Breakfast Lunch Today
CLOSED
Location: 1313 NE Alberta
Hours: Mon-Thurs, 8am-4pm; Fri, 8am-6pm; Sat, 11am-6pm
The Story:
I saw the logo first and my mouth began to water. blt. I immediately had that memory from childhood of stacking bacon and lettuce on toasted bread (no tomato, I didn’t like tomatoes then) with plenty of mayo and taking that wonderful first bite. Breakfast Lunch Today, or otherwise known as blt is a sandwich shop at Cartlandia [moved to NE Alberta in 2012.]
Etienne Saucier opened his cart in summer and moved to the Cartlandia pod in August. Originally, he had planned a large menu of diverse items, but reality set in and he realized he wouldn’t have a large cart to support such efforts. In the trailer he did outfit, he designed a menu that would work with the confined space. After a few months, he’s happy with his choice and has succeeded.
Montecristo from Breakfast Lunch Today
Etienne focuses on sandwiches and has a broad selection to choose from including fried sandwiches, cold sandwiches and classics like the Dagwood and Croque-Monsieur. I was ready to go for the namesake and get a BLT, but asked him for his recommendation and he steered me to the Fried Montecristo. I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying a few variations on the Montecristo – usually a deep fried traditional sandwich with powdered sugar atop. When we opened up Etienne’s version I was completely surprised. Instead of a traditional sandwich with slices of bread, his Montecristo is made up of black forest ham, turkey, Gruyere and emmental cheese then wrapped in beignet dough and deep fried. Beignet Dough! I just stared at it for a minute not sure what to think, but took the first bite and tasted the sweetness of the dough mixed with the excellent choice of cheese and meats. So good. We even tasted a bit of wine in there, but Etienne explained that beignet dough is over yeasty which brings out those types of flavors and smells. A great twist on an already wonderfully decadent sandwich.
Etienne and his cart are open during the week and on Saturday for breakfast, lunch and on Friday and Saturday, you could pick something up for an early dinner. If you’re in the mood for a well crafted sammy, drop on by Breakfast Lunch Today and let them know Food Carts Portland sent ya.
Sample Menu:
- Fried Cheese: their special dough filled with Mozzarella or cheddar and fried – $4; add bacon or ham, $5
- Egg and Cheese: like a fried quiche – $5.50
- Fried Denver: bell peppers, ham, eggs and stuffed in dough and fried – $6.50
- Turkey-Cran: turkey, provolone, cranberry sauce fried in special dough – $6
- Tomato and Fresh Basil: tomato, Mozzarella, fresh basil in signature dough – $5
- Fried Montecristo: ham, turkey, Gruyere, emmental, dijin mustard wrapped in beignet dough and fried – $8
- Turkey Club: bacon, turkey, lettuce, tomato, may and cheddar – $5
- Ham and Spinach: ham, spinach, provolone, olives and honey mustard – $5.50
- Roast Beef and Cheddar: add lettuce, tomato, horseradish and cheddar – $6
- Muffuletta: ham, salami, mortadella, provolone and cajun olive spread – $7
Hours: Mon-Thurs, 8am-4pm; Fri, 8am-6pm; Sat, 11am-6pm
Phone: 503 310 4631
Facebook: blt
Resources: Credit/Debit cards accepted
INSERT_MAP
Love, love, love his sandwiches! He also does a Shrimp Po Boy on occasion – an excellent choice as well.
I ate there and had the cajun shrimp pie(s). I got two for my order which was suprising. But honestly… I didn’t get any shrimp until I bit into my second one and then it was only 1 little lonely bay shrimp. The spices were there and tasted great (love the dough), but he could put more shrimp in. I understand saving $ and getting away with the whole local “bay shrimp” thing, but bay shrimp taste like nothing, literally x 2… nothing.
I wanted to give him my feedback, but I understand the fine line of communicating my opinion without offending their proud little food cart owner hearts. I would have taken one pie with one big shrimp in it from Thailand (as long as it was cooked right) over what I received. Seriously just keep everything the same, but increase the substance. It’s cut throat in the food cart world and you gotta be on point with look, taste, quantity and presentation or it’s over. Nice guy though and wish him much success.
Had a monte cristo here last month and it was not worth the price. Way too greasy and he had not changed the oil in ages. VERY bitter taste. Half the bites had a orange colored oil ooze out of them. Blech!
hey dieselboi maybe John wants your reviews to look like this last post that should scare everyone away from trying a new place
Well I’m not going to lie and pretend the food was great like a lot of people do on this site. The fact is there are only 8-10 great carts in the city and ALOT of bad ones.
One DOES wonder why a person who hates food carts is so closely following a food cart blog or eating at food carts so often. Unless he isn’t actually eating there and is just trolling, as I suspect. Get a new hobby and do something useful with your life, dude. I’ve eaten at BLT several times and it is really awesome, especially the fried cheese and handmade tater tots!
There are many people who have fallen for the hype of food carts and can’t understand the concept of one being bad. Most of the fans are not from Oregon and love anything that makes Portland “weird”. I follow this site because I’m hoping to find a place with honest opinions about the many carts in our city. Sadly I find people here afraid to give an honest review and are afraid of hurting the owners feelings. I could have saved alot of money by having the truth told about many of these “great” carts.
I drove down to Cartlandia yesterday to see my food cart friends who recently moved to the pod from Green Castle, and also to try that Montecristo people are talking about here.
To put it briefly, the Montecristo I tried was not anything like what mostcartsarenotgreat described. Off course, it’s not to say that every Montecristo Ethienne has served MUST have been as good but it was good for me.
@mostcartsarenotgreat
No offense, but if you liked only 8-10 food carts out of hundreds of food carts in Portland, you should probably be dining at upscale restaurants rather than at food carts.
Seriously, running a food cart is a very different game than running a restaurant. Ideally, food carts are supposed to serve excellent food fast, at a lower price, in limited space…all this with fewer people (often, starting food carts are one-person shows). But in reality, most food cart operators have to make compromises; it can be a certain combination of quality, quantity, speed, price, selection and other things. No matter what combination it is, that’s what they believe to be what their customers want and it’s their best shot at it.
If that’s not good enough for you too often, then maybe you should be looking into a different category of food service than food carts.
@ mostcartsarenotgreat
not all the reviews here are good if you spent time looking on this site you would see this, i know that all but 1 of my reviews that i have written were good 5 star reviews but i am very selective of were i go, The 1 bad one i wrote was related to the service i got, i will tell you if i get bad service i will tell readers about it, Just remember people are human and Portland is weird just how life is, do hope you find some good food out there until then the rest of us will keep eating at the carts and lying about are experiences
Don’t get me wrong I love the idea of food carts but it seems WAY too many people are just looking for a way they think they can be their own boss and make their own hours. The last two carts I went to I was told at one they were not open even though it was 45 minutes after their posted opening hours. At the other I went at 530 and was told they wanted to run some errands and not to bother waiting for them to open. Those were their exact words. Plus has anybody noticed that the monte cristo costs $8 and has about $1.00 to $1.50 worth of ingredients. I have not been to a fine dining restaurant in years and most of my meals come from places that charge 7 to 10 dollars.
All, let’s take this discussion to a different forum please. The comments section is for commenting on a specific cart whether you like it or not and shouldn’t be used to argue a different point. From reading the comments, it appears no one is going to be convinced either way.
I will re-iterate that Food Carts Portland is not a review site and never has been. We profile the carts and tell their store. We advocate for the carts and yes, our articles are positive. If you are looking for critical reviews, I would suggest utilizing Yelp.com. Thank you for continuing to support the carts.
Brett Burmeister
Editor, Food Carts Portland
Good going “breakfast lunch today”. There sure is nothing like being your own boss and working 60+ hours a week to make you appreciate life. Good going, keep it up, can’t wait to make it your way.
Oh my god! I tried Breakfast Lunch Today for the first time the other day. I tried their Thanksgiving special with an artichoke bacon filling, turkey, and light gravy– all fried in a crispy light cranberry dough. That thing was phenomenal! Literally one of the best things that I’ve ever eaten. I highly highly recommend this place.
Thanks for the love y’all. Just updated the facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/bltenterprises, and changed hours for winter. Hope to see you soon
Hi all. We have moved! Breakfast Lunch Today is now located at 1313 NE Alberta. Come check us out if you’re in the neighborhood.
They’re all good but the ham and spinach is to DIE for!!