Farewell to Mark's Carts, but not goodbye

We are moving on from our place at Mark's Carts. Most may be aware of that by now, as the new season is underway and we are no longer part of the courtyard. We enjoyed our time at Mark's Carts and owe a lot to the project that gave us a running start with our food cart business. Now, it's time to move on.
After a long winter of thinking hard about what our future will look like, we are excited for what is in store for Debajo del Sol. We are most certainly not going away. We are still here. We are excited to be working with E.T. Crowe and her gang at the Wolverine State Brewing Company on Stadium. We are in the process of establishing a regular schedule, so keep an eye on our schedule. As soon as we have solidified times and secured staff we will announce some regular hours.
We also are excited to announce that we will be taking the cart on the road. We are branching out to festivals, food truck rallies, and music festivals. We are excited to be a part of the Romeo 175th Anniversary Jubilee happening this Saturday, May 18, in Romeo, Michigan. In August, we will be a part of the Mo Pop Festival at Freedom Hill Amphitheater. We are adding more events to the schedule as well. We'll update the blog as we go.

Pulled pork sliders served at an event last weekend

On to the next phase

Greek philosopher Heraclitus said "The only constant is change." For Debajo del Sol that means a change of venue. We have enjoyed our time at Mark's Carts and are grateful to have been a part of the groundbreaking concept in Ann Arbor, but we are moving on. That does not mean Debajo del Sol will be gone. We are simply putting the "mobile" back in mobile cuisine. 

Our plan is to continue to be open part-time at Wolverine State Brewing, so come visit us there and enjoy the tastiest microbrewed beer in Ann Arbor paired with Chef Jay's dishes that blend the flavors of Spain with comfort foods we know and love. 

In addition to being at Wolverine, we hope to pop up at various events around Southeast Michigan. We'll keep you posted. Check out our "Events and Hours" page for our schedule at Wolverine and for any upcoming events we will be a part of.

Happy Holidays to all and Merry Eating!!!!

Jay and Cristina

Debajo del Sol

Debajo at a Taste of Tilian

What a perfect night at Tilian Farm Development Center. We set up our cart behind the barn as we teamed up with Ben of Bending Sickle Community Farm to create this delicious duck egg tortilla with tomato basil salad and tomato jam. Green Things Farm contributed the tomatoes and zucchini. It was a real team effort to put the dish out for the Taste of Tilian Fundraiser. We had a blast. We didn't get to taste anything else, except the delicious beet chocolate cupcake with goat cheese frosting. The line outside our cart seemed endless for a while, but it was all in good fun to celebrate great local food. The evening was capped off with music from the wonderful band The Understory.

Back at Union Hall Kitchen

Well, we are back at Union Hall Kitchen. Our suppliers are making stops again and we are gearing up for our new season. We feel a little more prepared than we did last year. Jay spent the day prepping all kinds of savory yums, including a chicken pepitoria (a traditional Spanish dish of chicken stewed in almond and saffron sauce) that we are rolling out this week in a sandwich with an apple and aioli slaw. There we are working as a team to get that aioli made. He made sofrito in preparation for another season of delicious paella. We'll be opening with our Catalan-style pulled pork. In our never ending effort to source as many ingredients locally as we can, we are now getting our Manchego from Graystone   Farm and Creamery in Chelsea. The Midwest truly meets Spain. We'll also be making shrimp fritters with lemon aioli. The shrimp, too, is sourced locally from The Shrimp Farm Market in Okemos, Michigan's first and only shrimp farm. I, of course, am back at baking our gluten free almond cookies.




We are anticipating a wonderful and fun grand re-opening event Friday, March 30. We love the atmosphere downtown and can't wait to be a part of that again on a full-time basis. Here is a photo of our card. We look forward to seeing you there.

An early start for us at Mark's Carts

When Chef Jay isn't cooking, he is checking the weather maps out. It's a Scott family obsession. So, he is constantly talking about the "blocking high." To those of us not hip to the weather lingo, that's apparently what is causing the unseasonably warm weather. It's brought all kinds of unseasonable pleasantries like daffodils and Debajo del Sol opening early at Mark's Carts. Yes, that's what I said. We have opened the cart. We've rolled out our new crispy whitefish sandwich with grapefruit, beet slaw and pistachio pesto. We'll be out there for lunch form 11:30 to 3:30 p.m. for lunch on weekdays until the Friday grand opening contingent upon whether. Be sure to check out our Facebook Page for updates and don't forget to hit the "like" button.

Just to recap the winter, we were at Wolverine Brewing Company for the winter serving up some Spanish-style street food during trivia nights. Chef Jay also served up breakfast at Selma Cafe in February. That's him working on French toast.

The rest of the winter was spent preparing for what we'll be doing this spring, summer and fall at Mark's Carts. We are excited to return for a second year and to meet the new cart owners. We are also eager to see our regular customers again and to meet new ones. We've already had a good start, and we appreciate all of those who have stopped by and expressed their excitement about season two at Mark's Carts. See you at the courtyard.

Debajo del Sol at Mix Market Ypsi today

Chef Jay will be at Mix Market in Ypsi with delicious spinach, raisin and pine nut empanadas, saffron and almond chicken sandwiches.
Mix Market is located in the J Neil's Mongolian Grille building on the corner of Michigan Ave. and Washington Street, across from Mix, the store. The owner of Mix, Bonnie Penet and Leslie Leland, came up with a wonderful use for the empty building across from their shop by creating an indoor market that features locally made arts, crafts and foods.
We are really excited to be a part of something so wonderful happening in Ypsilanti, our hometown.

Debajo del Sol still cooking up good stuff at Wolverine State Brewing

Happy New Year to all of our friends, new and old. We have enjoyed becoming part of the Ann Arbor/Ypsi food community. We are excited for the upcoming year all the wonderful things that await us. As we gear up for a busy summer season, we are doing anything but taking a break during winter.

Chef Jay is setting up shop regularly at Wolverine State Brewing at 2019 W. Stadium. He will be there Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays starting tonight. Tonight, he will feature his infamous lamb burger. He also is heating up the fryer for his crispy patatas with brava sauce and aioli. As is Chef Jay's way, he loves to experiment with merging Spanish flavors and classic Midwestern comfort foods. He has recently done just that with his Manchego-chorizo mac and cheese. Sound good to you? Then, drop on by Wolverine State Brewing tonight. Enjoy the great microbrewed beers Matt, Trevor, E.T., a.k.a. the Beer Wench, and crew are making and serving.