Food trucks conquer Cortina, it’s the new summer trend

They are the food trucks, the itinerant vans with sandwiches and street food, the new summer trend in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Since this year, you can see them popping up everywhere in the valley; easily identifiable because preceded by a crowd of tourists who dive into porchetta, speck and cheese before the excursion in the woods.
Street food is now a classic in many tourist destinations and big cities. But in the Dolomites, served by starred restaurants and huts everywhere, it had not yet arrived. This year in the city in the shadow of the Tofane – which seems to be on the eve of the pre-Olympic Games – food trucks are depopulating. To the point that they have also expanded their business to catering, for private parties in villas or picnics on the lawns. In this case they offer a ‘turnkey’ service, including waste removal. They post the map of their movements every day on their social profiles. The Ampezzo food trucks have names that betray their origins: «Lo Scoiattolò», «Il Gufetto», the only Anglo-Saxon concession is the “Happy Sandwich». They carry everything with them in very small spaces, kitchen, hobs, refrigerators, dishes, tables and benches, blankets for snacks on the grass. Nicola Alberti and his wife Claudia, Cortina natives with a passion for cooking, travel around the valley in a beautiful and historic forest green Citroen Type H’ – a vehicle that has appeared in many movies – refurbished and equipped with all the tools. Nicola, who is also a carpenter (and ski instructor) built the entire kitchen of the van himself: they offer a long menu of sandwiches and dishes based on local products, focusing on quality. You can also find them in winter, in the Falzarego area, or Rumerlo, at the arrival of the Olympia, the World Cup ski slope. During the summer they are a fixed point in the La Vera area, between Cortina and Fiames, on the 51 of Alemagna.
Gray in color and with a large raised door that acts as a roof, the «Gufettò» is instead the food truck of Fabrizio Soravia, another Cortina native, who at a certain point in his life decided to be a cook ‘on the road’. The Gufetto opens shop every day in the small square at Passo Tre Croci (on the state road 48 of the Dolomites) where the paths to the Vandelli refuge, on the Sorapis, or the Son Forca, on the Cristallo, start. In addition to sandwiches with local cured meats and cheeses, it offers 5 different types of strudel. It often follows the mountain stages of the Giro d’Italia or the Dolomite ultra-trails.
The third traveling kitchen-sandwich shop is that of ‘Happy Sandwich’. Their truck is mainly stationed in Zuel (3 km from the city) in a roadside lay-by that has a view of the old 1956 Olympic ski jump, one of the iconic places that link Cortina to the Winter Games.