DINERS DISH: Ozark Mountain Biscuit Company

Down-home eats piled high with great flavors

 

COLUMBIA, Mo 1/24/14 (Review) -- Cold, wet, and darn near frozen, I pulled into Ozark Mountain Biscuit Company's temporary headquarters for a chilly day this week, a parking lot in the North Village Arts District.  

I've been hearing raves about Columbia's growing band of food trucks -- Pepe's chief among them -- but had yet to try one.  The timing never seemed right.  I was usually driving by on this or that urgent business, with no time to stop. 

Same was true this time -- I manage rental property and was running between frozen, burst pipe jobs (the funnest jobs in the winter, believe me).  But hunger intervened, and the homespun image on the side of Ozark's truck looked mighty inviting.    

I arrived just in time to beat a line, and read over a short menu that sounded sumptuous:  Cajun catfish with with pickled red onions and remoulade sauce; the Boss Hog, with pulled pork, "sawmill" gravy, and "arkan-sauce"; several breakfast-sounding delights that looked like McDonald's McBiscuits on steroids:  larger, grander, and homier. 

But that's the whole point of Ozark Mountain's fresh-baked biscuits:  down-home eats piled high with great flavors.  The company's story "starts in northeast Arkansas, where the Mississippi Delta mud gives way to the flinty foothills of the Ozarks.  In that crook of river country five generations of our family sharecropped, farmed, canned, moonshined and refined the fixing of delicious food."

If you're not hungry already, here's a description of the company's "family bible of flavor:  Cornbread sizzling in iron skillets, bacon infused black-eyed peas, steak smothered until fork-tender, pie crust broken under fresh berries." 

 

I ordered the Sooie Pig, getting about as much smoked pulled pork a good cook can pile on a fresh, warm biscuit.  Ozark's signature "arkan-sauce" slathered the meat and an equally tangy, crunchy kale slaw, making the perfect lunch for a hungry guy on a cold day.  It was $7.00, maybe a bit pricey until you realize Ozark Mountain tries to buy locally, from companies such as Patchwork Family Farms and Show-Me Farms Beef.

"We are committed to sourcing from sustainable, humane farms," Ozark explains on its website. 

Hungry and want to find the truck?  Just follow them on Twitter, visit their website, or find them on Facebook.

Ozark Mountain Biscuit Company gets four hearts out of our soon-to-be-coveted 5-heart rating system!

-- Mike Martin for the Columbia Heart Beat