Monterey's Poke Lab adds a food truck, online ordering and more.

The most appetizing thing about the area’s hottest food phenomenon – sorry, Cultura Comida y Bebida, it’s still Poke Lab (200-3474) on Alvarado Street in Monterey – is its evolution is ongoing, and shows no sign of slowing.

Owner-operator Joey Nguyen and Chef James Anderson could very well stick to the simple and practical appeal driven by well-sourced fresh fish and a fun-and-functional format that leads to lines out the door.

That format asks eager guests to (a) Set a foundation of sushi rice, brown rice or green salad; (b) Select a sashimi-grade seafood like spicy tuna, salmon, tuna, yellowtail, octopus or cooked shrimp; (c) Pile on avocado, crabmeat, green onions, eggs, seaweed, sesame seeds, wasabi, ginger, cucumber, onions or all of the above; (d) Splash on signature sauces. (Another play: Roll with what Anderson is feeling on the specials front – highly recommended when they include salmon belly he candies and smokes across the block at Alvarado Street Brewery. Umami heaven.)

Instead they’re doubling down.

Nguyen and his fiancee Grace Lee just filed a fictitious business name for Poke Lab Food Truck last week.

The juggernaut is going mobile.

The original plan was to add another brick-and-mortar outpost. Then they learned of an upcoming Marina poke spot (rumored to be called Poke House, by people who once worked for Poke Lab, on Reservation Road by Albertson’s) and something similar in Pacific Grove (Poke Time, at 484 Lighthouse Ave., from the folks behind Sushi Time in Seaside). So they drove in a different direction.

The new plan, for now, as Nguyen hustles to assemble permits and business licenses, with an eye at starting the engine early next month: Post up at Ryan Ranch Monday-Wednesday-Friday, then spend those MWF evenings in Marina near the new Cinemark movie theater in the Dunes Shopping Mall. Hit unincorporated Carmel Tuesdays and Thursdays. Try out Big Sur, Santa Cruz and Carmel Valley on the weekends. Deploy the truck at special events. Use the Poke Lab website, Facebook (www.fb.com/ThePokeLab) and Instagram (@ThePokeLab) to keep followers current. Invite input. Re-evaluate after a month.

“We can move where more people want us,” Nguyen says. “That’s the beauty of the truck.”

Things will be more streamlined than the store. Think ready-made bowls like the avocado-salmon-spicy tuna, with a choice rice or salad with some sauces and toppings left for customers to apply.

“The focus is ease-of-ordering and pickup,” Anderson says. “Get in, get out.”

The truck’s virgin voyage takes place Saturday, Aug. 27, at the wildly promising Community Palette. The latest installment of the art-culture explosion party happens in a private venue at Greg Hawthorne and Don Davis’ mighty studio at 440 Ortiz Ave. in Sand City, in conjunction with the Independent Presencegallery show. It goes down as Sand City’s epic (and free) West End Celebration wraps for the day, and both benefits victims of the Soberanes Fire and spotlights Big Sur talents. Kierstyn Bachmann Berlin and Domini Anne have arranged all sorts of wine, dance, fashion, music and a two-story human nest from Jaysonn Fann serving as the entrance. (www.communitypalette.com for $25-$40 tickets.)

Anderson will dish signature bowls in smaller doses with smaller prices ($5ish instead of $10ish). Then he caters the VIP dinner ($250) with things like poke “shots,” lamb cheeks, sweet corn tamales, stone fruit-nasturtium-fig poppers, inventive heirloom tomato caprese and more.

While the truck stuff is revving up, Poke Lab is about to debut online ordering to minimize the in-store wait.

Come Sept. 1, eaters can punch in what they want through Facebook or the website (as an app awaits approval from the app stores for iPhone and Android).

“We want to make it easier to get product,” Nguyen says. “We’re learning what people like and don’t like.”

Exciting stuff all around, but the coolest things are happening in the kitchen. It would be enough that Anderson has widened his offering of salmon belly to more days of the week – the roasted caramelized roundness is that good. But he’s also experimenting more with ceviche, Monterey Bay Seaweeds and his own fermented daikon kimchi with funky, deep flavors with a mellow heat that has smooth staying power.

I tried some this week next to a chef’s special bowl that was more of a smorgasbord seafood salad bar than a traditional bowl, weighing in at nearly two protein-packed pounds ($15).

It included tender and lightly spicy salmon ceviche with jalapeño, red onion, bell pepper, garlic and a well-tuned note of citrus; his own “da kine” recipe albacore with dark soy reduction, lemon zest and Japanese furikake seasoning; seaweed salad; edamame, avocado and tobiko; and, oh yes, that insane smoked salmon belly.

In short, the place is upping its game and staying true to its name.

“The great thing is that we always called it our food laboratory,” Nguyen says. “We check with our vendors, see what’s out there and get to play with food. Places that have been around 10 or 20 or 30 years can’t always play with recipes. We’re open to anything. Who says we can’t do these other things?”

There is one problem, though. They’re closed Wednesdays.

~ QUICKBITES ~

• Carmel is getting a new bar and grill, Mulligan Public House, from the same team who ran Brophy’s Tavern. Plans for the remodel went to the city Monday. Conservative open date: End of the month. More on the blog.
• Aubergine in Carmel (624-8578) made the top 10 for Best Hotel Restaurant in a USA TODAY readers poll.
• Naked Juice is donating 10 pounds of produce to food deserts, which affect nearly 24 million Americans, for every person who takes a fruit or veggie selfie and hashtags it #drinkgooddogood.
• Monterey County Vintners & Growers have debuted the first-ever Monterey Wine List Awards. Get the winners on the blog, www.mcweekly.com/edible.
• Local food and wine, raffle, and creativity drive “Arts for a Cause: An Evening for the Soberanes Fire Relief” 6-8pm Aug. 25 at Cafe Lumiere in Monterey.
• Next 9am-1pm Saturday, Aug. 20, all Cinemark & Century theaters show free movies for its Community Day.
• Former Will’s Fargo exec chef Greg Karjala, who replaced Jerome Viel, didn’t stick around for more than five months in order to take another gig.
• Hospitality veteran Jonathan Bagley-Rowe is now restaurant and bar manager at Rio Grill in Carmel.
• Brad Briske has officially left the building at la Balena (and il Grillo), where he helped create a beautiful thing with his Italian-inspired sea/farm/field-to-plate thing. He’s starting Home in Santa Cruz, which will soon be its own destination. Adolfo Barraga steps in after three years working closely with Briske.
• I’m hearing good things about Siam Marina Thai Cuisine (883-9399), which took over for Coconut Thai in the former D’Anna Thai space this spring.
• Come 2-6pm Sunday, Aug. 28, it’s a special day at Folktale Winery to benefit Soberanes Fire relief: 20 restaurants, 30+ wineries and breweries from Monterey and beyond, live music, auctions ($75, www.soberanesfirehelp.org).
• The Wharf Marketplace (649-1116) now has $5 Fridays locals only salad bar.
• Epictetus: “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”