The ups and downs of Portland’s food cart pods
By Lucy Walrod ‘20
A food cart pod in downtown Portland. Courtesy of Daderot Wikimedia commons
“We got known as a place to go to get incredible food...We created a buzz that literally didn't just happen here; it happened world wide,” said local food cart expert Scott Bachelar, who is known as the “Mayor of Food Cart Town.”
Food carts are an integral part of Portland's identity and food culture. However, in recent years, they have been on the decline in response to Portland’s rising land value.
According to PLACE Director George Zaninovich who has a background in urban planning, the popularity of Portland’s food carts is tied to three main components: its foodie culture due to our geographical proximity to fresh produce, the city’s comparatively middle-income nature, and the availability of empty lots of otherwise undevelopable land.
Due to the city's geographical proximity to fresh food, in part because of the Urban Growth Boundary, Portland is a prime location for a flourishing food culture.
The Urban Growth Boundary is a statewide policy that applies to each city in Oregon. The boundary limits the outward expansion of cities to protect farmland and forests around them. Development is not allowed outside of the boundary.
The combination of high-quality and cheap food in the form of food carts has thrived in Portland. According to Bachelar, food carts truly became Portland’s food scene in 2008 and 2009. People craving good cheap food in response to the recession found their answer in food carts.
Portland food cart pods are generally formed on vacant lots, often in places where gas stations or parking lots used to be. Developing these lots is expensive because the dirt has been contaminated by gas station chemicals and needs to be dug up and replaced with new imported dirt. Left undeveloped, these lots provide locations for food cart pods.
“One way that I think we brought together the middle-income nature of our city plus the foodie culture is by putting food carts on these relatively undevelopable parcels,” said Zaninovich.
These lots allow Portland food carts to remain stationary in contrast to food carts in other cities where they have to move every day. This lack of movement brings prices down and improves the customer experience. Stationary food carts allow customers to rely on the consistent location of a favorite food cart and establish food carts as part of their neighboring community.
As community members and representatives, food cart owners care deeply about their carts and the customer experience.
“It’s about the service,” said Bachelar about the popularity of food carts. “What makes a food cart special for me is how much care the cart owner puts into the cart.”
This care, plus good food, is what makes a food car stand out, which in turn supports the food cart owner. Food carts can be a testing ground that helps to transform the owner’s restaurant aspirations into reality.
Some of Portland’s most popular food carts have already transitioned from cart to restaurant.
Despite their importance to Portland’s culture, the last three to four years have seen a slow decline in food carts.
“At this point, there are over 100 carts for sale [in Portland] and nobody is buying. It's literally become a buyer’s market,” said Bachelar.
One danger to Portland’s food cart pods is the rising value of land in Portland. This increasing value has made lots, previously deemed undevelopable, worth the initial high costs of development. As developers buy up these properties, food carts occupying the lots have been displaced.
The Alder Street food cart pod, formerly located in downtown Portland on Alder Street between 9th and 10th, is a prominent victim of this trend. Located in a busy and central part of downtown Portland, at its height the Alder pod was home to about 60 pods.
The Alder Street pod has been forced from its prime downtown location by the construction of a Ritz-Carlton hotel. The relocation has been a massive blow to Portland’s food cart culture. But it’s not a surprise.
“The food cart owners have known this [a forced relocation] was coming for years,” said Bachelar.
While it is likely that the rising prices of land will continue to force food carts to relocate, organizations in Portland such as Friends of the Green Loop are fighting to keep food carts downtown. Friends of the Green Loop has found the Alder food carts a new location at Ankeny Square and Burnside, only a few blocks from their old location.
They are trying to create a culinary corridor as part of their Green Loop Plan. They envision carts going from Ankeney Square and Burnside all the way to Portland State University. With rising land prices in Portland, people must be willing to conserve food cart pods if they want them to continue.
While the culinary corridor may be part of the future of food carts in Portland, many of the best food carts may transition to food halls. Food halls, such as Pine Street Market, have many of the same elements–high-quality food, great customer service, and many diverse food options in close proximity–that make food carts pods appealing. With food cart pods on the decline, food halls might be the future of Portland’s food culture.
Regardless of the current decline and shift away from traditional food pods, Bachelar doesn’t think the end has come for food carts in Portland.
“I’m expecting to see another resurgence,” he said.