[Biotech]

I made it over to Dell and Campbell's for lunch today. You can definitely tell they got written up yesterday. There was a fairly healthy line at 11:45. We got our orders (3 of us) by 12:20. Each of us got a Shawarma for $7 which comes with chicken and lamb sausage and a side of chips. Two of us split the hummus roll ($3). Overall it was a good lunch, albeit one you shouldn't plan on if you need to get back in the office quickly. The hummus roll is very light on filling to bread ratio and while the chicken on the shawarma was good and moist, the sausage was a bit dry.

The way it works is that one of the owners takes orders (only 5 at a time) and the other does the cooking/assembling in the cart. You wait in another line until it's finished and delivered to you.

Very limited menu with four items on it.

[DanielK]

Biotech, on Aug 30 2007, 01:00 PM, said:

I made it over to Dell and Campbell's for lunch today. You can definitely tell they got written up yesterday. There was a fairly healthy line at 11:45. We got our orders (3 of us) by 12:20. Each of us got a Shawarma for $7 which comes with chicken and lamb sausage and a side of chips. Two of us split the hummus roll ($3). Overall it was a good lunch, albeit one you shouldn't plan on if you need to get back in the office quickly. The hummus roll is very light on filling to bread ratio and while the chicken on the shawarma was good and moist, the sausage was a bit dry.

The way it works is that one of the owners takes orders (only 5 at a time) and the other does the cooking/assembling in the cart. You wait in another line until it's finished and delivered to you.

Very limited menu with four items on it.

At 1pm, the line was easily 25 people deep. Since, after 5 minutes, the line hadn't moved, I abandoned the idea. Will try again next week.

[eating out]

DanielK, on Aug 30 2007, 01:52 PM, said:

At 1pm, the line was easily 25 people deep. Since, after 5 minutes, the line hadn't moved, I abandoned the idea. Will try again next week.

One of the best decisions you made all day - I was a sucker, and wasted an hour waiting in the line at 1pm before I had to leave empty handed and incredibly hangry (definition: anger caused by hunger, i.e. I have hanger management issues). All the people behind me abandoned their aspirations, and then some of the 12 people in front of me started ducking out, and finally I had to leave as well without even getting close enough to order. I don't know what the deal was - but nobody was getting food for a solid 30 minutes (this should have been my tip off that something was wrong, but I was blinded by hunger, and the great smells wafting from the cart). I don't know if this is an ingredients issue, an inefficiency issue or what, but waiting for over an hour at a food cart felt ridiculous, unless they're serving up something freaking awesome. Really wish the guy taking orders could have thrown us a clue, since I was hanging on to hope until it was too late. Due to today's debacle, I won't be back there until I get a first-hand account of efficiency and deliciousness, and definitely won't go out of my way. Right now I'm too aggravated to return

p.s. it's Delle & Campbell, looked like a website would be coming soon.

[Mark Slater]

eating out, on Aug 30 2007, 03:58 PM, said:

One of the best decisions you made all day - I was a sucker, and wasted an hour waiting in the line at 1pm before I had to leave empty handed and incredibly hangry (definition: anger caused by hunger, i.e. I have hanger management issues). All the people behind me abandoned their aspirations, and then some of the 12 people in front of me started ducking out, and finally I had to leave as well without even getting close enough to order. I don't know what the deal was - but nobody was getting food for a solid 30 minutes (this should have been my tip off that something was wrong, but I was blinded by hunger, and the great smells wafting from the cart). I don't know if this is an ingredients issue, an inefficiency issue or what, but waiting for over an hour at a food cart felt ridiculous, unless they're serving up something freaking awesome. Really wish the guy taking orders could have thrown us a clue, since I was hanging on to hope until it was too late. Due to today's debacle, I won't be back there until I get a first-hand account of efficiency and deliciousness, and definitely won't go out of my way. Right now I'm too aggravated to return

p.s. it's Delle & Campbell, looked like a website would be coming soon.

Clearly, the feature in the Washington Post was written a little prematurely. The poor guys are swamped.

[KeithA]

Mark Slater, on Aug 30 2007, 04:25 PM, said:

Clearly, the feature in the Washington Post was written a little prematurely. The poor guys are swamped.

They were swamped. I showed up at 12:20pm and that line didn't move at all for 10 minutes before I jumped ship. My buddy ate there twice earlier in the week and said the Post got it right - the guys at thecart are learning as they go and it seems they weren't not ready for prime time. Good news is my friend said that they were improving quickly. So maybe worth a try in a few days or week after the hype dies down and the cart operator figure out how to deal with a lunch rush.

[porcupine]

The Doctor, on Aug 30 2007, 07:48 PM, said:

Does anyone have a link to the story handy?

Click me.

[Robert Clair]

... heart as usual goes out to these guys.
... some of you may remember a bit in the WaPost several years ago (maybe 2000/1 or so) about the "best philly cheesesteak" in DC. well, it was just down the street and around the light of day in all places ... Suitland ... MD ... close to the US Census Bureau. we read that bit that day, we went, and stood in line forever. went the next few days/weeks as well. the poor fellow had all the right stuff, and the some more of the right stuff ... in that he single-handed made each sub ... one twenty minutes at a time. and the some. oh goodness. slower than a bad '50's french novel. lasted maybe six months at best before the suppliers gave up and the sba loan expired.
... a man, a plan and a canal he wasn't, but for a brief shining time the sun shined.

robert
alex,va

[cleveland park]

Went today and ordered the Shwarma, which is made with chicken, lamb sausage, tahini, lettuce, tomato and onion on pita. It cost $7 and included a bag of chips. It had nice consistency and plenty of lamb and chicken, however I would have liked the lamb and chicken to have a touch more seasoning. I will definately be back and next time I would like to try the Doner Kebab.

They are now offering baklava (lebanese style) for $2.

I'm a sucker for people starting their own business and putting themselves out there with all the competition in the city so I will be going there more frequently.

[JimRice]

Finally those in the Capitol Hill/Union Station area have a better street cart than hot dogs. Delle and Campbell's Halal Luncheonette now have an outpost parked in the triangle formed by North Capitol St, Massachussetts Ave, and F St. I should have asked if they were keeping the old location too, but didn't. Right now I'm eating a kebab sandwich, sliced chicken off the rotisserie with hot chile sauce. Most of the folks were getting shwarama, which will be my next meal there. They didn't have the merguez sausage, unfortunately. I wanted to get one of those too. At 12:30 the line was 6-7 people, which would probably take 15 minutes to clear.

[eating out]

JimRice, on Dec 14 2007, 01:15 PM, said:

Finally those in the Capitol Hill/Union Station area have a better street cart than hot dogs. Delle and Campbell's Halal Luncheonette now have an outpost parked in the triangle formed by North Capitol St, Massachussetts Ave, and F St. I should have asked if they were keeping the old location too, but didn't. Right now I'm eating a kebab sandwich, sliced chicken off the rotisserie with hot chile sauce. Most of the folks were getting shwarama, which will be my next meal there. They didn't have the merguez sausage, unfortunately. I wanted to get one of those too. At 12:30 the line was 6-7 people, which would probably take 15 minutes to clear.

This is great! Thanks for the report. Interesting though, I was driving up 14th earlier this week and was planning to get a kebab. But when I hit G St., the cart was nowhere to be found... Wonder if there's only one cart after all.

[Erik Ox]

JimRice, on Dec 26 2007, 01:00 PM, said:

No shawarma cart to be found today. Dunno what the holiday hours/days are.

Last week, Eating Out and I checked out the cart when it was parked at the new Cap. Hill spot. Delle (?) asked about when it would be slow around the holidays and we thought this week would be pretty quiet but after the 2nd, things should be picking back up.

Perhaps the cart is back downtown this week?

[RWBooneJr.]

I happened upon the Delle & Campbell cart at Mass and N. Capitol at noon today and decided to get a shawarma. Unfortunately, the meat in what I received was rather dry, particularly the chicken, and not even the tzatziki on the sandwich could compensate. It wasn't quite warm enough, either, and the service was excruciatingly slow. Overall, I wasn't that impressed, but I may give them another try. Has anyone else had an experience with this cart lately, either good or bad? Are any other carts around town actually delivering something worthwhile?

[JimRice]

I got lunch here today. The chicken in the shwarama was a little dry, but tasty. He said he had baklava last week, but it didn't sell and he ended up giving most of it away. A shame, I could have used some today.

[DPop]

Delle & Campbell put a cart out at the corner of 8th and H today. The Falafel Sandwich, at $4, is a steal. Not giving Max a run for its money in terms of quality or quantity, but this is a nice, light lunch that is different than anything else you can get in the immediate area at lunch. The wife had the Chicken Schwarma, which would have been very good had the meat been a little bit more moist. Still great flavor, and I really enjoy the white sauce on it.

The line moved very slow, but the guy manning the cart (Delle?) was very nice and clearly doing the best he could in terms of getting the food out of the cart. If this sticks around, it will be a regular for me.

[DPop]

goodeats, on Sep 12 2008, 03:41 PM, said:

Update: co-workers went today at 14th and G St, NW. Is it their plan to move around? (asking since I haven't gone yet and would like to know where to find them. )

I noticed yesterday and today that they were not at 8th and H. I hope they come back.

[clchurch]

DPop, on Sep 12 2008, 09:53 PM, said:

I noticed yesterday and today that they were not at 8th and H. I hope they come back.

According to an article about street vendors that appeared in the Post a couple of days ago, the shwarma cart (I'm assuming they were refering to this one) has gone out of business.

[DPop]

clchurch, on Sep 15 2008, 11:22 AM, said:

According to an article about street vendors that appeared in the Post a couple of days ago, the shwarma cart (I'm assuming they were refering to this one) has gone out of business.

That was the one that was there, and that is very surprising news. When I talked to him, he said that his plan was to be in the area for a while and that the first day he was there was the best day he had ever had since opening the cart. Really a shame if it is gone for good.

[sparkycom]

DPop, on Sep 15 2008, 12:10 PM, said:

There are no Delle & Campbell carts at 8th and H or in the near vicinity any more. I can't speak on any other locations, though.

Drum roll please...Delle & Campbell are back at 8th and H, NW, along with two other carts, On The Fly and Capital Carts (an employment project of, you guessed it, DC Central Kitchen)! I will post more about the menus for each cart, but I can tell ya this--no hot dogs!Washington Business Journal