From Cajun seafood to birria tacos to wood-fired pizza, Kerrville-area food trucks are carving out their own space in the local dining scene—one scratch-made dish at a time.
THE PEARL
Samantha Raumaker and her husband, Brandon Bogle, are the team behind The Pearl, one of Kerrville’s newest and fastest-growing food trucks.
“It’s not very often that you find a pearl or something kind of unique, different, and rare so that’s where the name came from,” Bogle said. “Because we do everything from scratch. We grind our own meat, and I use beef tallow instead of seed oil. We want to keep everything as natural as possible.”
Before launching the truck last July, the couple operated Bayou Cajun Café until it closed in summer 2023. The experience pushed them to strike out on their own.
“I thought, well we were running that restaurant with just the two of us and doing a lot of business,” said Bogle. “I thought we should invest in ourselves for a change.”
That investment led to the launch of The Pearl.
“My wife’s always been in the restaurant industry as a server or manger, so I decided that I was going to try it out and fell in love with cooking,” Bogle said. “It’s just been a passion.”
The menu ranges from boudin balls and fried catfish to po’ boys, shrimp alfredo and brisket sandwiches. One standout item continues to draw customers.
“I can’t keep the redfish tacos in stock,” Bogle said.
Burgers are made with prime brisket Angus patties and served on Hawaiian buns, while every entrée comes with Cajun fries cooked in 100% beef tallow for a crispier finish.
The menu rotates based on availability, though staples like fried catfish remain. Sundays bring a seafood boil at the truck’s permanent location at the Ingram Dam.
TAQUITOS BAUTISTA
For Joanna Bautista, starting Taquitos Bautista was about more than food—it was about family.
“I was working at a local taqueria full-time, and realized I didn’t have much time to spend with my daughter who was 2 or 3 at the time,” Bautista said. “So, I thought maybe I should open a food truck to have more time to spend with her.”
Since launching in 2019 with help from her sister Janeth, Bautista has built her menu around her mother’s birria recipe.
“We originally started with the birria tacos and have continued to add menu items from there," she said.
The menu has expanded to include quesabirria tacos, shrimp birria tacos, street tacos and aguas frescas in flavors like horchata, strawberry, pineapple, cucumber and mango. Seasonal items like menudo and pozole make their way to the menu in the winter.
One of the truck’s more unique offerings is birria ramen, a fusion dish that swaps water for rich broth.
“We put the broth from the birria in the ramen and make it that way,” Bautista said.
Looking ahead, Bautista hopes to one day open a brick-and-mortar restaurant. For now, the food truck continues to serve customers daily and cater events.
“We do graduations, weddings, quinceaneras, birthday parties and all kinds of events,” Bautista said.
SHIM'S BE BLESSED
Shonna and Tim Foster didn’t originally set out to run a food truck, but it became the natural next step for their catering business.
“I love to cook, and people kept asking me to cater certain events,” Shonna Foster said. “Really the reason we ended up getting a food trailer was to have a commercial kitchen to do the catering.”
After moving to Kerrville in 2021, the couple lived in an RV at Johnson Creek RV Resort and Park in Ingram where they began serving food directly from their trailer.
“We just parked our food trailer in one of the RV spots and pretty much just fed the people that were in the RV park,” she said. “Then we started getting a lot of people coming in from Kerrville and Bandera.”
The name “Shim’s Be Blessed” carries personal meaning rooted in family tradition.
“My Granny used to always say, ‘Be blessed’ all the time, so that’s what we named our catering company in New Mexico.” Foster said. “To keep it from getting confused when we opened in Kerrville we added “Shim’s” to it. It’s a combination of mine and my husband’s names.”
Now frequently stationed at the Trailhead Beer Garden on the Schreiner University campus, the truck serves a rotating menu.
Foster, who learned to cook from her grandmother, often creates dishes on instinct.
“I’ll look in the refrigerator and be like, ‘Oh well, this will go good together,’” she said.
The truck specializes in gourmet burgers, including the “Hot Mess Express.”
“It has a deep-fried piece of jalapeno cream cheese on it,” Foster said. “We also go down to New Mexico and get all our green and red chili for green chili cheeseburgers and Navajo tacos. It’s been fun bringing New Mexico to Texas.”
Desserts have become a growing part of the menu.
“We just started a full dessert menu,” Foster said. “We do Dubai chocolate bars, Dubai strawberry cups, Dubai brownies, and we have the cookies and cream and mint chocolate chip sundaes.”
The truck also offers catering and monthly take-and-bake meals.
“I try to do them once a month. You can find the menu on our Facebook page,” Foster said. “I do all kinds of different things including green chili scalloped potatoes, enchiladas, Spanish rice and beans.”
OTHER GRUB
More local options continue to round out the area’s food truck scene.
Munchy Machine in the backyard of Basement Brewers of Texas at 521 Clay St. serves up a wide array of fresh food and weekly specials. Hours for Basement Brewers are 5-9 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and noon-7 p.m. Sundays.
Tacos Antonio at 3269 Junction Highway in Ingram serves up everything from breakfast tacos and burritos to tortas and quesadillas. Hours are 6 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday and 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays.
This article was originally published in the June 2025 edition of Hill Country Culture Magazine.
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