The Garden Well

February 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Garden Well

The Garden Well

Location: N Lombard and Polk
Hours: Mon-Fri, 6am-6pm; Sat/Sun, 7am-7pm

The Story: When plant shopping, ever have a craving for a hot drink? Especially when you’re in an outside nursery during cooler months. At City Farm in North Portland you can peruse for plants with a hot cup of tea or coffee from The Garden Well, the on site food cart.

City Farm is a community managed farm with not only a storefront, but a full garden with ducks in the back. Mark, the owner of The Garden Well, opened in February of 2012 with coffee and loose leaf tea to capture not only the patrons coming to the farm, but also those transiting Lombard east and west. I enjoy a good cup of black tea, but am in no way an expert. Mark offers the expected teas like Earl Grey and English Breakfast, but also has herbal teas. What interested me were his special blends like the Love your Lungs Blend with elder blossom, licorice root, mullein leaf, marshmallow leaf, nettles and red clover. Crazy! Any one of those herbs offer a unique flavor, but when putting them together, you get something magical. Mark grabs individual containers with each herb and hand mixes in a single use tea bag and adds hot water. I loved it. I breathed better the rest of the day. I never knew there was a marshmallow leaf.

The Garden Well is open daily morning to night, offers up tea, coffee from St. Johns Coffee Roasters and Chai from Dragonfly Chai. Recently on their Facebook page they posted photos of fresh cherry jam scones. Drop on by, get some tea, visit the farm and let them know Food Carts Portland sent ya.

Sample Menu:

Tea any size, $2; Bring your own mug, $1.50

  • Love your Heart Blend: hawthorn berry, lavendar flowers, lemon verbena, linden leaf + flower, pink roses, rose hips
  • Love your Whole Body Blend: nettles, oatstraw, peppermint, red clover, red raspberry leaf
  • Black Teas: Assam, Darjeeling, Orange Spice and more
  • Green Teas: Gunpowder, Jasmine
  • Herbs: many from above listed in blends and more.

Coffee: Drip, latte, espresso – $1.00-$3 depending on what you choose

Phone: 503 583 6598
Facebook: The Garden Well

Filed Under: Breakfast, Breakfast Foods, Coffee & Espresso, Dinner, Lunch, North-Portland, Tea, Weekends

Rescue Bagels

January 25, 2013 by 1 Comment

Rescue 1Location: SW 6th and Columbia

Hours: Mon-Fri 7 am- 1:30 pm and Sat 9 am to noon

The Story: There are bagels, those baked dough with a hole concoctions found everywhere and anywhere, and then there are BAGELS. “Real Bagels”, bagels with a “chew”. What do we mean? Well, not to stir up controversy, but folks can get a tad persnickety about their bagels: how big they should be, what flavors are true to form, and the tastes and textures of “real bagels”. Let’s face it, while there are other styles of bagels out there (hello Montreal!), in the good old U.S of A, New York style bagels set the gold standard. Real New York bagels have a certain je ne sais quoi about them, that roughly translates to a nice lacquered exterior with a bit of a “bite” that gives way to a dense, somewhat chewy interior. They are boiled, then baked. Not baked solo. Not steamed then baked.  And don’t even get me started on egg vs. water bagels, Oy Vey. It’s complicated.

Yet, sometimes, especially in Portland “real bagels” have been elusive as a warm sunny day in January – sometimes spotted, butalways rare and fleeting.

Enter Rescue Bagels. This cart’s affable owner Kevin Lawler, an Oregonian who fell in love with bagels in NYC several years ago, has recreated a pretty darn close interpretation to something you might find in shops on the Lower East side of Manhattan or traditional Jewish enclaves in Brooklyn. Yes, they are boiled then baked, by the way. And yes, they are water, not egg bagels. REAL BAGELS.

The menu is simple: pick a bagel flavor, pick a cream cheese and there you go. The end. Although, and I’ve said this like ten times to Rescue Bagels directly and in case they haven’t gotten my not-so-subtle hints, I’d love to see some Lox on the menu too though because, “a poppy seed with a schmear* and lox” is my version of heaven.  (*schmear is Yiddish slang for a “thin spread of cream cheese”, by the way. It’s true bagel bro code). Alas, I’m just kvetching over here. (ok, ok, a vegan version and a fried egg are also available as you wish).

rescue 2

Rescue Bagels also has a few bagel sandwich type offerings and will soon be adding coffee and maybe juices as well to their menu. We haven’t tried the bagel sandwiches, but they seemed popular with customers the recent morning we stopped by. We’d love to see some photos and hear your thoughts as well.

Oh, and as a bonus dear donut burned out office workers, Rescue Bagels offers catering. Perfect for those marathon morning meetings.

In a city swimming with bagels, some great and most, well, just passable, it’s nice to be rescued from mediocre bagels. Welcome to the Portland food cart community Rescue Bagels! A nice addition to the Portland bagel – and- food cart scene.

Sample Menu: 

Bagels: $1.50 

Plain, Sesame, Poppy, Everything, Onion and Garlic offered every day. Daily bagel specials announced on Facebook and Twitter. Specials include Jalapeno-Cheddar, Cinnamon Raisin, Pumpernickel and Whole Wheat.

  • Add butter to any bagel: $.50
  • Add plain cream cheese to any bagel: $.75
  • Add flavored cream cheese to any bagel: $1.25
  • Flavored cream cheeses: scallion, strawberry, bacon-scallion
  • Add smoked salmon cream cheese to any bagel: $1.75

Breakfast sandwiches:

  • Egg and Cheese on any bagel: $4
  • Egg and Meat on any bagel: $4.50
  • Meat, Egg and Cheese on any bagel: $5
  • Meat options include Bacon, Sausage and Ham. Cheese options include Cheddar and Pepper Jack.

Phone:  971-266-4012
Website: www.rescuebagels.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rescuebagels
Twitter: @twitter.com/rescuebagels
Email: info@rescuebagels.com

Filed Under: Bagels, Breakfast, Breakfast Foods, Downtown, Lunch, SW 6th and Columbia, Weekends

Smaaken Waffles

November 12, 2012 by 4 Comments
Smaaken Waffles

Smaaken Waffles

Location: Hillsdale Food Park
Hours: Mon-Sun, 7am-7pm

The Story:

Parked atop recycled acorn shells spread across a lot nestled among the trees is one of Portland’s newest food cart lots and Smaaken Waffles stands out with their version of the “Dutch Taco.”

On the east side, you may be familiar with waffle sandwiches as FlavorSpot has been serving up such treats for years. Now the west side is getting both food cart love and Smaaken’s version of the Dutch Taco. The owners take pride in sourcing local organic wheat flour grown and milled in the Willamette Valley by Greenwillow Farms. Along with wood-fire roasted coffee from Millars, this cart keeps it local, simple and flavorful. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Breakfast Foods, Coffee & Espresso, Dinner, Hillsdale Food Park, Lunch, Sandwiches, Vegetarian Options, Waffles, Weekends

Fire and Knives

October 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Fire and Knives

Fire and Knives

Location: N Killingsworth and Greeley, North Station
Hours: Mon-Fri, 7:30am-3pm

The Story:

I get asked daily where the hot new spot will be for food carts. My answer? Q19. The lot with an onsite bar and food carts is smack in between last decade’s development and this coming decade’s new housing in NW. Prime real estate. Fire and Knives is one of those vendors who can see the long game.

Fire and Knives is one of the few vendors on the lot serving breakfast, a dish sometimes difficult to find at the carts here in Portland. While I’m the guy who wants someone to tell me what I’m going to eat (I don’t like being offered a ton of choices,) I do like me a ‘create your own breakfast’ option. Ever go to those greasy spoon breakfast joints and get the required undercooked hash browns? Not here. At Fire and Knives you can mix and match an omelet, a scramble or fried egg with a miss mash of ingredients including bacon, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, cheddar, mozzarella and so much more. And they open at 7:30am for you early birds.

Italian Sandwich from Fire and Knives

Italian Sandwich from Fire and Knives

While I wasn’t there for breakfast, I did enjoy one of their lunches in the form of an Italian sausage sandwich with Mozzarella and marinara with fresh basil. A split sausage drowning in sauce with gooey cheese melted atop is just want I wanted on a cool autumn day. I stepped inside the Q19 bar, enjoyed a beer and watched a recap of the week’s sports while I devoured the sandwich. Oh so tasty.

Fire and Knives opens for breakfast at 7:30am and stays open till 3 to sate your appetite. Drop on by for something new when you have a craving. Let them know Food Carts Portland sent ya.

[Fire and Knives moved to North Portland in December 2012]

Sample Menu:

Breakfast: Omelet, Scramble or fried – 75c/egg

  • bacon, sausage, veggie sausage – + $1
  • Veggies like tomato, mushroom, onion, potatoes – 50c
  • Cheese – 50c
  • Home Fries – $1
  • Bananas – 75c

Lunch:

  • Grilled Meatball: choice of Mozzarella or Provelone; beef, $6; lamb, $7
  • Breaded Chicken – $6
  • Veggie Chicken – $6
  • Italian Sausage – $6

Hours: Mon-Fri, 7:30am-3pm
Facebook: Fire and Knives

Filed Under: Breakfast, Breakfast Foods, Debit/Credit Carts Accepted, Lunch, N Greeley and Killingsworth - North Station, Sandwiches, Vegetarian Options

Potter’s Kolaches & Coffee

October 3, 2012 by 4 Comments
Potter's Kolaches & Coffee

Potter’s Kolaches & Coffee

Location: SW 3rd and Ankeny
Hours: Mon-Sat, 6am-12pm

The Story:

For awhile there, it was difficult to get some great early morning eats from the carts. Luckily, the fried egg sandwich people have helped fill that gap, but sometimes you want something simpler, yet still full of flavor. Potter’s Kolaches & Coffee will soon become your new morning destination.

Andrew Potter opened the cart this past summer and has been serving his signature Kolaches to the neighbors. Kolaches are a sweet pastry, almost biscuit like, filled with breakfast fillings. Originally from eastern European countries, mainly Poland and Czechoslovakia, this creation can be found most anywhere due to emigration and movements of people over the years. Andrew’s inspiration for his kolaches actually came from the Polish and Czech influences out of Texas. They replaced the sweet filling with bacon, ham, sausage and jalapenos. After a few years working in advertising after college, Andrew realized that the happiest times he had at a job were in the kitchen and launched his cart.

Kolaches from Potter's

Kolaches from Potter’s

At Potter’s you can get a simple sausage kolache for 99c and that would be plenty for many of us. These little guys are, well, amazing. I opted for the Picquant with egg, sausage, cheese and jalapeno and a Robustuous with egg, cheese, tomatoes, onions and peppers. That first bite into the Picquant burst with flavor including the mild heat from the peppers. The breading surrounding the filling is a bit flaky, but sweet and savory and holds together well. For $1.96 each, these are the best bargain in town for something so flavorful. Pair with a cup of coffee from Cafe Mom and you’re set.

Potter’s Kolaches is open Monday to Saturday from 6am-noon. You can park in the lot while you grab your breakfast. The orange and red cart is hard to miss. The kolaches are made fresh daily and ready to serve when you get there. Drop on by and let Andrew know Food Carts Portland sent ya.

Sample Menu:

  • Sausage – 99c
  • Sausage & Cheese – $1.25
  • Stawberry Jam – $1.25
  • Egg & Cheese – $1.55
  • Picquant – $1.96
  • Robustuous – $1.96
  • Hot Coffee – 12oz, $1.25; 16oz, $1.50

Hours: Mon-Sat, 6am-12pm
Website: KolachesPDX.com
Facebook: Potter’s Kolaches & Coffee

Filed Under: Baked Goods, Breakfast, Breakfast Foods, Coffee & Espresso, Czech, Debit/Credit Carts Accepted, Eastern European, Lunch, Polish, Sandwiches, SW 3rd and Ash, Weekends Tagged With:
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