Longtime Ferndale favorite food truck, StrEAT Food, returned to Ferndale today and will continue returning Wednesdays from 3pm to 9pm outside FrinGe Brewing, located at 5640 3rd Avenue.
StrEAT Food started out doing breakfasts and lunches on Portal Way in 2010 and soon was pulled into Bellingham where they became a favorite at several breweries. Then in December of 2014, in addition to operating the food truck, Pitzer opened a cafe location inside the Bellingham Ferry Terminal in Fairhaven.
The food truck continued to return to Ferndale in the Samuel’s Furniture parking lot on Main Street but construction of what is now Starbucks and Winderemere Real Estate offices made that impossible and StrEAT Food was no long an option in Ferndale.
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“We’ve been gone for roughly a year and a half,” owner and chef James Pitzer said. When asked if customers will notice anything different, Pitzer said, yes, some things are considerably different.
“The menus have evolved a bit and of course are driven by our relationships with the breweries we’ve been serving,” Pitzer said. “One major difference is that we are actually at a place where we can serve guests rather than handing things out the window. We’ve never really had a chance to do full dinner services here [in Ferndale] in the past, so this is exciting for us.”
Many StrEAT Food customers probably do not realize how much experience has gone into creating the items on the menu. Pitzer is a Texas Culinary Academy graduate whose resume includes highly-rated Dallas Texas restaurants like The Green Room, Stone Trail, Breadwinners and Ancho’s in the Omni Austin Hotel.
FrinGe Brewing recently opened their doors and co-owners Scot White and Jeff Lazzari said they were really excited to bring StEAT Food back to Ferndale.
Pitzer was excited too he said in a text message. “I’m super excited to be back. I spent seven years dragging this box around Ferndale, two before Kulshan opened, and I feel that FrinGe is exactly what we’ve needed.” He added, “Metallica’s back on the bridge and I’m home again tonight. Feels right!”