David Rodriguez
As we head into the tenth month of COVID-19 restrictions in the restaurant world, invention and re-invention remain key. So I guessed something was up when, driving down Stoughton Road at dusk, I glimpsed strings of bulb lights illuminating the parking lot in front of a vintage school bus near the Cottage Grove Road exit.
I knew that’s where David Rodriguez runs his International Catering Co. out of the former Gaylord Catering building, 709 Atlas Ave. Rodriguez bought the long-running catering company at the beginning of this year; he also owns the Melted food cart and has been serving his Taco Local and Melted menus out of the restored 1981 International Harvester bus on Atlas Avenue at lunchtime over the summer.
And it turns out that he’s now formalized the arrangement. Calling the parked bus “a drive-up restaurant,” Rodriguez is now open Tuesday-Friday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 4-7 p.m., serving a menu that draws on items from the Melted and Taco Local menus but also has its own character.
“I’m calling it The International,” Rodriguez says. Customers can order online and pick up food; go to Atlas Avenue and order and take food home; or even eat onsite around a fire pit and a couple of chimenea under the patio lights. This arrangement feels like nothing so much as the ad hoc parking lot restaurants and food cart pods of Portland, Oregon. Next up: Rodriguez is working on delivery, which he hopes will be up and running in about a week.
“It’s been cool to watch the idea grow,” says Rodriguez. He started the expanded offerings just feeding his friends, but has now found that the east side neighborhood seems ready to embrace another restaurant. While the area between Milwaukee Street and Cottage Grove Road just east of Stoughton Road is not a restaurant desert — there’s the Cottage Cafe, North of the Bayou, a Culver’s, the Dairyland Family Restaurant and the east side Great Dane not so far away — there haven’t been many new eateries there lately.
Rodriguez came up with the drive-up restaurant concept while brainstorming revenue ideas a couple months ago. He looked at what’s been working for restaurants — take-home family dinners and familiar comfort foods to-go. “Every chef in Madison is trying to make what people like to eat every day.” Rodriguez likens this to how he felt upon leaving culinary school: “Sure, I’d like to open a fancy restaurant. But those aren’t the dishes that people eat often. People are more likely to say ‘Man, I could go for a burger right now.’”
David Rodriguez
So, logically, The International’s menu is centered on his smashburger, quarter-pound patties fried in butter and piled with lettuce, onion, tomato and choice of sauce. The secret, Rodriguez says, is having “a screaming hot griddle and a big spatula to create that crunchy exterior.”
A fried chicken sandwich, barbecue, several variations on grilled cheese and an almost-reuben of swiss cheese and pastrami round out the sandwich menu, but there are also soups and nightly specials of a half roasted chicken (Wednesday), Wisconsin tavern-style cracker-crust pizza (Thursday), and yes, fish fry (Friday).
Not unsurprisingly, the fish fry has proven popular — it’s a lightly battered haddock that comes with cole slaw, baked potato and a dinner roll. Rodriguez wants to expand to a “supper club” menu on Saturdays, with steaks and seafood, in the coming weeks. He’ll be back open after Christmas on Tuesday, Dec. 29. Look for updates on Facebook or on the website. (If you are reading this on Christmas Eve, The International is open for lunch today.)
Meanwhile, Rodriguez is also still developing his brick-and-mortar Taco Local spot at 811 Williamson St. That project, in the works for almost a year, has been delayed due to COVID-19. He’s been working out details with the city, like parking spots for cars and bicycles, and some kitchen equipment is on back-order because “so many places are operating with half of their staffs,” Rodriguez says.
Linda Falkenstein
