The sun is peeking through, so it should be a nice day here in Portland and a great weekend weather wise. A couple of tidbits of news.
Today, up in north Portland, Che Cafe will be donating all their tips to support the marine life and other animals affected by the oil spill in the gulf. Che Cafe is located at the corner of N Williams and Shaver and is open for lunch through dinner.
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We were contacted by Michelle Illuminato who is putting on an event to challenge chefs with wild food. The Wild Food Cook-off will have chefs create different dishes from items foraged in the wild. Michelle was wondering if any food cart chefs would want to join in? If you are interested in participating or watching, you can get all the info at WildFoodCookoff.com
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If you didn’t know, I have contributed to a forthcoming book on Portland’s food cart scene due out in September. The publishers are wrapping things up, but wanted to see if any cart owners would like to share their stories. The deadline is May 10. Send your story to portlandfoodcartsbook@gmail.com.
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Yarp?! at SE 12th and Hawthorne is looking to expand according to a tweet they sent out yesterday. They are “looking for 200 peeps to kick down 10$ on the books during the next week. A quick capital surge that will help launch another cart.” Good luck guys!
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The Ramona St. Fair July 18 is looking for cart vendors. If you are interested in vending at that event, contact nick@ilovelents.com.
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The Portland Mercury put out a cryptic post the other day announcing their 10th anniversary. Wow, 10 years. I thought they had been around longer. They are hosting a party at Rotture on June 5th and say there will be food carts. Knowing the Mercury, this could be a super fun event. Watch for more details as they come out.
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Gin Thai
So many new carts arriving. New pods. Crazy I tell ya. Just this week, I hear of another three new carts. Enjoyed Gin yesterday. Gin is a new Thai cart on SW 3rd and Washington, but don’t think this is your traditional Phad Thai variation. Nope. They are mixing it up. We’ll have our profile about them up soon. In the meantime, go check them out.
Keep on cartin’
I love me some Yarp!? Those guys are great and their food is great. But they don’t need a 2nd cart, they need to open their present cart in time for the dinner crowd and to keep reliably consistent posted hours so we aren’t hesitant to go there for fear that they’ll be closed.
I agree with J.T. – they also need to keep a vegan protein on hand to put in their food as desired – this has been a major reasons why my partner and I don’t eat there much. She especially, since she needs protein much more often than I do and a veggie stir fry with no beans or tofu or anything else protein-rich just doesn’t cut it.
Thanks for the feedback J.T. and Stefanie; despite the curmudgeon reputation, we are a community based business, so these are being heard.
As far as our hours go, we’ve been on it for months now. Other than my taking a week off last week to move, we’ve been open both for nights and days with no long breaks since February (well, except the one time Chad slept in on a Sunday) and my health has been holding up so I’ve maybe missed four days total. Things changed last summer when I became too ill to be an active member of the Yarp?! board; and Chad’s been really good at making sure he’s open (better than I did, but that’s another story of medical nightmares). Chances are that if you come down at night (after
between Wed. and Sun. we are open. If you come down during the day it’s good to check either twitter or the facebook group to see if I’m opening. Though I’ve been well enough, since I started my new medications, to keep up the pace.
I would love it if we made our own Seitan, but we don’t really have the facilities (storage) to do so. Oftentimes our lemongrass tofu sells out fast, but again, we have limited storage and finding lemongrass tofu at 2 in the morning is a chore. Frankly, I’d like to see the vegan menu expanded greatly, but I am not directly involved with the management of the business anymore. I will definitely pass the word on and continue to push the idea, as I have been for months.
The new cart is an opportunity we should not miss; the cart is in relatively good condition (will need remodeling) and is only available until the 16th, when the current owners will be disposing of it. Finding a quality cart for that cheap is next to impossible. We won’t have it up and running until the end of summer, but the idea is to have a mobile cart that can do festivals, hit the industrial parts of town to feed the workers, and augment our income from Yarp?! It’ll also give us the opportunity to generate more jobs; which has always been a primary goal of our business plan.
Again, thank you both for the feedback, I will definitely pass it on to the core group (some of which have already seen them I’m sure, but others are Luddites with no ‘puters). Please, feel free to open discourse with the Yarp?! folks about how you would like to see Yarp?! change; it is a community and worker owned business. Hope to see you both down here soon.
I’m with the others as far as Yarp?!’s hours go. I’ve only ever eaten there once, and it was simply AMAZING and I’d love to go back. But I eat dinner way before 8 pm. I’ve got kids, we eat at 6 or 6:30, or 7 at the latest. Day time is no good ‘cos they’re in school/we’re at work. The boys regularly ask for Yarp?! spaghetti and meatballs, after only ever having it once, last summer, but we can never get it because you open too late.
I’d surely love it if y’all opened even one night a week at 6. I know I know others who would too.