2010 – A Food Cart Year in Review

Panuchos from Taqueria Antojitos Yacatecos

This past year has been like an ongoing 12 course meal of street food. We’ve done our best here at Food Carts Portland to keep you abreast of the scene and let you in on ride. Thank you for all the support and keep on supporting the food carts and trucks feeding us daily.

It is hard to believe we have 600+ licensed carts in Portland now. Just one year ago, I spoke with Multnomah County and was surprised that we had 441 licensed mobile units and that was after 1 year of 30% growth. Let’s do some math kids. In 2009, we added about 102 carts. In 2010, that number skyrocketed to 159, a good 26% growth for the year, but a 43% growth overall since 2008. Wow!

Here at Food Carts Portland, we have done our best to keep up with the carts, some times eating at 16 in a day. During the height of summer, there were 2-3 carts opening every week. If I thought I was overwhelmed, how do you think Multnomah County felt? We have done well, having told the story about 121 of those new carts. Whew! And I only gained about 5lbs throughout the year.

There were some closures throughout the year – about 18 by my count. Some that will be missed by all: Wicked Waffles; Yarp?!; Spud Locker; Junior Ambassador’s; side cart and Spella. While Spella did close their cart, they are thriving at their cafe on SW 5th.

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Pods:

In 2010, while we definitely saw a growth in carts, those carts had to go somewhere, so we saw a doubling of the number of Pods througout the city. Most of that growth was on the east side with SE getting the love that North and NE had enjoyed in 2009. Stats:

Total Number of Pods: 25
Number of pods opened in 2010: 15
Number of pods closed in 2010: 2 (E Burnside and 7th and Area 23 on Alberta)
Breakdown:

• North: 4
• NE: 4
• SE: 8
• SW: 8
• NW: 1

Pod with largest number of carts as of Dec 2010 – SW 9/10th and Alder with a total of 31 carts and still growing.

Zenbu

Such a great year to be here in Portland and experience every bit of the street food scene. It seems every week we are introduced to some new and exciting culinary treat or there is an activity centered around the carts. Portland street food 2010 will go down as great time to be alive. Some highlights from the year:

• Food Cart Delivery – Portland Pedal Power launched in 2010 with deliveries of cart food to businesses downtown via bike. They are now a thriving delivery business beyond the carts.
• ThirdWednesdayPDX.com – a great collaboration between the participating carts where they donate a portion of their Wednesday sales once a month to a specific charity. Carts involved included Big-Ass Sandwiches, Give Pizza a Chance, Kettle Kitchen, The Big Egg, Whiffies Fried Pies, Ninja Plate and Wet Hot Beef.
• Speaking of giving, the carts started off the year with coordinated efforts to collect funds for Haiti Earthquake relief spearheaded by DC Vegetarian. That spirit of giving back to the community has become a lightning bolt with the carts. Food drives, blanket drives, charity events and the like show that the cart owners truly value this city and want to give back. Thank you!
• Eat Mobile, presented by Willamette Week last spring was a huge success. Timed perfectly to coincide with the IACP visit of international foodies, the event was crazy good. I really look forward to 2011 and hope the entire city helps celebrate street food under the Morrison Bridge. Congrats again to Kevin Sandri from Garden State and Gregg Abbott from Whiffies for winning.
• Other events that carts made a huge splash at included the Deschutes Brewing Street Fare to benefit the Morrison Center, Mississippi Street Fare with 30,000 people, The Bite of Oregon – the first appearance by street food vendors, and Sunday Parkways throughout the summer.
• We saw large corporations get into the food cart space with the launch of the BING! Food Cart map in September. Many Portlanders got some great free food on one Wednesday in October.
• Portland’s food carts were the darlings of food TV in 2010 with appearances on Cooking Channel’s Food Truck Revolution and The Veg Edge. The Travel Channel also spent some quality time in Portland with their episode of Food Truck Paradise. If you’re in Canada, you may have caught Portland’s carts on Food Network Canada for a few shows shot this past summer. Hopefully they will be re-broadcast here in the states soon.
• Portland’s food carts are the focus of one book and a feature in another. Cartopia, Portland’s Food Cart Revolution was published in November and Breakfast in Bridgetown, Second Serving by Paul Gerald was published in December. We contributed to both.
• Beer truck. Captured by Porches will be a permanent fixture at D-Street Noshery serving their signature microbrew.

A Big-Ass Sandwich

Food Highlights? Yes indeed:

• Porchetta sandwiches from The People’s Pig, Lardo and Garden State
• Game burgers from Over the Top
• Vegan fare from Kitchen Dances
• Lucille’s Balls…. nuff said
• Pie and games from PieLab
• Anything from Big-Ass Sandwiches
• Fried whole anchovies from Euro Trash
• Hot oatmeal from bloop!
• Guamian cuisine from PDX671
• Lefse from Viking Soul Food
• New Korean carts – Boolkogi, Bulkogi and Korean Twist
• Panuchos from Taqueria Antojitos Yucatecos
• Pork belly sandwich from Slow and Low
• Ice cream from Whiffies
• Dumplings from The Dump Truck
• Grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
• Escargot from Creme de la Creme
• Falafel from Wolf and Bear’s
• Amy Winehouse Cupcake from The Sugar Cube (still the only dessert cart)

And so much more.

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There were some challenges this year that we can’t ignore. Garden State said farewell to Sellwood and moved to Mississippi Marketplace where Kevin Sandri then opened a second cart – T-Rex. Sadface for Sellwood. Happy face for North Portland. Domo Dog’s hit a rough patch this past fall having made a go with their unique Japanese Inspired hot dogs. While they had some challenges, they stayed on their feet and are still going strong. If you see them at an event, give them your support. It seems waffles were a challenge for some. Throughout the year, we saw the closing of Parkers Waffles, Wicked Waffles and Volkswaffle. I guess Flavour Spot (with 3 carts) is the winner of the waffle wars. In November, we saw our first challenges to the pod infrastructure by the news media followed by some rhetoric from city hall. The structures must come down. Throughout the year we saw some carts add awnings, decks, seating and even heat and no one said boo until now, in the middle of winter. Tough break for those carts, yet I don’t believe it will affect the carts as a whole.

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Portland Soup Company

So, where are we going in 2011? Tough question. In 2009, we speculated that the winter would slow down the carts and it didn’t. And you know, I’m glad for that. According to a recent article, Multnomah County stated there were 75 carts awaiting final inspection and I know of three lots that are in the works and should open by spring. Northeast Portland saw growth and decline all in the same year with the opening and subsequent closing of Area23. Alberta is a great market for carts and that neighborhood is under-served by street food. (If you’re a developer, take note.) Due to the city enforcing building codes, we will probably see many of the porches and covered seating areas go away downtown. This won’t affect the carts overall, but could affect individual owners who have spent made an investment on lumber and labor. Portland’s model for street food is the topic du juor for many cities across the nation who want to embrace street food in a similar fashion. Weekly, we get contacted from city officials asking how Portland did it. Cities like Cleveland, Washington DC, Denver, Tulsa, Vancouver BC, Montreal, Toronto, San Jose and Atlanta. Portland’s city planning has put us on the map and our street food is big big old red pin.

Portland will continue to redefine our approach to street food in America and I’m proud to call this home. Many ask what is missing from the street and I have some thoughts:

• Russian food – such a rich tradition of hearty food, we need more.
• Chinese – such a broad range of items, why aren’t there more carts?
• African – we have South African Indian and now Ethiopean, we need more.
• Canadian and Australian….just sayin’

What are you looking for? What are we missing?

Thank you for a great year. Thank you for continuing to support the carts. Thank you for reading. Keep on Cartin’. Eat the Street!

Laughs and eats from PieLabPDX