Carlos Davidson was in his early 20s when he headed west from Florida and spent several months getting as much cooking experience as he could during his travels.
He stopped in New Orleans and eventually made his way to Southern California. It was the West Coast that, years later, influenced his food truck in St. Augustine.
“That’s kind of the birthplace of this truck, you know,” he said. “It’s very much heavily influenced by Southern California-Northern Mexico style of cooking Mexican food.”
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In April, Davidson and business partners Brendan and Kelly Schneck launched The Little Sombrero food truck at The Village Garden Food Truck Park at 1480 Old A1A S. in St. Augustine, just down the road from St. Augustine Beach.
The top seller at The Little Sombrero is the birria quesa taco ― birria is a Mexican beef stew. To make the taco, Davidson fries a tortilla on a griddle and tops it with beef from the stew. He adds cheese, folds it and serves it with stew broth for dipping.
“It’s really what we kind of constructed the whole concept around was, you know, that item,” Davidson said. “That taco is such an LA institution, such a classic, and almost nobody does it around here, really on the East Coast to be honest with you. But certainly in North Florida almost nobody does it.”
The Southern California style is simple street food with “super fresh ingredients,” Davidson said.
In addition to quesa tacos and other kinds of tacos, the truck serves burritos and quesadillas with birria beef, chicken, chorizo, shrimp and fish. There are “SoCal favorites” such as the baja fish taco, honey chipotle shrimp tacos, avocado tacos and smoked chicken tacos.
The truck has four salsas: red, verde, pico de gallo and pineapple salsa. And there are a few sides: rice and beans, birria consommé and chips and salsa or guacamole.
The truck also offers daily chefs specials.
Tacos are $5-6 a piece, burritos are $10-11, and quesadillas are $8-10. Sides are $5 each.
A seasoned chef in St. Augustine
Davidson, 43, has abo
ut 20 years experience running kitchens. He was head chef at South Beach Grill for several years starting in 2012. He was also head chef at The Spot Cafe in St. Augustine.
This is his first business venture in the industry. Davidson had been doing consulting work for the Schnecks. After his plans to buy a brick-and-mortar restaurant fell through, the Schnecks made him a partnership offer, he said.
Davidson and the Schnecks are working to get another truck up and running, which will allow The Little Sombrero to serve different venues. The current truck will stay at the Village Garden, he said.
Davidson said he has been overwhelmed by the amount of support he’s gotten so far.
“We’ve exceeded every sales measure we had kind of mapped out to start with … and it’s really not showing any sign of slowing down,” he said.
The Little Sombrero
Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. 7 days a week.
Address: The Village Garden Food Truck Park at 1480 Old A1A S. in St. Augustine
Phone: 904-217-8488
Online: villagegardenftp.com/the-little-sombrero
Ancient City Eats is a weekly series appearing every Thursday in The Record. If you know of any restaurants or chefs that should be being profiled, contact Colleen Jones at 914-494-1238 or [email protected].