A nasty little drizzle was falling over City Garden last Friday, but still a small crowd gathered around UKraft, a new food truck on its third day out. Owned by two amiable brothers, Michael and Matt Ratz (pictured right), and their sister Mandy, the craft-your-own breakfast/lunch concept may stand out from the usual food truck pack with its broad selection of wholesome offerings.
“It’s hard to get healthy food fast,” says Mandy Ratz who is also a nurse and knowledgeable about nutrition. “And not many food trucks are doing breakfast.”
Matt and Michael helped launch Wicked Greenz, the Clayton spot for health-conscious made-to-order salads where Matt was director of operations. The brothers have clear ideas about their new venture, chief among them the intention to keep ingredients locally and ethically sourced. “Keeping the money in the St. Louis area is really important to us,” Matt says. UKraft’s coffee is from Ronnoco; its baked goods are made by New Day Gluten Free in Clayton and Sam's Vegan Kitchen in Fenton. Eggs are supplied by the contented, free-range hens of Ben Robert's Heritage Poultry & Eggs in Syracuse, Missouri.
Another distinguishing feature of this truck is the freedom it gives customers to order their food just the way they like it. “We restaurant people spend so much time trying to get into diners’ heads that we thought it might be fun to hand the decision-making over to them,” Matt says. This means that while half the menu offers standard items, the other half allows for customer creativity with tick-off boxes. That means at breakfast, you can either plump for a UKraft staple (a Cali Breakfast sandwich of turkey sausage, avocado, egg, spinach, and white cheddar or a Ragan Cajun that is antibiotic free-chicken with chipotle aioli and pepper jack) or "kraft" your own bowl, sandwich, or avocado toast from a list of proteins, cheeses, and other add-ons.
Shrimp BLT - pesto grilled shrimp, applewood smoked bacon, arugula, and herb aioli
Santa Fe Salad - mixed greens, grilled marinated steak, black bean corn salsa, pico de gallo, avocado, chipotle lime vinaigrette
At lunch, it feels a little more challenging because the list of ingredients to make your own salad or salad pocket is longer. “Of course, not everyone wants to have to think,” Matt says. And he may be right, especially since the already-crafted menu items like the shrimp BLT, the Santa Fe or Honey Apple Spinach salads are hard to beat. Interestingly, this latter combines spinach and chicken with apples, strawberries, blueberries, cucumbers, almonds, and granola for an über-nutritious, on-the-go power lunch.
Honey Apple Spinach Salad
For now, UKraft can be booked for corporate events and business meetings, and its daily whereabouts tracked on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Matt hints that an announcement regarding a storefront somewhere in the city may come in the next few weeks.
