natives
Nelson and Edwards are both Northwest natives with long careers in the restaurant business.
Nelson, who grew up in Kingston, has lived in Port Townsend for 10 years. Edwards is from Seattle.
Both have family in the area, and both worked at Fins Coastal Cuisine before deciding to open the Sammie Shack, which debuted a month ago.
“We wanted to do our own thing,” Nelson said.
Judging from the Internet, grilled-cheese trucks are leading the pack of what has become known as food truck frenzy.
Other cheese trucks
In Boston, Grilled Cheese Nation trucks offer “social feedia on a roll.”
Arkansas is the home base of the Grillenium Falcon, its logo a spaceship-shaped grilled cheese.
The Washington, D.C., area has The Big Cheese.
In Miami, foodies look for Ms. Cheezious trucks, with the logo a blonde in a red polka-dot bikini serving sandwiches.
There’s even a gourmet food truck festival and a name for people who go into the business: truckpreneurs.
Cheeseheads
Grilled-cheese truck followers are known as cheeseheads.
Nelson said she and Edwards are planning to stay put — the truck is plumbed and wired to the spot — so that people can go back to the Sammie Shack.
The Sammie Shack is open Mondays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For take-out orders, phone 360-379-5463.
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Jennifer Jackson writes about Port Townsend and Jefferson County every Wednesday. To contact her with items for this column, phone 360-379-5688 or email jjackson@olypen.com.
