Porchettoni is St. Pete’s newest food truck, and it has a story unlike any other in the Burg. The truck, open in Grand Central from 11:30 am – 8:30 pm Wednesday-Sunday at 2180 1st Ave N, dishes up traditional Roman street food, with a specialty in housemade, old school porchetta.

The menu includes porchetta sandwiches and platters, chicken parm, chicken Americana, Italian fries, mozzarella sticks, and a variety of spaghetti and gnocchi dishes. The porchetta, a moist boneless pork roast of Italian culinary tradition, is the star of the show, made with the same techniques that have been passed down in Rome for 2,000 years.

However, good food isn’t the only intriguing part of Porchettoni. Owner and chef Alessandro Toglia moved to the U.S. in 2019, and thanks to one of the world’s greatest culinary legends, he had a following here in America before he even arrived.

Bourdain-approved dishes at Porchettoni

Toglia opened his first restaurant back in 2011 in his hometown of Rome, naming it I Porchettoni. Not long after opening, the osteria caught the attention of Anthony Bourdain, who went on to feature I Porchettoni twice on the Travel Channel. As a result, Toglia ended up being constantly swarmed by Americans looking for the popular porchetta that Bourdain had given his seal of approval.

“It was basically an invasion,” Toglia joked. “People would show up straight from the airport – they hadn’t even dropped off their suitcases.”

Of course, he loved the experience, and welcomed the Americans alongside the Roman locals with open arms. In fact, he enjoyed it so much, Toglia eventually decided that instead of Americans coming to him, he would come to the Americans. In 2019, he moved to Miami and opened Porchettoni, bringing “the millenary taste of the Roman Emperors” to South Florida.

After three years in Miami, Toglia (like so many others) felt the allure of the Sunshine City and moved to St. Pete. The truck just set up in its permanent location in the last couple weeks, dishing up his Roman street food in the Grand Central District and teaching locals about porchetta.

As described by Toglia, porchetta is an ancient style of pork made when “The body of the pig is gutted, deboned, arranged carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin, then rolled, spitted, and roasted, traditionally over wood.”

See the full menu at porchettonifoodtruck.com. The truck is located on 22^nd St between Central Ave and 1^st Ave N, just feet away from the SunRunner stop on 22nd.