Daughter of ‘70s and ’80s era owners launches “food truck tribute.”
From right, ZestoAF food truck owner Amelia Mathison, cook and Amelia’s son Justin Mathison and employee and Justin’s girlfriend Maria “Pita” Gallardo. For the last decade or so, Amelia Mathison’s friends have been nudging her. Encouraging her to bring back “dip dogs,” a corndog variation Huntsville residents grew up enjoying from Zesto, the bygone Five Points restaurant her parents, Earl and Virgina Noe, owned during the ‘70s and ‘80s.
“I’ve just been overwhelmed,” Amelia says, “with the people who come up and tell us stories about their Zesto’s experience, when they were a child and went with their grandparents. Or a gentleman came the other night and said he would skip school and go get dip dogs and his principal and asked him to bring one back for him. Such good memories. It makes people feel good and takes them back to a time when things were good.”Nostalgia is comforting, but you can’t eat it.
There are also new additions to the menu, including “potato ribbons,” an excellent side item that’s like a nude beach for potatoes au gratin. There’s a half-size “dog bites” dip dog variant and Conecuh sausage dog, too. They do service prep at MyKitchen HSV, a commissary on Meridian Street that 15 or so local food trucks utilize, Amelia says.
For the last 12 years, Justin has been working at local restaurants, including a couple pizza franchises. For the last seven years, he’s worked in the kitchen at Diamonds Sports Bar on South Parkway. Since helping launch the ZestoAF truck, Justin’s learned there’s nuance to dip dog technique. “The biggest thing for me,” he says, “is having the batter the right consistency and making sure the batter is chilled. And there’s definitely a way to dropping it into the fryer. You have to go pretty slow and make sure the batter’s not flying off as it hits the grease.”
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