Campus food truck earns top awards

The Ironsides Waffles food truck has served up a savory and sweet waffle-based selection to the uptown and downtown Tulane University campuses since its debut in the summer of 2014. Thanks to Food Management magazine, the restaurant on wheels has something new to celebrate — the award for Best Menu.

Ironsides Waffles is run by Sodexo, the university"s food service provider, and was part of a national rollout of food trucks at high schools and on college campuses during the last two years. Linda Lien-Ribardi, a marketing specialist for Sodexo, says the selection of a waffle-wielding food truck was no accident for Tulane.

“The food truck menus are designed with our student demographics in mind,” says Lien-Ribardi. “The menu design offers a fusion of items already popular in stationary locations on campus.”

The idea is to introduce students to New Orleans specialties in a form that they are familiar with.

To accomplish this, a super-hero themed menu includes items like The Spin Kick in which a New Orleans-brand Patton"s hot sausage patty tops a waffle before being dressed with sliced cheddar cheese, arugula, tomato, red onions and pickle chips. It is then finished with a Creole mustard aioli.

The Best Menu award is the second honor received by Ironsides. It was also named to a top 10 list of the "Hottest Food Trucks" by Eater New Orleans.

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Ironsides, which keeps an alternating schedule between the two campuses, has made way for an additional food truck scheduled to arrive on campus this fall.

“Rouler will feature New Orleans-style street food,” says Lien-Ribardi. “Unlike Ironsides Waffles, Rouler will offer exclusivity to guests who are enrolled in a meal plan on Tulane"s uptown campus by accepting Bruff Commons meal swipes and Wavebucks.”