The L.A.B.

• FOOD TRUCK
• Kalamazoo, MI 49007
• (269) 400-6660
• Website
• Sample Menu

Finding lunch on Friday’s in Kalamazoo in the summer can be pretty easy.

Just walk to the park.

I had another pretty easy Friday because my co-worker in Kalamazoo was out of town. I had some long term projects to finish up but after that, it was just kind of a day for doing some maintenance and organizing some things.

I forced myself to stop for a while around lunch time and when I looked out the window, I remembered it was Lunchtime Live…..so I walked across the street to get something to eat.

I always like to find new food trucks and there was one parked near the end of the row of trucks on South Street near Westnedge that I had never seen before.

The L.A.B. (which stands for Lockett Authentic Barbecue) is a Kalamazoo based truck that specializes in barbecue, steaks, chicken and other delicious meats. There was a small crowd gathered around the white and black with lime green accents truck. Like me, many of the other people in line were seeing this truck for the first time and were excited to try it.

The menu for the day was displayed on a TV monitor outside of the truck. It was pretty much all BBQ which was fine with me. I was in the mood for a good brisket sandwich.

I put in an order for The Brisket sandwich and an order of fries. The cost should have been $22. The kid working the window turned the iPad around for a tip and I noticed that there was no tip option and it was just showing me a receipt for $30. I think his thumb may have hit the tip button or something when he turned it around …I don’t think it was intentional as he seemed genuinely confused when I pointed out that he charged me way too much. The guy putting orders together eventually caught realized what we were talking about and gave me the $8 difference in cash. I threw a couple of those bucks in to the tip jar and everything was good.

It took a few minutes for the order to be passed out of the window to me. There was a sandwich piled high with tender, juicy brisket, a good sized portion of fries and a cup of BBQ sauce on the side. I grabbed the little paper boat and headed back to the office to eat.

I actually started with the fries on the walk back across the street. They were simple out of the bag skin on fries with just a little bit of salt on them. I actually used the cup of BBQ sauce to dip the fries in to give them a little more flavor.

I waited until I got back to the office with the sandwich. It was a simple white bun loaded with delicious BBQ. This brisket was so tender, so juicy, and had a delicious peppery wood smoked flavor. It comes with BBQ sauce but this is the type of meat that doesn’t need it. It’s just fall apart in your mouth goodness.

The L.A.B. is delicious. The sandwich just hit the spot. It was so good. There were some service hiccups but I think it was a case of dad teaching his son how to work and I’m ok with that. The kid was trying to get it right and Lunchtime Live can get a little overwhelming with a large amount of people in a short amount of time. Once I had that sandwich in my hand, I forgot all about that though. This is some good BBQ.