Lake Lure food truck stays deliciously over the top
Relish owners Schorr and Eric Taylor (top left), along with Blair Ruth and Jerry Haynes. The Taylors went ziplining and careened into a whole new life, eventually opening their popular food truck in the Lake Lure community.
Photo by Rimas Zailskas
Sometimes you just need a bite that’s a little over the top. Like a grilled-quail taco topped with arugula, black plum drizzled with honey-sesame vinaigrette, and toasted chile crema. Or perhaps a tostada of smoked-red-pepper-crusted Ahi Tuna topped with Thai citrus salad, blackberry ponzu sauce, Wasabi cream, and crispy cracklins is more your speed. Just a peek at the standard menu or the specials board at Relish Food Truck and you get the idea this isn’t just any roadside food truck.
“Everything is super fresh and made with absolute love,” says Schorr Taylor, who runs the truck with her husband Eric. “Eric is constantly reading about food and he’s the main visionary behind our food. We bounce things off of each other, but he’s the one reading about all of the different flavors.”
If the menu has lots of writing, it’s because Relish dishes have a lot going on.
Photo by Rimas Zailskas
Originally a therapist who worked with horses, Schorr moved from the Atlanta area to Weatherford, Texas, just outside of Fort Worth. “I met Eric when I moved to Texas,” she recalls, “and we both loved to cook, so we would always just go grocery shopping and cook for fun when we’d get together.” And eventually they developed their own business as private chefs.
But after a trip to North Carolina, ideas began to fall into place. “When my family had a family reunion in Tryon, Eric just fell in love with the place and said, ‘I could live here!’ And I said, ‘Okay, let’s do it,’” she recounts. Within three months they moved to North Carolina and bought their food truck.
Elote taco
Photo by Rimas Zailskas
“We went ziplining, and the guy that owns the zipline was telling us how there wasn’t any food in the area, and they really needed food.” He offered to let them park the truck at his facility in Lake Lure, and it seemed like a good fit. Six years later, they’re located just up the road from that original location.
After culinary school in Arizona, Eric cooked his way around Colorado and New Mexico, building a palate and penchant for the region’s peppers, which show up in myriad ways all over the Relish menu: avocado tacos with spinach, pico de gallo, spiced pepitas, cotija cheese, and smoked habañero crema. Or migas — a fried-egg scramble — made with scratch tortilla chips, antelope sausage, poblano crema, and cotija.
Ring of Fire
Photo by Rimas Zailskas
“Eric’s background is in Tex-Mex,” acknowledges Schorr, “so he’s really into different chiles and those kinds of flavors. Everything was fresh and delicious and simple, and we just started putting things on the menu.”
A more recent innovation is wild game. “We’ve got a ranch that we order from in South Texas where they have a thousand acres with antelope, wild hog, and elk. This week we have antelope birria-style tacos, which are just delicious.”
“The Texican” includes wild-hog sausage, hash, peppers, onions, and scrambled eggs. “It’s kind of like a quesadilla with hash browns inside,” explains Schorr. “I haven’t seen anyone around here doing wild game — not even in Asheville.”
But despite the Tex-Mex bent, it isn’t just tacos. Relish also specializes in brunch offerings: cathead biscuits with bacon, sausage, or country ham; “everything” bagels with eggs, bacon, spinach, and havarti; toasted croissants with egg, bacon, ham, and cheese. And a BLT with fried eggs and zesty lemon aioli.
Bold brunches are a hallmark of Relish, as is the bright red truck itself.
Photo by Rimas Zailskas
There’s also a decadent cheeseburger and a turkey sandwich served on a croissant with triple-cream brie, greens, and a chipotle raspberry vinaigrette. There’s even peppers in the chipotle BBQ sauce for an occasional pulled-pork sandwich.
“Nothing is frozen,” says Schorr “We really care, and we just want to make damn good food. We’ve become quite busy, but it’s largely a local following.”
Logging unusually early hours four days a week, the Taylors can be found working elbow to elbow, back to back. For the first three years, it was just the two of them, before they brought on a little help here and there.
But that simplicity has helped keep the food remarkably consistent. “We have always worked really well together,” Shorr says. “It’s pretty amazing [that] we still get along so well. I still like him, he still likes me — which is great.”
Relish Food Truck, 7227 US Hwy. 64/74a, Lake Lure. Wednesday through Friday, 7am-3pm; Saturday, 8am-3pm. 828-429-6312. www.therelishfoodtruck.com. Also on Facebook and Instagram @relishfoodtruck.
