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With a spin on their menu and a flourish of local ingredients, Mei Mei by Design officially opens today. The latest iteration of this food truck-turned-brick-and-mortar is housed in a shipping container at the Innovation and Design Building in Seaport.
Mei Mei is a sibling-run enterprise known for its Chinese-American cuisine and its signature menu items like pierogi dumplings and the Double Awesome. It is one of eight food, coffee, and supply shipping containers opening up at 23 Drydock Ave. All are slated to be open by the end of the week.
For the new location, Mei Mei had to rework the menu a bit to accommodate the type of cooking space and to cater to the neighborhood crowd. It moved away from its classic food truck items, opting for bowl-style dining.
"We're going for a fresh & local vibe, with about 95% of ingredients from our partner farms," Mei Mei wrote on its blog.
Descriptions of the bowls, which feature names of these partner farms, are available on Mei Mei's website. "The Piggery," for example, is topped with cottage bacon and includes "local sweet corn, pickled mushrooms, garlic panko and a spinach-lettuce mix with a sweet tomato dressing."
The Mei Mei shipping container held a soft opening yesterday will be open regular hours starting today. It will operate Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
UPDATE: According to a newsletter from the restaurant, the Mei Mei Street Kitchen truck will be off the road for the winter: "While we're psyched to be opening the container right in time feed people through the cold weather, we are sad to report that the food truck will be closing this winter from Christmas through March. After three winters of freezing feet, terrible snowstorms, too much shoveling, and having to cut staff last minute, we have regretfully decided to close this winter for the benefit of our whole team and the business. We'll be back on the road next spring and will miss all our awesome truck regulars. In the meantime, come get your Mei Mei fix at the restaurant and we'll see you soon!"
