ABOUT TORTUGA

A SANDWICH SHOP IN SANBORN, NY

My name is Andrew Smiedala and I started Tortuga as a food truck in Fairfax County, VA, a suburb of Washington DC. After graduating from culinary school in 2008, I developed my skills and knowledge working in the kitchens of Chef Jose Andres' restaurants Oyamel, Jaleo and Cafe Atlantico. 

In 2011, I quickly made an offer when a food truck was listed for sale in nearby Maryland. I didn't have a concept yet but I knew that I wanted to have a unique menu and that I wanted the truck to be green (my wife Carla's favorite color). Upon buying the truck, I realized that maybe I should have done a little research before making my offer. The truck was old and had many mechanical problems and I soon found out that it was 6 feet too long to operate in Washington DC - so I was stuck in the suburbs. 

Being that the truck was big and slow with a top speed of around 45MPH and now painted lime green, I decided to name the truck TORTUGA which means turtle in Spanish. I also decided my concept would be Mexican street food sandwiches called TORTAS, so TORTUGA TORTAS sounded like a catchy enough name. 

When we opened in June of 2011, we quickly became very busy and very popular in Fairfax county. So much so that other food trucks in DC that were sick of fighting over parking spaces on the city streets, began to join me in the suburbs. Soon, places where I was previously the only food truck serving lunch became destinations where 20 trucks would park and people would drive from miles away to have lunch there. For the 5 years, I operated, Tortuga was named on Northern Virginia Magazines list of best Food Truck Sandwiches, TheLatinKitchen.com 's list of 13 Best Latin Food Trucks, and Washingtonian Magazine's Top 25 Food Trucks. 

In 2016 after 5 years in business, I made the tough decision to sell the truck so Carla and I could buy a house and relocate back to my hometown in western New York. After some searching, a restaurant became available right in my neighborhood in Sanborn - the new home of Tortuga Sandwich Shop. 

I tried to make the menu at Tortuga Sandwich Shop very approachable and somewhat familiar while still including influences from my cooking experience as well as from my travels in South America. Although the sandwiches are very American, they will also have elements of Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Peru & Bolivia (Carla's home country).  I truly hope you enjoy the food and look forward to being part of this community for years to come.