The Most Random Food Truck Stop in Johnson City, TN

We recently found ourselves unexpectedly on a roadtrip after having major issues with flight cancellations due to weather and lots of problems with rebooking. We were heading to see my sister in North Carolina for a weekend when all of the flights going anywhere even remotely close to where she lives were cancelled and the next available options were not until the following night. That meant we would miss an entire day of an already short trip and we were unsure the rescheduled flight would even happen based on similar storms being predicted for the next day as well. We realized that driving was suddenly our best option so we packed up the car and headed out so as not to miss out on our trip.

We stopped to pick up Cava for the drive out since I wanted to have a good, gluten free dinner option with me since I wasn't sure what we would find along the way. But for the drive home we realized there were not a ton of places for grabbing a Celiac safe dinner to have on hand before leaving town. We decided to look at the map to see what towns we would be driving through and whether we could find somewhere good to stop along the way. That is how we ended up at Calaveras.

My husband realized we would be driving through Johnson City, TN (cue "Wagon Wheel" for background music) and thought it might be a big enough city to have some decent food options. He pulled it up on the Find Me Gluten Free app and I immediately noticed a little green check mark indicating a fully gluten free spot. I excitedly zoomed in to see what it was and saw that it was a taco place. "Great!" I said, "I love tacos!" and after looking at all the positive reviews and the yummy pictures we decided to pop that into the GPS and make it our dinner stop on the drive home.

What we ended up finding was a small food truck parked in the most unassuming parking lot you can imagine near a nail salon and dog groomers. But we were there and hungry and the reviews we good so we said "Let's give it a try."

I asked the lady working what she recommended and she told me they are famous for their Clasico, which are birria quesadillas topped with onion and cilantro. I also wanted to try a tostada and she recommended their Nopal Tostada (which I learned is grilled cactus!) to try. I confirmed that everything there was gluten free and she said yes, so we placed our order and sat at one of the picnic tables to wait for our food.

Their sign says they are ranked the best food truck in Johnson City, and I don't know how many food trucks they are competing with, but their food really did live up to that title. The birria was amazing and came with the consume to dip (although it had so much flavor you hardly needed it). The tostada was also very good and both my husband and I really enjoyed the nopal. They had a couple salsas, too, that you could put in cups and we both were big fans of each one and thought they both worked great with either of the dishes we ordered. We were honestly sad we couldn't order more food to go, but based on how messy the meal had been we knew it wouldn't be the best option for a car snack.

We were so glad we stumbled upon this random gem in Johnson City and it is now going to be our go-to stop if we end up driving back through that area again. If you ever find yourself in that part of the world we highly suggest you stop and try it for yourselves as a great, gluten free option for a pit stop. These were some of the most flavorful tacos I've had in a long time, and just looking at these pictures again is making my mouth water and making me crave Mexican food! Now if we could just get them to open up more locations of Calaveras so we don't have to road trip to eat there...