Throwback Thursday: Deltron 3030 Tour and the Food We Eat!

When I first joined Deltron 3030 back in 2014, I was hoping someone in the band would love food as much as me.  It turned out Dan The Automator is a huge foodie, and knows more good restaurants around the globe than anyone I have met. I have been fortunate enough to have hit some pretty spectacular spots while on tour with The Mars Volta but the food journey game had been upped by joining the Deltron.

My tour dining obsession all began in New York on an early Mars Volta run. One of my fondest touring memories was when my friend Matt Molina, who at the time was a chef studying under the great Mario Batali, got me and 5 of my friends into Mario’s legendary Babbo restaurant in Manhattan. I hit up Jon Theodore, to see if he wanted to go and he asked if he could bring Syd Butler from Les Savy Fav. We ended up filling the table for six reservation and we all had dining epiphanies.  Not only was it some of the best food I have ever had but the wine pairing they threw at us was truly artistic.

After that experience, I made it my mission to seek out great restaurants in whatever city I was in and hit them with anyone who wanted to join me. Ikey Owens was always down to check out good spots so he became a regular on my food excursions.  I can remember having to convince him and all the crew members to hit Frasca in Boulder Colorado. Though they were skeptical because it was Boulder, we had one of the best dining nights of the tour there. After that, it was pretty easy to convince band-mates and crew-members to trust me.

So jump to the Deltron 2014 tour within six months it is crazy when I think about how many great restaurants we hit. Someone always seems to know a chef or has a friend who can get us in to a place that is booked for months. In Toronto a kitchen staff at seafood restaurant sent a crew of their employees to shuck oysters for us, backstage.

In the last six months, we had legendary Thai food at Las Vegas’s Lotus Of Siam, great barbecue in Atlanta, a Best Po Boy contest in the French Quarter, and some of the best sushi in San Diego. I am only scratching the surface of what we hit on tour but the list is pretty impressive.

During a tour stop in Paris, I have to say, I just can’t say enough great things about the food there. I have had amazing croissants, granola, crepes and that is just at small places. I am lucky enough to have dined at Le Comptoir St Germain twice within six months. The tuna cubes there are beyond words. On that particular day I only ordered that and the beef carpaccio and some bread but I was on a high all afternoon. I ended the night having dinner at called Richer and realized I am going to run out of per diems at that pace.

But look at the pics of my food!  It is so damn worth it. The creme of chicken appetizer was the best chicken dish of my life. I think I get more geeked out on food than pedals at the moment. Well that might not be true because I did almost buy a distortion pedal solely because the box design was so tight looking. Either way, you all now know how I get through years and years of touring…I eat through them!

-Juan