I scream, you scream, we all scream for Portland’s best Food Carts! Hoards of hungry masses descended upon the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) parking lot last Saturday, April 28th, for Willamette Week’s 5th annual Eat Mobile food cart fest.
If you don’t know the history of Eat Mobile it started something like this: Way back in 2007 we received a call from our friends over at Willamette Week, “we are looking to do a charity benefit this year and we were wondering if doing something with Portland’s food carts would be popular?” At that point none of were even sure if people would show up, or if any of the food carts would be interested. That was the understatement of the century. From the first year of 16 carts and food being sold out within the FIRST HOUR, to this year’s tightly run festival with 50 carts and plenty of food for all, Food Carts Portland continues to be a proud partner and sponsor in this celebration of all things mobile dining in our fair city. 
As usual, the event is a benefit for the great microeconomic development work over at Mercy Corps Northwest, helping create small local businesses and jobs in our economy. We have to say from the crowd, this has to be one of the most diverse festivals in Portland of all ages, races, and ethnicities. This year’s event featured everything from old favorites on the cart scene such as Wiffies Pies, Koi Fusion, and Aybla Grill. However, there were also plenty of new comers including Emame’s Ethiopian food, El Cubu de Cuba, and the London Pasty Company. Check out Eat Mobile for the full line-up of participants.
But I bet you are wondering, who won the much coveted 2012 Carty Awards???? Stay tuned…we’ll reveal the winners soon along with links to the Willamette Week Eat Mobile slide show. And, don’t forget, Eat Mobile is an annual event. Heck, Eat Mobile is a Portland tradition at this point and really just keeps getting better and better. See you next year!
What a great event! Eat Mobile seemed to be so much better this year, too. I’m sure it will only get better! Willamette Week and OMSI – great job!! See you next year.
We had so much fun there, we were invited to come down by Willamette Week to showcase the inner workings of a Food Cart, we located between Lardo’s,Dump Truck and the South stage and visited with hundreds of people it truly was a blast, and with awesome food served all night it was a delight, also got to meet Cuisine Bonne Femme (Lizzy Caston) she was pretty cool as well, took my picture but have not seen it yet maybe part II
better than last year. but serious attention needs to be paid to the admissions part of the event! why there is only one entrance for a 3K+ person event is beyond me!?
3 entrances for the first 30min, then after the rush, shut it down to 1. additional cost is negligible and you avoid the off-putting, kilometer(no exaggeration) long line.