One of Columbus’ newest food trucks, the Swine features European deli-style food with a gourmet’s taste buds in mind.

The Angus roast beef sandwich, for example, includes goat cheese, roasted yellow pepper, balsamic-tossed mesclun greens and Roma tomatoes, held together by rye bread rubbed with spicy bacon aioli.

The menu is complete with sides ranging from soups to spiced pickles, and its artisan popsicles rival Jeni’s ice cream. The crew serves as many local and organic ingredients as they can find and all the meats are sliced to order.

The food truck has become a vehicle for Giovani, the no-last-name owner of High Street Tattoo, to express his culinary creativity.

After growing up in a restaurant family, apprenticing with European master chefs, and experimenting for the last 12 years with different recipes at home, Giovani said he was excited to share his creations with the public.

Yet the drivable deli did not begin with the food. It began, instead, with the logo.

Giovani’s original sketch entailed a gentlemanly hog wearing a top hat, smoking a cigar and drinking a (sort of) cucumber martini, suggesting that the finer things in life are pickled.

“For some reason, that logo stuck in my head – like it would be cool for a deli,” said Giovani. “The name kind of followed in behind the logo.”

That idea led to a dare between Giovani and Todd Meister, owner of Meister’s Bar.

They agreed that if they found a truck online, Meister would supply the entrepreneurial wisdom while Giovanni took care of the food.

“The whole thing happened really, really fast,” said Meister. “We went from having the idea to having the truck in a week and a half.”

Katrina Rutherford, Giovani’s fiancé, later signed on as a manager and Joel Murraya as the prep cook.

Within a month, they were slinging swine sandwiches.

On their first day, at the recent Food Truck Festival, they sold out of food within two and a half hours. They knew they had won the hearts of Columbus stomachs.

Since their debut three months ago, the Swine is showing no signs of slowing. Giovani is already cooking up ideas beyond the drivable deli, including a fine dining experience called Dinner with the Swine. Four times a year, a group limited to 30 people will meet in a secret location to enjoy wine and a seven-course meal with “the craziest food that we can come up with,” said Giovani.

“I think anyone who is going to wear a chef’s coat should have a serious and deep knowledge of food and be willing to go all over the map,” he said.

Eventually, Giovani said, they will actually serve pickled swine.

Where to find the truck

Weekdays (Tuesday through Thursday or Friday): Near the Speed Factory in Clintonville.

Weekends: Special events – follow the Pickled Swine on Facebook, Twitter, and Hungerly.com and at www.thepickledswine.com.