JARED FIELDS • PICAYUNE STAFF

Arturo Lopez serves John Darnell at his food truck, Chino, in Kingsland. Lopez has had the food truck open a month next to the Sonic Drive-In and in the Merle Norman parking lot, serving homemade, local food. Chino is open 8 a.m.-3 p.m. seven days a week. Staff photo by Jared Fields

KINGSLAND — Ask Arturo Lopez about his food truck menu, and he won’t just tell you the specials of the day.

He’ll list a half-dozen dishes he can make ranging from Philly cheese steaks and grilled stuffed burritos to sandwiches and veggie wraps.

All fresh. All homemade. Even the tortillas.

Lopez tells you this because there’s not really a menu. His food truck, Chino, has been open only a month, and he’s still tinkering with what he thinks people will like.

He cooks what he has, and what he has are ingredients that come fresh from the area.

He’ll literally point to where he gets everything.

“I knew about the food, but I didn’t know about what to start off with as far as the menu,” Lopez said.

His food truck sits on RR 1431 in Kingsland next to the Sonic Drive-In and in the same parking lot as Merle Norman.

Lopez was born in Mexico and moved to Austin when he was 8 years old. He worked in several Austin-area restaurants, including Jack Allen’s Kitchen, the Monument Cafe in Georgetown, Z’Tejas, Cenote and Siena Ristorante.

In fact, if you’ve ever visited Cenote, you can thank Lopez.

“I ran it for almost two years,” he said. “I came up with the sandwiches and my style from there. They let me do whatever I want,” Lopez said.

Most might not expect the owner of a food truck in Kingsland to have such a background. That’s OK with Lopez. He said he’ll stick to Kingsland to give people a chance to check out Chino.

“A good thing I’ve noticed is it’s catching on,” he said. “I’ll see (customers) a first time, then they’ll come back, and I see them again.”

Lopez moved to Kingsland about six months ago and is still learning the town. He and his wife have two children and wanted to move out of the big city. He also cooks at Chili’s in Marble Falls a few nights a week.

“It’s a weird spot to land at, but I don’t think it’s weird because you make it yourself,” Lopez said.

Chino is open 8 a.m.-3 p.m. seven days a week, although Lopez said he might soon close on Mondays. He has homemade barbacoa on the weekends.

jared@thepicayune.com