Rob Foster is a self-taught cook who learned by doing in restaurants around Greensburg and by being generally curious about what people loved to eat.
“I did a lot of listening to chefs on YouTube,” the Mt. Pleasant native says.
He also has devoured countless e-books on cooking over the last decade. Yet there came a point when Mr. Foster, who now lives on the North Side, decided a career in a commercial kitchen just wasn’t for him.
“Making food is the easy part,” he says. “The business and clientele, not so much.”
So when Pittsburgh’s onerous food truck laws eased in 2017, he took a hard look around to see what cuisine was missing from the culinary landscape.
Working at a seafood restaurant at the time, his thoughts turned to sushi. Other than Nakama, which did Japanese hibachi and seasonal sushi rolls, it was pretty slim pickings when it came to fresh, high-quality, sushi-grade fish. Poke, the Hawaiian dish of diced raw and marinated fish, also was just starting to have a moment.
He sensed an opportunity to do something fresh and healthy.
In October 2018, he opened the Just Roll’d Up food truck with his sister, Kelly. He quickly found an audience for his sashimi, customizable poke bowls and sushi rolls.
His signature dish is the colorful Tuna 2 Times poke bowl ($19). Served on short-grain rice or mixed organic greens (or a mix of both), it features two types of melt-in-your-mouth yellowfin tuna — marinated and spicy — with the bright flavors of pickled red onion, fermented seaweed salad and diced mango. A sprinkle of roasted macadamia adds some crunch, and there’s a garnish of wasabi tobiko (flying fish roe) and a slather of sriracha mayo.
“If you’re going to do fresh tuna, you want to pair it with ingredients that don’t overwhelm it but still complement the flavor,” he says.
It looks like a Cobb salad and you might be tempted to eat it like one, an ingredient at a time. But what you really want to do is make a total mess of it, he says, so you get all the flavors in one harmonizing bite.
His fusion Jack ‘n Yellow sushi burrito ($16) is nearly as popular. It’s pretty much exactly as it sounds — strips of yellowfin tuna and hamachi loin rolled up in a flour tortilla with avocado, crunchy fried jalapeño, wasabi mayo, organic greens and nutty furikake. It’s served with a side of tamari and optional squirt of wasabi mayo.
“It’s easy walking sushi,” Mr. Foster, 36, says. “All wrapped up and contained.”
If tuna is not your thing, other bowl options include king salmon with avocado, roasted butternut squash and spiced Fuji apple ($18); marinated mahi-mahi with pineapple, avocado and crunchy kale ($16); and cooked crawfish and shrimp ($15).
Eight-piece sushi rolls ($6-$10) include spicy tuna, cold-smoked salmon, veggie and California. For sashimi ($11-$13), choose from bluefin, yellowtail or yellowfin tuna, king salmon or salt-poached shrimp. All are served with pickled ginger and wasabi, a choice of spicy or sweet soy sauces and spicy or wasabi mayo. You can add extra protein to any bowl for an upcharge.
So their many regular customers don’t get bored, the menu changes about four times a year. Depending on the season and availability, Just Roll’d Up sometimes also has halibut sashimi and bluefin poke.
Some might worry about eating “dead fish” off of a truck, but Mr. Foster follows the same refrigeration and preparation standards as a restaurant. “And because I’m only one person, everything is under my knife the entire time.”
Just Roll’d Up hits the road year-round, even in the dead of winter, when many food trucks close up shop. “You just bundle up and dress appropriately,” he says. He did especially well during the pandemic because everyone was trying to find to-go options — “and that was us.”
He has a standing lunch gig every Monday (except Memorial Day) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of Commonplace Coffee in the North Side, where in nice weather customers can either eat at a handful of tables outside or across the street in Mechanics Retreat Park at the corner of Jacksonia and Buena Vista streets. From 4 to 6:30 p.m., he’s in front of the Rite-Aid in Brighton Heights, “rain, snow or shine.”
During peak season, the truck goes through about 150 pounds of fresh fish a week, including 60 pounds each of tuna and salmon. It’s sourced from two purveyors: Samuels and Son Seafood in Philadelphia and Euclid Fish Company in Mentor, Ohio. Each day, Mr. Foster blows through about 100 cups of rice, which he cooks at a commissary in Brighton Heights and keeps warm in a rice cooker. He also pickles so many red onions (50 pounds every two weeks) that he “can count them in my sleep.”
With some dishes nearing $20, Mr. Foster concedes he’s a little expensive for a food truck. “But our goal is to offer the highest-grade protein possible.”
Running the food truck is hard work, he says, but it’s also been fun because he’s constantly running into family and friends at the 25 breweries, farmers markets and coffee shops on his pop-up list. And each day brings something different.
“The novelty of a brick-and-mortar [restaurant] eventually dies,” he says.
Just Roll’d Up: justrolldup.com, @justrolldup on Instagram, 412-345-5695.
Gretchen McKay: gmckay@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1419 or on Twitter @gtmckay or IG @pgrecipes.
First Published: October 13, 2021, 12:15 p.m.
Updated: October 13, 2021, 1:22 p.m.
