14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
THE HOT BOX BBQ
Hot Box BBQ presents a luscious,
irresistible, inexpensive bite of pig
Review and photos by
THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM
S
ome owners see their food
carts like pit stops on the road
toward restaurant-dom. But
with brick-and-mortar can come a
desire to expand offerings from the
confines of a cart, where there’s no
room for flab.
But when you do one thing —
slurpy, gooey, smoky, slow-cooked
pork sandwiches — as well as they
do at The Hot Box BBQ, why bother
with anything else?
The yellow trailer landed in
Astoria in March, turning the Reach
Break Brewing patio, along with
Sasquatch Sausages, into a bona-
fide pod. But this isn’t Hot Box’s
maiden voyage. The business,
who’ve dubbed themselves “Modern
American BBQ,” began in North-
ern California before relocating to
Portland.
The Portland cart, near the South-
west waterfront, was dubbed one of
“Portland’s Best New Food Carts”
of 2015 by The Oregonian. Critic
Michael Russell wondered if Hot
Box’s “might be the best pulled pork
sandwich in PDX.” The Willamette
Week chimed in too, dubbing Hot
Box’s “some of the best cart-cooked
pig shoulder in town.”
When blessed with the opportu-
nity to expand, rather than find four
walls with a foundation, Hot Box
opted to open an outpost in Astoria,
and we should be thankful they did:
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a
more luscious, irresistible bite on the
North Coast for under $10.
I’ll refrain from going into detail
on Reach Break or Sasquatch, for
those are columns for another day.
Suffice it to say that Hot Box is a
lovely fit for the shared space. A
block off the main drag, the patio
(once home to the River People’s
Rating:
1343 Duane St.
Astoria, Ore.
97103
707-223-2511
Hours: Friday & Saturday 11:30
a.m. to 9 p.m.; Monday, Thurs-
day and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to
8 p.m.
Price: $ – Sandwiches $8 to $9
Service: Quick
Vegetarian / Vegan Options:
Smoked tofu
Drinks: Bottled water, soda
KEY TO STAR RATING SYSTEM
Below average
Average
Good
Excellent
Best in region
The Volcano
Kale salad
along the lines of: “How does the
Farmer’s Market) is rather quiet,
chicken compare to the pork?” The
placid on sunny days with space for
answer was right on the snout: “Ev-
families, mutts and games of corn-
erything’s better with pork.”
hole. When it rains, Reach Break’s
There was no need to question.
interior offers safe harbor. The only
Hot Box’s sinews of pork shoulder
thing missing is a view of the water.
are lustfully enchanted, full of juicy
But hey, we can’t have it all. And
body and but a
anyway, the pork
whisper of smoke.
is damn near
There are four
sensory overload
THE VOLCANO
sandwich
styles,
by itself.
BALANCED THE
each with regional
Hot Box’s
SWEET, SLIPPERY foundations on
menu is finely
PANGS OF
which to place
distilled: a handful
JALAPEÑO
JELLY, the pork tower.
of sandwiches,
two salads, two
SRIRACHA MAYO The Classic ($8)
is your familiar
sides and maybe
AND LETTUCE
barbecue variety,
a special or two.
GREENS.
with mayo, slaw
All sandos are
and a tangy peach
served on puffy,
BBQ sauce that is
soft, toasted
neither too sweet nor too spicy. The
brioche buns. Each is available with
Maui Wowie ($9) also drips with the
the flagship pulled pork, chicken or
peach sauce and adds a zing from
smoked tofu.
pickled onion, but is colored mostly
Feeling a little health conscious
by pineapple.
on one of my trips — or, rather,
While shaking a stick at neither,
overly aware of my waistline — I
I preferred the Vietnom ($9), with
asked a dumb question, something
an almost Green-goddess-y, earthy
cilantro aioli, plus pickled daikon,
carrots, lettuce and mayo. Amidst
such fatty decadence, the grounding
of the cilantro aioli and ruffage made
great sense. (Veggies and hints of
earth aside, these stout, burger-sized
sandwiches are caloric bangers that
can slow your circulation to a crawl.)
The Vietnom made an end-run
at the title of prized pig, but my
favorite, just by a snout, was the
Volcano ($9). It balanced the sweet,
slippery pangs of jalapeño jelly, Sri-
racha mayo and lettuce greens. The
tiebreaker on this salty, sweet, tangy,
creamy, fatty mix was textural: salty
shards of crispy, fried onion.
Besides fresh veg, nice buns and
succulent pork, Hot Box’s region-
al-ized sandwiches are all honed and
elevated with house-made sauces.
Each featured aioli/mayo, and that
creaminess offered a roundness that
can’t be overlooked.
Neither can the chicken, believe
it or not. The thick, tender breast
that jutted out beyond the buns was
a potent reminder of just how often
we’re served chicken that’s been
overcooked. At Hot Box it was
absolutely perfect. (Right on the
beak? Sorry.) It may not arouse the
drooling, gluttonous desire of the
pork, but neither will it necessitate
a nap.
To ward of such listlessness —
or to at least gain some veneer of
making responsible choices — I
recommend the kale salad above
any of the sides and accouterments
at Hot Box. (Sandwiches come with
chips and $2 more gets you cole-
slaw or potato salad.) Health aside,
I legitimately enjoyed the kale salad
most — again, something about the
contrast of earth and the mildly acid-
ic dressing against all that chubby
swine.
One on occasion I tried the daily
special, the OMGBLT (a BLT but
with pork belly instead of ba-
con). The pork belly, too, was just
fantastically prepared, with charred
crust giving way to viscous rivers of
salty, viscous fats. At another venue,
it might’ve been cause for greater
concern. But at Hot Box, the star —
that tantalizing pork shoulder, with
well-refined, regional dressings —
casts a shadow over all the rest. It’s
bulletproof. CW