Ever had a crab cake on a waffle? How about red velvet waffles with cream cheese frosting?
At Cole’s Palette, the latest food truck to roll into Montgomery County, you can get both, plus a handful of other savory and sweet waffle options—fried chicken breast, pecan, chocolate chip, and for purists, simply plain.
The palate behind Cole’s Palette is Cole Whaley, an amiable 31-year-old former senior account manager with a life-long love affair with waffles.
Growing up in Cleveland, it was a family tradition to have them every year for Christmas breakfast. And as a college student at Cleveland State, “they were a large part of my diet,” says Whaley. “They’re cheap, they’re quick.”
Fast forward to his food truck, where Whaley’s waffle iron makes two-inch-thick round waffles that look like the Belgian type, but aren’t made with yeast. He buys a dry waffle mix and adds eggs and butter (he makes the red velvet batter from scratch).
But don’t expect waffles with a light and airy consistency; that’s not what he’s aiming for.
Whaley says he doesn’t feel right charging $6 for a chocolate chip waffle that’s mostly air. When it comes to his two savory selections, “I wanted my waffles to more resemble bread,” he adds.
Yesterday in Silver Spring, I tried the crab cake, and I’d have to agree that its waffle seat was not light and airy. To me, it was rather doughy and superfluous. But the mini crab cakes were terrific, fried to a golden brown, with lots of chunks of jumbo lump crab. Good tartar sauce, too.
The pecan waffle, its batter shot with toasted pecans, was the best of the bunch; its exterior was slightly crisp, while its interior seemed more fully cooked.
Starting this summer, Whaley says he’ll be attending a 20-week cooking program at L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg.
And in the future, he hopes to branch out to food truck fish and chips.
I’ll be there.
www.colespalette.com. E-mail: cole.whaley@colespalette.com. Twitter @coles_palette
