All it takes is one bite of Adam Bratter’s hot-from-the-fryer nuggets to know this is no ordinary falafel. Chewy outside and hot, fluffy and verdant inside, they sing with a perfect blend of fresh herbs, spices and garlic. The aroma makes you smile.
At his Falafayette food trailer, Bratter tucks falafel inside a warm pita loaded with crunchy vegetables, three sauces and the silkiest hummus on the planet. The secret ingredient: hot french fries.
Falafayette is not trying to be the all-inclusive dolmas to gyros to baklava Middle Eastern eatery. The trailer parked behind Romero’s K9 Club & Tap House in Lafayette is simply the vehicle for Bratter’s lifelong “total obsession” with serving mind- and palate-wowing falafel and hummus.
Bratter’s first falafel “wow” moment came when he ate at the famous Blue Falafel stand on a high school trip to Israel.
“It was amazing,” he says. “I ate there every day.”
When Bratter lived in Miami, he began frequenting the city’s falafel stands to badger owners for the secrets to making fare he could not resist. Becoming an artisan food entrepreneur wasn’t in his plans at the time — he was happily doing social media for Broomfield-based (and Boulder-born) White Wave Foods.
But he did enjoy having friends over for dinner, which is where the name “Falafayette” came from — his friends jokingly suggested it one night, and Bratter ran with it, taking his cooking from the kitchen to Romero’s K9 Taproom with pop-up events in 2022. The next year, he purchased the Falafayette food trailer, parked it behind Romero’s and opened for business. He’s been there ever since.
Falafayette doesn’t leave to serve at breweries or local events, but catering is available. As Bratter says, “This is a pseudo brick-and-mortar establishment.”
Simplicity is bliss
The menu reflects Bratter’s narrow focus.
The falafel sandwich is served in a special pita baked by New Jersey’s Angel’s Bakery. The tasty loaves are remarkably soft and thick and hold together better than dry, thin commercial pitas. House-made sauces include tahini, s’chug (like green chimichurri) and hot pickled mango sauce. The hummus bowl topped with tahini sauce and olive oil with fries is one of Falafayette’s top sellers. Bratter also dishes special hummus bowl toppers like harissa Brussels sprouts, stewed beans (ful or foul) and vegan shawarma.
Other choices range from a falafel bowl and a labneh bowl (with strained yogurt cheese) to Moroccan “pre-rolls” — crisply fried, filo-wrapped plant-based meat treats.
Dessert is simply imported sweet sesame halvah; beverages include fresh mint lemonade.
All about the garbanzos
The word hummus translates literally as garbanzo beans. “So, ‘black bean hummus’ isn’t really a thing,” Bratter says.
He only buys certified organic garbanzos to make his falafel and hummus: “Conventionally grown garbanzo beans are one of the crops most heavily sprayed with the toxic herbicide glyphosate.”
Sitting inside Romero’s, Bratter’s face is consumed with glee as he describes the incredibly laborious, three-day process of turning dry legumes into hummus and falafel.
“The beans are soaked for 18 hours and cooked slowly to exfoliate them, and I painstakingly remove all the tough outer skins,” he says. “That’s what makes the hummus smooth.”
The beans are ground and mixed with high-quality tahini (sesame seed paste), fresh lemon juice, salt and cumin to make hummus. Other bean batches are ground coarsely and mixed with herbs and spices for falafel.
“I work alone, so speed is definitely not our thing,” Bratter says. “The falafel are hand-scooped to order. It’s genuine slow food.”
Most of Falafayette’s regulars order ahead online, including a customer who runs the 15k from Boulder every week to get a falafel pita.
“He eats it and then his daughter drives him home,” Bratter says.
Falafayette is typically open at Romero’s Tuesday and Friday for lunch, dinner on Wednesdays, and occasionally other days. To find out when the trailer is serving, follow: Instagram.com/falafayette.