Sword & Skillet is a permanent-position food truck that brings coastal-style cuisine to the community.
The food truck, located off of Bent Creek Road outside of the Exxon gas station, is a seasonal business that is open from mid-September to April on Wednesdays through Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Although the food truck will be closed from Feb. 16 to March 5, the food truck has a website, Face- book and Instagram for customers to check in the meantime for more up- dates.
Torrey Hall, chef and owner, said he changes the menu every week. Items on the menu include sriracha honey fried chicken, a mahi-mahi sandwich, blackened shrimp tacos, a chipotle chicken and corn quesadilla and seared sesame crusted ahi tuna.
However, there are two menu items that stay constant — the skillet fries topped with braised pork, cheddar cheese, green onions and spicy mayo and the Mexican street corn, which is a grilled corn on the cob with chipotle aioli and cilantro.
Hall said he tries to incorporate Mexican-inspired food with his weekly menu.
“It’s just the food I do,” Hall said. “I can do anything, so I just put a little twist on it — it’s kind of my California-coastal cuisine kind of food.”
Hall said he hopes to make the food truck a way to make fine din- ing-style food more accessible on a day-to-day basis.
“I’m a real professional chef in a food truck,” Hall said.
When he is not at the food truck, he is a partner of The Landing at Parker Creek by Lake Martin in Alabama.
Before the food truck, Hall ran a busy restaurant on the beach in San Diego and has been a professional chef for 22 years.
Hall said he is originally from Hawaii, and, with much support from his mother, he trained in California.
Hall moved from California to Auburn with his wife, Jordan Whitley, and both said they are focusing on their family with their son.
“We did a food truck because we have a little boy, and we just want time with our family. With the truck you can open and close and, you know, just see where it goes from there,” Whitley said.
With the food truck, Hall wants to focus on creating good food and good relationships.
As of now, he doesn’t have plans to open a restaurant, and he’d rather keep things small with the food truck, he said.
However, for the fall, they are hoping to work on some tailgating packages with the football season.
Along with his wife helping out in the front, he has a friend from The Landing who helps in the back, and they have gotten support from the gas station owner, as well.
“We’re hustling in there,” Hall said. “But still pumping that much food out of that little tiny food truck, but it’s good. It’s fun.”
Hall said at the end of the day, it always comes back to making good food.
“Just trying to bring good food to Auburn,” Hall said. “That’s my goal.”
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Abigail Murphy, senior in journalism with minors in history and women and gender studies, is the operations managing editor at The Auburn Plainsman.
