Sep 10 2009
Food Carts! PDX or NYC?
There’s some light discussion regarding Portland and New York’s cart scenes going on out there on the Internet after a story was published in the New York Post this week. After NBC News was here in August and interviewed Mayor Sam Adams about our cart scene, I guess Mayor Sam stated our carts are better than in New York. Well, New York Mayor Bloomberg took that to heart and went out a carting to taste what is offered.
Our fellow cart enthusiasts at MidTownLunch.com have joined in the conversation, asking their readers who’s best, PDX or NYC. I don’t think it is a matter of who’s best because each city has much to offer. I will point out that here in Portland, if you want a choice, we got something for everyone. With the 5 pods in downtown alone, I counted about 75 carts available for the taking, all within walking distance. One could easily check out all the carts in an hour.
What do you think? Have you visited New York and tried their cart offerings? We’ll keep you posted as to when the NBC segment will air.
Having gone to school in New York for four year and also having lived the majority of my life in Portland I definitely prefer the food carts in Portland over the ones in NYC. Yes NYC has had them longer but they just can’t beat the sheer variety and concentration that PDX has.
In NYC most of what I’ve found has been your average hot dog cart (hot dogs, really bad pretzels, and knishes), carts with either chicken or beef kebabs topped with bbq sauce and served with bread for a few dollars (they can be really good), and carts that serve halal meat (it reminded me of gyro meat but I can’t remember what type of food it was exactly). There are also dessert carts (well more like vans), “Mexican” food carts, and I’ve seen some Indian food as well.
One of the other things that, logistically speaking, sets PDX apart is the ability for carts to set up and stay in parking lots. It allows for the ability for little pods of street carts to crop up. Along with that, the clusters of food carts in Portland allows people to be able to go to one location and still have a ton of variety, something I haven’t found true in NYC.
I don’t think it is an equation of NYC vs PDX and who’s cart scene is “better”. Tsk-Tsk Sam Adams for your lack of diplomacy.
Both scenes are different. Different populations, different population densities, different ethnic demographics, different levels of support for the carts by the two cities (City of Portland supports the carts, City of NYC not so much), different geographies of development, and different laws around the carts.
My take? Both are damn good, but considering the size of NYC vs. size of Portland, the PDX cart scene is certainly a phenomena.
The cart scene in NYC is more established, but is also more rigid due to the city’s laws. It is older and based more on carts that must move every evening, not the “permi-carts” that sit in Portland’s parking lots 24-7, 365 for years at a time. NYC also has a lack of vacant land meaning that carts have no room to be grouped into rows, pods and the like. NYC also has a fluid ethnic and immigrant population that is much more diverse and intense than PDX. That’s why you’ll see more carts there serving things like Jamaican Jerk BBQ, Afghanistan rice plates, Halal food carts, carts serving nothing but Polish Pirogi of all kinds, Goat BBQ from Trinidad on fry bread – you name it. New York also has a much more organized group of cart owners, with a whole nonprofit dedicated to legal, financial and other resources. It is also much more expensive there to start and operate a cart and permits are difficult to procure.
Portland’s scene is younger, more experimental and includes more gourmet and offbeat carts such as Whiffies, the Grilled Cheese Grill, etc. We also have a much bigger focus on artisan, organic, vegetarian and local foods carts. Our City is much more relaxed about cart zoning and other permitting, and it is easier and cheaper to rent cart space here because we have more vacant and underutilized land. The cart scene in PDX is also more collaborative and less competitive overall than NYC, which honestly can be brutally cut throat (including threats of physical violence) between cart owners.
Finally, Portland has a whole website dedicated to food carts that is quite popular and has a dedicated following of readers and commentary (if I do say so myself). In case you haven’t noticed. NYC has wonderful websites that include food carts, but no single online community around the carts.
Thanks you CBF, I always know you to have the most insightful comments.
[...] writer Brett Burmeister (as seen in VendrTV’s Grilled Cheese Grill episode) replied: “I don’t think it is a matter of who’s best because each city has much to offer. I will [...]
I want someone to start a real street meat cart in PDX. I tell you, that stuff is to die for. I work for a company in midtown Manhattan and when I get there, I basically eat street meat for every meal, since I can’t get it here!
I have yet to go to NYC, but I was born and raised in and around the Portland area (I lived just north of PDX in Battle Ground, WA for a good portion of my life but always was finding myself in PDX because of friends, family, food, etc) So I can only speak for PDX when I say that you can find just about any type of food there, where as in other places in the country you can’t find it with out looking all over (mainly the middle of the country as I haven’t been to many east coast towns).
I’m sure that NY has many varieties but I’m not certain how easy they are to come by. I’ve been to quite a few large cities on the west coast and out of all of them PDX is the easiest for me to find different types of food easily. This is especially easy during festival times and Saturday Market where all of the different food vendors manage to gather in one area. They arn’t all hamburgers and fries, hot dogs, or gyros but a large variety of different things to suit different people.
Now that I’m extremely homesick, I’ll cut my comment off here
Neither city is the best. Philadelphia has the best food truck scene. I have lived in all 3 cities.
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/clubling/2003/trucks.html
http://www.gourmet.com/restaurants/2009/09/philadelphia-street-food
http://www.igougo.com/story-s1224421-Philadelphia-Philadelphias_Fast_Food.html
Budget Travel magazine just ranked Portland as having the best street food in the WORLD!
http://www.budgettravel.com/bt-dyn/content/article/2010/05/10/AR2010051004077.html