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Amplified tastes at Rock & Roll Diner food truck 

Musician Charlie Hamill is playing more gigs to help fund another passion: serving customers from his food truck, Rock & Roll Diner.


DON PETERSEN | Special to The Roanoke Times


Roanoke musian, Charlie Hamill, also owner and chef of Rock and Roll Diner.

DON PETERSEN | Special to The Roanoke Times


Roanoke musian, Charlie Hamill, also owner and chef of Rock and Roll Diner.

DON PETERSEN | Special to The Roanoke Times


Rock and Roll Diner owner and chef, Charlie Hamill prepares his pesto chicken pasta dish in his Rock and Roll Diner kitchen.

DON PETERSEN | Special to The Roanoke Times


Fish tacos, a favorite of Rock and Roll Diner customers.

DON PETERSEN | Special to The Roanoke Times


A pesto chicken pasta dish simmers on the stove.

DON PETERSEN | Special to The Roanoke Times


Rock and Roll Diner special , shrimp and grits.

DON PETERSEN | Special to The Roanoke Times


Customers check the menu to order lunch from the Rock and Roll Diner parked off Reserve Avenue in Roanoke .

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by
Lindsey Nair | 981-3343

Wednesday, July 17, 2013


During his 20s, Charlie Hamill sweated through shifts as a restaurant prep cook, whipping up sauces by the gallon so he could afford to do what he loved most: make music.

These days, the 46-year-old Roanoke native finds himself playing a lot of gigs to help fund his main endeavor: cooking.

The irony of the situation is not lost on Hamill, but in a way, it makes perfect sense. He has always written and played music for people’s enjoyment; now he gets a kick out of thrilling customers with the comfort food he hawks from his food truck, Rock & Roll Diner.

“All of my adult life, there has been a part of me that has known, without a doubt, that I would own a food establishment at some point,” he said, “even when the only cooking I was doing was in those little restaurants.”

Hamill’s rolling diner, which serves everything from an Angus beef burger to the Don Juan breakfast taco, is one of the newest food trucks in Southwest Virginia.

Last year, I profiled Bruno’s GastroTruck, which is owned by Bruno and Tiffany Silva of Smith Mountain Lake, and Juan and Claudia Urrea’s Roanoke-based business, Noke Truck. There’s also a new Christiansburg truck called Toasted by Casey, as well as several Latino food trucks that set up along Williamson Road in Roanoke.

All of these businesses are riding the tailwind of a national infatuation. Food trucks made the list of the top 20 hottest trends for 2013 in a survey of chefs by the National Restaurant Association, and in a 2012 NRA consumer survey, 73 percent said they would visit a food truck if it was offered by a favorite restaurant.

Switching gears

If the name of the truck doesn’t tip off customers to Hamill’s musical background, the stack of CDs for sale at the ordering window surely will. But a lot of Roanokers are already aware of his influence on the city’s music scene.

When he moved back to Roanoke in 1997 after running a sound studio and cooking at the Magnolia Cafe in Austin, Texas, Hamill opened Dynamic Sound Studios on Salem Avenue. Later, he was director of the Downtown Music Lab, an after-school program for teens interested in making music. He has also been a disc jockey at WROV-FM and has played in three bands.

Hamill, who sings and plays guitar, piano and drums, can often be found rocking local bars with his current band, the Charlie Hamill Group, or playing solo acoustic gigs.

In 2008, just after the Culinary Institute at Virginia Western opened, he decided to enroll. While in school, he started a catering business called Rock & Roll Catering. He graduated from the culinary school in 2011.

“Charlie was always very inquisitive,” said James Zeisler Sr., director of the culinary program. “He always wanted to be sure he was doing it right, doing it the best way he could. He is a good example of the program putting out a student who is a true culinarian.”

In addition to the culinary degree, Hamill also holds degrees in political science, pre-law and sound engineering.

Initially, Hamill thought he would open a restaurant after graduation, but he thought a food truck would be less expensive (he’d learn different). To pay for his mobile restaurant, he took out a small business loan and sold some musical equipment, including a Gibson J185 acoustic guitar.

Technically, the Rock & Roll Diner is a food trailer, not a truck. It was custom-built by Concession Nation in Florida and outfitted with a flat-top grill, a six-burner stove, a hood and a 50-cubic-foot refrigerator. Hamill pulls it behind a Nissan van, so the entire set-up is a somewhat unwieldy 50 feet long. He’s run over a curb or two.

“You really just have to make a lot of mistakes that you can’t avoid [while] driving this rig,” he said with a laugh.

Moving target

At CBIZ in Northwest Roanoke, the sight of Hamill’s trailer parked outside makes some employees eye the clock in anticipation of lunchtime.

The Rock & Roll Diner sets up there from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Tuesday. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, it is usually parked on Reserve Avenue, and on Thursdays it’s at Delta Dental. Hamill also takes the truck to various festivals and fundraisers, and on Friday night it was parked at Parkway Brewing Company in Salem. The best way to know for sure where the diner will be each day is to check its Facebook page.

CBIZ, which handles payroll, benefit services and the like for other companies, was located in downtown Roanoke until it moved about a year ago. Employees like Neil Devlin miss being able to walk to restaurants for lunch, so administrative assistant Sharon Crossland invited different food trucks to visit the company throughout the work week.

As he waited for his breakfast Americana on a recent weekday, Devlin said he’s ordered from all the trucks. “I like Charlie’s the best,” he said.

The diner menu is a mishmash of different cuisines, largely influenced by Hamill’s time in Texas and Virginia. He offers a Southwest quesadilla, Key West fish tacos, a diner burger, “chick on a stick,” four breakfast plates and three platters built on his seasoned home fries.

The best-seller at lunch, he said, is the fish tacos, which are lemon pepper cod with black beans and rice, avocado, pico de gallo and chipotle aioli. Late at night, after last call, Hamill sometimes parks the diner outside Martin’s Downtown Grill & Bar, where he sells a lot of his cheesesteak subs.

In the early months, Hamill ran the food truck on his own. Now he has help from Justin Borges, a student of Virginia Western’s culinary program. A group of about a half-dozen friends are also on call to jump in when Hamill needs help.

Like the other food truck owners around town, Hamill is constantly besieged by requests to bring his truck to local businesses — a great problem to have. He tries to keep his schedule to six days a week, but finds himself working a lot of Sundays, too.

“But it’s important to take a day off,” he said. “You can work it all the time if you want, but it’s an extremely tasking endeavor.”

Riffing on recipes

One of the questions Hamill gets a lot is whether it’s easier to run a food truck business than a brick-and-mortar restaurant. His answer is no.

“Everything has to be moved and loaded multiple times,” he said. “You are constantly moving your restaurant, and you have all sorts of mechanical issues to deal with.”

He restocks just about every day, which means his ingredients are always fresh. He does have room for some dry storage in his van, and the extra-large refrigerator is a plus.

As for food trucks being less expensive to start up, Hamill figured out that wasn’t the case.

“I would say that almost any food truck that’s nice, by the time you’re done with the first 12 months of permits, bills and insurance, it’s absolutely the same expense, if not more, than a small restaurant,” he said.

He still loves it, largely because — like music — it gives him a chance to be spontaneous and creative. For example, when a guitar solo is coming up during a gig, he said, he never knows exactly what he’s going to play. Cooking is like that for him.

“Without a doubt, songwriting and coming up with recipes are really, to me, pulled from the exact same place in my mind.”

Both are a source of income for him, but he said the larger reason he plays music and started the Rock & Roll Diner is because he likes to make people happy.

“I just have one credo here on this truck,” he said, “and that is always make the best food that you can.”

On the blog

Find Hamill’s recipe for Pawley’s Island crab cakes with champagne sauce at blogs.roanoke.com/fridgemagnet.

Fresh Pico de Gallo
This is a recipe inspired by Charlie Hamill’s time in Austin, Texas. “Each component is essential,” he wrote in an email, “so don’t skip any if you want the real thing. Goes great with any tacos, breakfast eggs, chips and dip, and especially grilled or sautéed fish like grouper or mahi-mahi.”

  • 8 firm, medium ripe Roma tomatoes, diced in medium-sized pieces
  • 1 red onion, diced medium
  • 2 jalapenos, seeded and cored, diced small
  • 2 serrano peppers, seeded and cored, diced small
  • 1⁄2 lime, juiced
  • 1⁄2 bunch cilantro, chopped fine
  • 2 tsp. kosher salt
  • 2 tsp. black pepper
  • 1. Stir all ingredients together. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally.
  • 2. Try some on a tortilla chip. You should be able to taste all ingredients equally. If desired, add the juice of the rest of the lime.
The Best Steak Ever
Hamill recently learned that his best friend, a 14-year-old white labrador retriever named Austin, has terminal cancer. The day he found out, he said, he went to Tinnell’s Fine Foods in South Roanoke and bought the two prettiest New York strips he could find — one for himself and one for Austin.

This method, which has become his favorite, is how he prepared the strips. For this method, you will need a cast-iron skillet or a stainless steel saute pan, as well as a meat thermometer with a display unit that sits outside the oven.

  • Hamill advises buying the highest quality beef you can find and pairing the steak with a 2011 Peachy Canyon Red Zinfandel.
  • 10-14 oz. prime certified Angus New York strip or rib-eye
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1⁄2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1⁄2 Tbsp. butter
  • 1. A couple hours before cooking time, remove steak from refrigerator, unwrap and place on a plate. Coat each side liberally with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
  • 2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  • 3. Place skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil and butter.
  • 4. When the pan is smoking hot, put in the steak (it will crackle and pop). Let cook for 2 to 3 minutes, then flip and cook for another 2 minutes. You should have a good char going on the outside of the meat.
  • 5. Remove pan from stovetop, insert thermometer probe in the center of the steak, and place the pan in the oven. For rare, pull it out at 125 degrees; 135 degrees for medium; 145 degrees for medium well.
  • 6. Remove steak from skillet, leaving the thermometer in place. The temperature will rise about 10 degrees as it rests.
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