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papi queso

May 29, 2013 by Chrissie 8 Comments

Filed Under: all, charlotte, nc, food trucks, queen city faves Tagged With: Food truck, Food Truck Friday, grilled cheese

You’ve probably seen this black and orange truck cruising around town. I’ve had the pleasure to catch Papi Queso melting several times since I moved to Charlotte: most often at Food Truck Fridays in South End, but recently at Central Coffee’s 4th anniversary party in Plaza Midwood.

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The evening of Central Coffee’s 4th anniversary party was one of those “perfect” summer (even though it’s only May) evenings that I remember from childhood: the air was warm (enough to go sleeveless), but not too hot the sun was setting, casting a warm glow down Central Ave, and there was a buzz of excitement in the air. It was the perfect evening for al fresco dining (which totally includes eating a grilled cheese while sitting on the curb on Louise Ave.) so I walked down to grab some dinner and check out the fiesta (which included Thursday Night Throwdown, the Charlotte Coffee Community’s Latte Art competition, more on that later).

The Papi Queso truck was parked in Central Coffee’s lot and was going to town melting their cheesers. K and I decided to get two sandwiches and go halfsies on each, so we could try more than one. We settled on the pear truffle and chorizo and petit basque, but as we got to the window, the pear and truffle was sold out. Major bummer, but there’s always next time! In a quick game time decision, K switched her order to the mushroom and leek, which was a great decision. It took about 10 minutes for our sammies to come out, but it was worth it. We found prime curb real estate, traded halfsies, and dug in.

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The flavors of both sandwiches were amazing: Papi Queso has a lot of great, creative flavor combinations. While some people may be thinking, oh it’s just grilled cheese, I can make that at home, like salads, I feel like grilled cheese is more delicious when it is cooked for you (salad is not really cooked, but you get my drift). The bread was golden and crunchy (but a bit salty for my taste buds, I think I’m supersensitive to salt). The cheese was gooey and perfectly melted; and it didn’t not overpower the goodies tucked inside. The other fillings were not skimped on: there were plenty of leeks, mushrooms, chorizo, and piquillo pepper tapenade.

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The sandwiches had a really good cheese to other filling ratio. I gobbled my sandwich down. And it was delicious.

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Papi Queso Truck can often be found at Food Truck Fridays in South End, and is always a popular choice for dinner. One of my favorite things to do is happy hour at Common Market and then pop over for a grilled cheese.  I’ve had the chance to try the Big Cheesy (which was yummy), and the truffle kettle chips. I also love any place that allows you to add bacon to any sandwich for only $2 (how is that a bad thing? it’s definitely not). But get there early, Food Truck Friday has become super popular and the trucks often run out of their goodies.

If you see the truck toodling around town, take the opportunity to grab a bite to eat. While it seems so simple, grilled cheese is an incredibly smart food truck concept and Papi Queso melts it well (according to Twitter, you can often find them at one of Charlotte’s breweries, so I can’t wait for a grilled cheese and beer in my near future!).

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score: 9
spending: $
neighborhood: all over town!
cuisine: food trucks
official website

Papi Queso on Urbanspoon

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Comments

  1. Bri says

    June 7, 2013 at 7:27 pm

    stopping by from the charlotte social link-up last Friday! Love your blog, and this post! Great pics too by the way! This is one of my FAVORITE food trucks, I always try to catch them at food truck Friday!

    Reply
    • Chrissie @ OTEP says

      June 12, 2013 at 10:42 pm

      Hi! Thanks for stopping by!

      This post was one of my favorites to write, I love Papi Queso so much! I also try to catch them on food truck friday. 🙂

      Hope you enjoy some of the other posts I’ve written, and if you ever have any recommendations of where I should eat next, let me know!

      Reply
  2. Julie Eliz says

    September 10, 2013 at 5:24 pm

    Christie, how could you NOT mention the cheese mustache that adorns the front of the truck? You, having spent so much time in the land of cheese bras, cheeseheads, cheese butts, cheese everything…love the mustache! Funny also that the first comment was from “bri” (Brie). Love your blog, can’t wait to see what’s next!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. charlotte brewers festival | Off The Eaten Path says:
    June 17, 2013 at 1:19 pm

    […] Root Down’s menu looked appetizing, they ran out of most of their selection before I got in line! So I went with the old standby, Papi Queso (and I am definitely not complaining). After a delicious grilled cheese we made sure to hit up all […]

    Reply
  2. friday faves | Off The Eaten Path says:
    July 12, 2013 at 10:07 am

    […] diner, from tacos at The Tin Kitchen, to burgers at Auto Burger and Fry Guys, or grilled cheese at Papi Queso. And you can’t forget dessert, cupcakes from Southern Cake Queen or ice cream from Sticks and […]

    Reply
  3. the tin kitchen | Off The Eaten Path: Charlotte Food and Restaurant Reviews says:
    November 18, 2013 at 10:02 am

    […] is one of my favorite Charlotte food trucks (don’t worry, I’m not neglecting you, Papi Queso!). It’s a fabulous mobile eatery (in the form of a simple silver truck cruising around town […]

    Reply
  4. Where's Bessie? The TIN Kitchen Serves Up Good Food All Over Charlotte says:
    January 6, 2014 at 4:54 pm

    […] is one of my favorite Charlotte food trucks (don’t worry, I’m not neglecting you, Papi Queso!). It’s a fabulous mobile eatery (in the form of a simple silver truck cruising around town […]

    Reply
  5. charlotte's best bites: kayla's picks | Off the Eaten Path says:
    February 18, 2019 at 7:17 am

    […] Best Food Truck: Papi Queso […]

    Reply

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chrissie off the eaten path blog
Hi! I'm Chrissie: a pizza and sushi loving, craft beer and red wine drinking, restaurant exploring and traveling home cook who's been taking pictures of my food since 2013. To learn more about Off the Eaten Path, click here!

Get in touch: offtheeatenpathclt@gmail.com

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last week I told AJ I wanted to go to Asheville to last week I told AJ I wanted to go to Asheville to eat so then we went to Asheville and ate.

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Even if your friends didn’t give you personalized hurricane glasses as a wedding gift 😂, I’ve got a really easy recipe for you to make some hurricanes at home for Mardi Gras tomorrow!

Hurricane Matthew (named after the hurricane we got married during!)
Makes 2 cocktails

4 ounces light or silver rum
4 ounces dark rum
4 ounces passion fruit juice (pineapple juice can be used instead!)
2 ounces orange juice
1-2 ounces lime juice
1 ounce grenadine
1 ounce simple syrup (optional if you like sweeter cocktails)
orange slice and cherry for garnish

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into a tap glass filled with ice.

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Some personal news: I finished watching Dawson's C Some personal news: I finished watching Dawson's Creek!

It's a journey I started in mid-December and I'm proud to say that I finished the 128th episode last night. That’s 96 hours of late 90's nostalgia which I think is a great life accomplishment (and AJ says it's disgusting but nobody asked you AJ).

It just so happens we spent a week at the beach during my watching peak, so we spent an afternoon wandering around Wilmington to see some filming locations. Perfect timing! For my fellow Dawson's Creek fans, you can save this post for stroll (and a short car and ferry ride) next time you're in Wilmington:

Downtown
The Wilmington Riverwalk
Elijah's Restaurant, 2 Ann Street: Pacey's Icehouse in the finale
Reel Cafe, 100 South Front Street: look across Dock Street and you'll see the top of Joey's wall (there is restaurant patio seating in front of the wall now)
Michael's on the Waterfront, 5 South Water Street: Leery's Fresh Fish
Black Cat Shoppe, 8 Market Street: Capeside CD Shop
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Alderman Hall at UNCW, 601 South College Road: Capeside High School
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Wrightsville Beach
Dockside Restaurant, 1308 Airlie Road: exterior shots of The Icehouse
Oceanic Pier, 703 S Lumina Ave: the pier from the opening credits 

Kure Beach and Southport
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