Jeremy Esterly is so confident that Clevelanders are hungry for something new he’s willing to wager his prime post at Fire Food and Drink. Chef de cuisine of that Shaker Square restaurant since 2006, Esterly soon will swap the relatively cushy confines of a commercial kitchen for an aging Chevy step van. Billed as a mobile gourmet food service, Dim and Den Sum (dimanddensum.com) is really a food cart on steroids. The fully outfitted rig boasts a grill, griddle, burners and fridge — and it will dispense gourmet fare wherever hungry (and, occasionally, drunk) people congregate. The cuisine will be Midwestern and Southern comfort foods with an Asian twist: Think ramen topped with fried chicken, pulled-pork Polish Girls with Asian slaw and Ohio beef burger with “kimcheechup.” Many of the more complicated items will be prepared in a catering kitchen and finished in the truck to order. Likely lunch stops will include downtown, college campuses and weekly farmers markets. At night, look for the bistro buggy in party zones like West 25th Street, Tremont and the Warehouse District. While other metro areas boast food trucks dispensing dumplings, biryani, jerk chicken and all matter of righteous tacos, Cleveland, a so-called dining mecca, is left with ho-hum hot dogs. Esterly thinks that reality will soon change. “Cleveland has a really eclectic food scene, and people here seem receptive to unique food ideas,” he says. “I think pretty soon we’ll see a caravan of food trucks roaming the city.” Esterly’s partner in the project is Chris Hodgson, most recently of NYC’s famed Spotted Pig. Look for the debut of Dim and Den Sum around April 12.

It would be tough to find bigger hearts than those of Jeff and Tammy Jarrett. In 2008, the couple adopted a visually impaired child from China, joining their three birth children. But the Jarretts didn’t stop there. Plans are in the works to bring a blind infant from China, and the couple could use some help with the $25,000 fees. Luckily, Jeff is a chef at the North End Market (7542 Darrow Rd., Hudson, 330.656.1238, northendwinefoodfun.com), which means he has the full support of his generous colleagues. Join Cleveland’s top chefs for a fundraiser on March 22, at the Cleveland Sight Center. Check out the lineup and make reservations at 330.353.4991 or clevelandchefscookingforjewel.com.

dining@clevescene.com

This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2010.

For 25 years, Douglas Trattner has worked as a full-time freelance writer, editor and author. His work as co-author on Michael Symon's cookbooks have earned him four New York Times Best-Selling Author honors, while his longstanding role as Scene dining editor has garnered awards of its own.

5 replies on “Bites: Dim and Den Sum”

  3. we are working on getting food trucks back into several counties around Atlanta. Some of the best street food on the planet comes from those trucks.

    I’ll post some dialog about OUR food truck dilema. I hope Cleveland/Akron/Canton can do better.. ( we have more Latinos, and Asians ) but we want your area to be a model for the rest of the country..

    I was hoping you would have Polish sausage on a bun and some real Ohio ethnic food choices.. Damn, if a food truck had the fantastic local sausage that comes out of Kenmore, you could RULE THE WORLD….

    .

  4. Sounds delicious! I’m an ex-Clevelander now living out in the food-savvy Seattle. From the sounds of it, these guys would give the portable food vendors in Seattle a run for their money… most of them here are espresso stands, with the occasional sausage/kielbasa/hot dog vendor. I will definitely have to catch up with the Dim & Den Sum truck next time I’m back in Cleveland to visit my dad.

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