How do you properly celebrate 70 years in the restaurant business?
If you're Anthony Polski, and your grandfather founded Market Bar-B-Que (1414 Nicollet Av. S., Mpls., 612-872-1111, marketbbq.com) during the early years of the Truman administration, you do what all the kids are doing these days: launch a food truck.
"The summers have been slow lately, and when I'd go downtown and see the food trucks — and see 20 or 30 people standing in line — I was so impressed," he said. "I thought, I have to do this."
For his truck — you can't miss it, it's appropriately awash in bright, cartoon-piggy pink — Polski is planning to keep the menu simple: pork spare ribs, chicken wings, a pulled pork sandwich and a sliced brisket sandwich. Sides, too: coleslaw, fries, cornbread, baked beans. Dessert will be chocolate bars, custom-made to Polski's specifications by a local chocolatier.
The restaurant has been following the same brick pit-cooked formula since June 1946, lighting an oak fire (occasionally fortified with cherry or pecan wood) each morning and carefully cooking meats over a direct flame.
The fire-cooked meat is refrigerated all day ("That allows the smoke to really penetrate the meat," said Polski), then broiled just before it's served, with sauces on the side.
The truck's debut? While the Minnesota Twins host the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for a three-day weekend at Target Field April 15-17, Polski will have the truck parked at nearby Fulton Brewing (414 6th Av. N., Mpls., 612-333-3208, fultonbeer.com).
"They're going to make a special smoked beer for us," he said.
