Portland Food Cart Stories: Behind the Scenes with the City’s Culinary Entrepreneurs

Bo Kwon is the founder of what I call the KOi Fusion food cart empire. KOi Fusion has legions of fans, and Bo is arguably the most successful food cart owner in Portland. I sat down with Bo to interview him for this book, and my first question was, “When did you first think about starting a food cart?” This is his answer:

I was sitting on the couch talking to my dad about what to do because I knew that I was going to lose my job. The TV was on, and a news report came on about food trucks in LA becoming popular. I asked my dad if he would ever open a restaurant because I knew that he could cook. My dad said, “Why don’t you open a food cart?” I started laughing. “A Korean food cart? Yeah right!” I few weeks later, I was sitting on the same couch, and I saw a Korean TV show talking about a new trend—the Korean taco.

With that, things started to click with Bo, and he began to think about the possibility of opening a food cart that specialized in Korean tacos.

Bo then heard about Roy Choi in LA, who was with the Korean taco food truck fleet known as Kogi. Bo began to hound and pester Roy, first with e-mails and then with phone calls. The response Bo consistently got was that Roy was busy.

Bo was convinced that somehow this guy in LA whom he had never met could help him with his dream of opening a food cart in Portland. Bo then did what any not-so-sane person with a dream would do: he called in sick one Monday, went to the airport, bought a plane ticket to LA and headed off to check out the food truck scene and hopefully find Roy.

By this point, Roy had opened a restaurant. Bo went to the restaurant and right into the kitchen, and there was Roy. Bo went over and tapped him on his shoulder. Bo said, “Hey, I just came from Portland.” Roy said with astonishment, “You are that guy who has been bugging me about opening a food truck!”

Luckily, Roy said that he would give Bo five minutes. Bo’s passion and commitment to his dream won Roy over. In those five minutes, Roy gave Bo hope and told him that he already had within himself all he needed to make a Korean food truck work in Portland.

Roy was doing what Bo wanted to do. Even though Bo had not met Roy until that day, Roy Choi had become an inspiration and hero to him. What meant the most to Bo was that Roy told him, “Go do Korean tacos in Portland. You have my blessing.”

On the plane ride home, Bo felt like he had a new lease on life, and he now had the momentum, motivation and strength to start his business because of the blessing his hero had given him. A friendship was started, and along the way, Roy would occasionally give Bo feedback and counsel as KOi Fusion was getting launched.

Following his meeting with Roy, Bo arrived back in Portland. A week later, all he had was his dream and the encouragement he received from Roy. He had no money and no credit, and now he needed to get a food cart so he could get started.

Bo found a taco truck in Hillsboro on the side of the road, and he went up to talk with the owner about buying it. Remember, Bo had no money. He bought a few tacos and then he asked the owner, “Would you want to sell me your food cart?” She laughed and said, “Very funny.” Bo replied, “No, I’m serious. I really want to buy your food cart.”

As it happened, the “owner” who was running this food cart had bought it for her son, who decided after opening the business that he did not really want to own a food cart. She was working the food cart to make the payments.

Bo proposed that he would buy the cart and they would hold the note. He would make monthly payments until he had paid the agreed-on amount in full. Bo also proposed that Rosie (the owner) stay on for the next six months, working in the cart and teaching Bo everything she knew. Bo did not know the first thing about running a food cart, and he realized that he needed to be schooled.

To entice Rosie to say yes to this whole arrangement, Bo said that he would hire Rosie and pay her an hourly wage and that he would make her monthly food truck payments. In addition, any profit the truck made in those six months would also go to her.

Bo said that those six months of learning to work in a taco truck selling Mexican food alongside Rosie was priceless. He learned a tremendous amount. He learned everything from dealing with gray water to insurance, hiring people and making handmade tortillas and pico de gallo. That experience working in a taco truck selling Mexican food is why the fusion in KOi Fusion is legitimate.

The KOi in KOi Fusion is an acronym. It has nothing to do with koi fish or Japanese culture. KOi stands for “Korean Oregon infusion.” Bo was born and raised right here in Oregon, and he is of Korean descent. He loves both Oregon and his Korean heritage, and he considers himself to be a fusion of both.

The reason Bo made the leap from one food cart to two food carts was because while his first food cart was doing well, he realized that he still had no money to speak of and that if he was going to get where he wanted to go, he was going to have to extend his food cart brand. That second food cart was actually a mobile truck, and it allowed him to start doing events and catering.

One of my favorite Bo Kwon anecdotes is that when he was attending the University of Oregon, his roommates would not let him keep kimchi in the refrigerator. Now those same people love kimchi and are huge fans of Korean cuisine. The same thing can be said for the thousands of K headz (how KOi Fusion fans refer to themselves; the phrase is a riff on “sneakerheads,” people who are rabid fans about sneakers, such as Bo) out there. All because Bo was willing to get on a plane and go to LA to pursue his dream.

What’s Next: Bo plans on opening his first restaurant in the first half of 2014 on Division and then, late in 2014, he plans on opening a second restaurant on Burnside, near the Timbers stadium. Yes, those are ambitious goals. However, when I look at his track record, I know that Bo can accomplish whatever he sets his mind to.

When You Go: So many good things! I especially love the Bulgogi beef tacos and the Korean cheesesteak.

When Mike McKinnon opened the Potato Champion Food Cart in April 2008 at the corner of 12^th and Hawthorne, he changed Portland.

Mike did not set out to change Portland. He simply wanted to be able to become self-employed and make enough money to quit his job in the drum department at Trade Up Music. This is the Potato Champion story.

In 2005, Mike was driving around Portland with a friend and potential investor looking for a place that might work for them to open a storefront where they could sell pommes frites. Pommes frites are better known in the United States as French fries. In Belgium and France and other places, they enjoy “pommes frites.”

Mike loves music; to him, playing music is a life-giving endeavor. Following high school, Mike spent some time traveling the United States with a band. While on those adventures, he fell in love with pommes frites. He had them in Holland, Belgium, New York City, San Francisco and Vancouver, British Columbia. Mike soon found himself living in Portland, Oregon, and following concerts with his band, he would wish for late-night dining options beyond the iconic (and delicious) Original Hotcake House. Mike would also lament the lack of friteries in Portland. His friend would tell him, “You should open one.”

That is how Mike found himself in the spring of 2005 in a car with a friend looking for places to open a friterie. Later that summer, Mike’s friend and potential investor pulled out. He wished Mike the best and encouraged him to press on with his dream. Food carts began to catch Mike’s eye, and he thought maybe, just maybe, a food cart is the way to go.

One of the reasons why food cart owners inspire me so much is because they pursue their dreams, even when conventional wisdom would say that they have little chance of success. Like Johnny Utah leaving the plane without a parachute in hot pursuit of Bodhi in Point Break, they just go for it!

Mike was not going to let a little thing like not having any culinary background stop him from opening a food cart that sold pommes frites. Mike began a three-year research program teaching himself to make pommes frites and sauces. He started with a lot of reading, and then eventually he bought a home fryer and started peeling and frying potatoes. He mentioned to me that once the cart opened and he moved from his home fryer to a forty-five-pound fryer, the learning curve started all over again.

Mike said that starting a food cart was his culinary school. For a guy whose culinary journey started with delivering pizzas, he has done very well in the cooking department. Today, the sauces and ketchups, and most everything else they sell at Potato Champion, is made from scratch. They even make the peanut butter that goes into the peanut satay sauce.

Mike struggled with what to call his food cart. “Naming a food cart is as bad as naming a band,” he said. Mike began reading about the history of the potato and found his inspiration. He learned that in 1748, the French parliament outlawed the cultivation of potatoes. Potatoes were believed to be dangerous and one of the causes of leprosy. Enter Antoine-Augustin Parmentier. Antoine fought for France in the Seven Years’ War, was captured, became a prisoner of war and was put in prison in Prussia. While in prison, Antoine was faced with eating the repugnant hog feed known as potatoes.

The war ended, and Antoine returned home and began studying nutritional chemistry. He began to promote the potato as a safe source of nourishment. In 1772, the Paris Faculty of Medicine declared potatoes safe to eat. The reason that French cuisine includes potatoes is because of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the potato champion.

When Potato Champion opened, Mike worked six and seven days a week. That first year, Potato Champion was open from 6:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. Back then, the cart was open from Wednesday to Saturday. Mike did the shopping, the books and lots of food prep from Sunday to Tuesday.

Mike spent three years working those six and seven days a week. During this period, with rare exceptions, he had to put his music on the shelf. Mike paid the price that many people who succeed in a startup pay. If you aren’t ready for that, don’t open a food cart.

After three years, Mike was able to shift from working in the cart to running the business. This is also when he finally began having regularly scheduled days off. Mike shared how incredibly hard it was to recalibrate a schedule that allowed him to have some breathing room. Yes, Mike worked very hard and put in some crazy hours building his startup. But he said that it was worth it and that he has found the journey to be very satisfying.

When Mike opened Potato Champion in 2008 at 12^th and Hawthorne, most food carts were located across the Willamette River in downtown Portland. Those food carts were also, for the most part, open during lunch, Monday through Friday. Very few, if any, were open for dinner or late-night dining.

Bo Kwon, founder of the KOi Fusion empire, has inspired many people to believe that they could succeed as a food cart owner. Mike McKinnon has inspired many people to believe that they could have a successful Portland food cart that was not downtown.

I know that before Mike opened Potato Champion, there were a handful of successful food cart that were not downtown—the Flavour Spot Food Cart comes to mind. However, I have heard many food cart owners tell me that it was Mike and Potato Champion that inspired them to believe that they could have a successful food cart in Portland located somewhere other than downtown.

Quite a few food carts owners have also told me that it was Mike’s example of staying open until 3:00 a.m. that convinced them that they could do more than just lunch.

Before Mike got to the Cartopia Food Cart Pod on 12^th and Hawthorne, the few food carts that were there were open during lunch. Mike started staying open until 3:00 a.m. In doing so, he was fulfilling a dream that he had years ago. Portland now had a late-night friterie!

From the beginning, Mike was very diligent about maintaining his posted hours. Potato Champion would stay open until 3:00 a.m., even if the pod was empty at 1:00 a.m. Back then, other (and now defunct) food carts would close up early on slow nights. Mike persisted with his vision, and a late-night food cart scene was born. Today, all of the Cartopia food carts are open late at night on Fridays and Saturdays.

The Cartopia late-night scene is a blast. If you haven’t been, go! If you are visiting Portland, make sure that you visit Cartopia and do so on a Friday or Saturday night just after midnight. Rain or shine, you can get a great meal and enjoy it in covered seating. Cartopia is the perfect place to end a Friday or Saturday evening in Portland. I tip my food cart hat to Mike McKinnon. He is my potato champion!

What’s Next: Mike hopes to open up a brick-and-mortar Potato Champion some day. He would be delighted to be able to serve hamburgers to go with his pommes frites. He would also serve Mitraillettes, which Mike first had in Belgium. They are a sandwich commonly available at Belgian friteries and cafés containing meat and pommes frites. Mike has also begun to look into packaging some of his ketchups and sauces for retail sale. He gets many requests to bottle his rosemary truffle ketchup!

When You Go: Take a few friends and share at least three orders among yourselves. Get a large order of fries and pick the three sauces that sound most appealing to you. I especially like the horseradish ketchup, the pesto mayo and the rosemary truffle ketchup. Also, get the Pulled Pork Fries—topped with slow-cooked Carlton Farms pork shoulder and Potato Champion’s own whiskey barbecue sauce. Lastly, get the PB and J Fries. This is my favorite dish at Potato Champion! Fries topped with Potato Champion’s peanut satay sauce and chipotle raspberry sauce. The flavors work so well together.

The Big-Ass Sandwich Food Cart opened on December 21, 2009, and it has become one of Portland’s most iconic food carts. The press loves it, celebrities stop by and, in 2013, it expanded from one food cart to two. The Travel Channel’s Adam Richman declared that it has the best sandwich in the Northwest. I am thrilled that I get to share Brian and Lisa’s startup journey with you.

Brian and Lisa met in February 2003 at the 5 Point in Seattle, Washington, and they have been together ever since. In June 2009, they were living in Portland, and Lisa was laid off for the second time in two years. They realized that because of the economic downturn, Lisa was not going to find another job in her industry. They were going to have to do something to stay afloat.

For almost as long as they have been together, Brian and Lisa had talked about opening a restaurant. Both of them had wanted to be self-employed for many years. When Lisa was a teenager, her parents started their first business, and that inspired Lisa to want to start her own as well some day. Brian has wanted to be self-employed since “the first time the boss unfairly yelled at me for something stupid and ridiculous.”

Right after Lisa was laid off in June 2009, Brian and Lisa decided that it was time to pull the trigger on being self-employed. Starting a restaurant was not in the cards financially, and they began to consider opening a food cart. Brian’s one big hesitation for opening a food cart was that he wanted a cart that had a commercial kitchen that he did not have to fight to get to work. Up to this point, Brian had twenty years’ experience working in the restaurant business. He started washing dishes at fourteen and worked his way up the culinary ladder. He spent ten of those twenty years working as a chef in fine dining establishments.

Lisa and Brian had been looking at used food carts, but as Brian put it, “The used carts we looked at were hammered to dog #^%@, and the kitchens in them sucked.” He added, “The way we found our food cart was both fortuitous and flukish.” Brian and Lisa were hanging out with Josh, a chef and a friend of Brian’s. An acquaintance of Josh’s happened to stop by, and he knew about some guys who were food cart builders. Brian and Lisa met with Rich and Jason, and Brian discovered that he could design his own kitchen.

They met with Rich and Jason a number of times after that. One of these times, they were meeting in a coffee shop on Belmont that Brian and Lisa liked, and Brian asked Rich, “Hey, when are we going to get to see one of your food carts?” Rich said, “Ummm, actually…Your cart is going to be our first one.”

Brian and Lisa were lucky enough to be working with the guys who were starting Northwest Mobile Kitchens (NMK). Today, Rich is the owner of NMK, a very good food cart/food truck builder. Incidentally, NMK built a number of the food carts featured in this book, including Potato Champion, PDX Six Seven One and Yolk. The way they found their food cart was indeed fortuitous.

A few weeks later, Brian and Lisa were in that very same coffee shop talking about the menu for their food cart. Brian wanted something that was unique and tasted great. Then he remembered his days cooking on the line. Some days, you would get a whole ten-minute break to smoke a cigarette and eat enough food to keep going for the next nine to ten hours. It was common to throw everything that you were going to eat—even the French fries—between two pieces of bread so that you could consume it quickly before your ten minutes were up and you had to hop back on the line.

As he was describing this to Lisa, she said, “Brian, you make incredible roast beef and really good cheese sauce. We could take both of those and some French fries and make a sandwich out of them.” Brian then held up his hands as if he were holding this sandwich and loudly exclaimed, “This is gonna be a big-ass sandwich!”

Lisa has a friend who told her before they opened the cart that “opening a business together will really test your relationship.” Early on, it was very hard for Brian and Lisa to figure out how to work well together. It was really tough on their relationship, and they fought a lot. Brian remembered more than once thinking, “What the *&#@ did we do?” Many nights ended with “whiskey fights.”

They did gut it out. They pressed on through the adversity and found a rhythm that worked for them. As a couple, they are doing awesome. Spend just fifteen minutes with them, and you can tell that they like each other and that they have done the hard work of building a great relationship. As business partners, they came up with a division of labor that worked for them. In the cart, Brian is in charge; if it is a food question, talk to Brian. Lisa handles the rest. Brian is an excellent chef and prepares wonderful food, while Lisa oversees their social media platforms. She is stellar at it! Lisa uses social media to effectively tell their brand story, and she is very diligent about connecting with the many fans that Big-Ass Sandwich has. “Social media brought the people in, and the food kept them coming back,” she noted.

I asked Brian and Lisa what they would tell someone wanting to open a food cart. Lisa’s immediate response was, “Don’t do it; it is harder that you think.” Here is the rest of what they shared with me in rapid-fire succession:

Brian and Lisa speak very highly of their crew and of the loyal core group of fans they have. They give much credit to the people who have helped them get this far. “We wouldn’t have made it this far without our crew and our fans,” said Lisa. I applaud the fact that they are sincerely grateful to the people who have stood by them.

Brian shared with me that in his younger years, he always marveled at the people who were able to start their own business. It feels good to now be on that very same journey. He wistfully spoke of people he knew in the past who wanted to start their business and never did. Lisa added, “It takes balls to make that leap.” Brian and Lisa, I am one of your fans, and speaking on the behalf of the legion of other supporters you have out there, we applaud the fact that you had the guts to make that leap.

What’s Next: Brian and Lisa would love to open two brick-and-mortar restaurants. The first one they want to open is a Big-Ass Sandwich restaurant—somewhere people could hear great music, enjoy awesome beer and chow down on a Big-Ass Sandwich. Once that dream has come true, Brian longs to someday open a gastro pub that features rustic comfort food and has a huge fireplace. I wish that you could have seen the look in his eye when he was describing this place to me.

When You Go: Get a Big-Ass Roast Beef with extra béchamel, grilled mushrooms and horseradish. I also love the Big-Ass Breakfast Sandwich. I get mine with bacon. The scrambled eggs pair incredibly well with the ciabatta roll and the béchamel. My absolute favorite Big-Ass Sandwich only comes around once a year, at Thanksgiving. The Big-Ass Thanksgiving Sandwich has turkey, fries, homemade gravy and homemade stuffing made with sausage, walnuts, sweet potatoes, rosemary and cranberries. Make sure to get extra, extra turkey gravy. Yes, I said “extra” twice. You will want lots of gravy. Once your gravy-laden Big-Ass Thanksgiving Sandwich is handed to you, don’t unwrap it. Put it down and let it rest for few minutes. Let the fries absorb that glorious gravy. After about four minutes, unwrap your beauty and be swept away into gravy-bathed Thanksgiving heaven.

On April 20, 2009, Matt Breslow opened his first food cart at 11^th and Alberta. The Grilled Cheese Grill is a very successful food cart business here in Portland. It has four food carts—three Grilled Cheese Grill locations and the Shot Gun Sub Shop Food Cart. Matt Breslow is the entrepreneur who founded it all, and he is the boss you wish you had.

Matt grew up in New Jersey, and his family visited Portland when he was kid. He had aunts, uncles and cousins here. Matt also spent two consecutive summers here in Portland when he was eleven and twelve years old.

Matt remembered Portland being the place where he felt the most at home. He always assumed that he would move to Portland someday and settle here. That someday came about in the summer of 2007. Matt moved to Portland to open a breakfast place. Matt went to five different Portland restaurants that served breakfast. Screen Door was the fifth. After eating brunch at Screen Door, Matt concluded that “Portland had breakfast covered” and began to look for other culinary endeavors.

Matt then noticed the food cart scene, and he began to wonder if maybe starting a food cart would make sense. Matt had three questions related to starting a food cart. One, what would his cuisine be? Two, where would he put his first food cart? Three, what about the “nine months” of rain?

A little while later, Matt found himself sitting on a couch in his cousin’s home. They were both hungry, and in the kitchen was half a loaf of wheat bread, a block of cheese, some turkey, some hummus and an avocado.

Matt and his cousin proceeded to make an eclectic grilled cheese sandwich that was very tasty. Matt began to think, “You know, maybe grilled cheese sandwiches would be the way to go.” Matt realized that there are lots of different kinds of bread and cheese and that he could use bread and cheese as a palette for being very creative. At the same time, Matt loves comfort food, and he knew that for many people, a grilled cheese sandwich is quintessential comfort food.

Matt was not sure that he wanted to have to start out with a food cart downtown handling the lunch crowd. He was also not sure that a food cart could work somewhere other than downtown. Then Matt began talking to Mike, the founder of the Potato Champion Food Cart. According to Matt, Mike had singlehandedly turned the food cart pod at 12^th and Hawthorne (known as Cartopia) into a late-night destination. Matt found Mike to be very helpful and insightful.

Matt decided that he did not have to be downtown to have a successful food cart and that he could serve more than just lunch. He liked the Alberta neighborhood; he found a vacant lot on 11^th and decided that a food cart on Alberta might just work.

What about the “nine months” of rain? In a stroke of pure genius, it occurred to Matt that he could put a school bus on the lot next to his food cart, and people could sit inside it when it was raining.

All three of Matt’s questions had been answered, and now he needed to name his cart. Matt thought through a number of names. He wanted a name that was memorable and clear. He did not want anyone to have to wonder about what it was he was selling at his food cart. He wanted a name that would be good for word of mouth. The name Grilled Cheese Grill fit the bill on all accounts.

I have to say that I love Grilled Cheese Grill’s motto: “So come by for a taste of your childhood. Unless your childhood sucked, and then we’ll let ya have a taste of ours.” That tagline always makes me chuckle, and as a survivor of a very rough boyhood myself, I appreciate the playful and caring acknowledgement that not everyone looks back fondly on their childhood.

Matt has expanded his Grilled Cheese Grill startup into a thriving enterprise that has four food carts, a school bus and a double-decker bus.

I very much believe that food cart owners need to extend their brand somehow—start selling branded merchandise like A Cajun Life, add more carts like KOi Fusion and Fried Egg I’m in Love or go brick-and-mortar like former food cart Lardo. You can only sell so much from one food cart. If most food cart owners are going to achieve the better life they wanted when they launched their startup, they are going to have to expand some way, somehow.

If you are going to grow your food cart business from one food cart to two or more food carts, you have to transition from being the person cooking the food and interacting with most of your customers to successfully hiring and then leading a team of employees who will do most of the cooking and interact with most of your customers.

Successfully hiring and then leading team of employees is a whole different set of skills from those needed to start a food cart, and Matt Breslow has mastered these skills. I believe that the mindset and perspective that Matt has about hiring and leading employees has greatly contributed to the success of Grilled Cheese Grill. Said Matt, “90 percent of finding a good employee is hiring.”

Grilled Cheese Grill has a very interesting job application. (You can Google “Grilled Cheese Grill job application” to see it.) The most important part to Matt are the six questions. Matt particularly likes question #5 (“Please describe your last good argument”) and question #1 (“Please describe either your favorite or least favorite job”).

Matt feels that how someone answers the six questions on his job application will reveal how well someone communicates, and it will also tell whether or not they are a complainer and a whiner. Matts wants employees who are good communicators because they will most likely be talking to his customers.

Matt does not want employees who are complainers because food carts are small and, as he put it, “Who wants to spend eight hours in a small space with a whiner and a complainer?” Morale is a big deal to Matt. “Morale is the biggest thing a business owner should be concerned with. Bad morale can spread faster that a virus.” Speaking about morale, Matt went on to say, “Work is not always fun, and maintaining good morale helps the people who work for you to actually want to come to work.”

Matt has worked in a number of corporate settings, and he has seen firsthand how much poor morale negatively effects productivity and the bottom line. He went on to make two powerful statements that I have been reflecting on ever since I first heard them. “My most important job is to treat my staff well and keep them happy and make sure that they look forward to coming for work…I care about my staff more than I care about my customers. I care about my staff so that they will care about my customers.”

I have had a number of “bosses’” in my lifetime, and after interviewing Matt for this book, I realized that very few of them had the kind of mindset toward me that Matt has to his staff. I also realized that I would really enjoy working for someone with Matt’s perceptive.

What’s Next: Matt is planning on adding a mobile food cart in 2014 so that the Grilled Cheese Grill can do events and add catering to the mix. Matt is also looking at adding a Grilled Cheese Grill brick-and-mortar restaurant sometime in the next year or two. He would love to have a place where people could get French fries with their grilled cheese sandwiches; he would also serve breakfast there. My best guess is that Matt’s first brick-and-mortar Grilled Cheese Grill would be like a wonderful old-school diner, breakfast in the morning and grilled cheese creations for lunch and dinner.

When You Go: First, get the Kindergartner. It’s a classic grilled cheese sandwich. Don’t you dare get wheat bread or cheddar! A proper classic grilled cheese sandwich has white bread and American cheese. Next, get yourself a Cheesus, a delightful cheeseburger. Instead of a bun, you get two distinctive grilled cheese sandwiches bookending a Images

-pound burger, with lettuce, tomato, ketchup and mustard. One of the grilled cheese sandwiches on the Cheesus is made with pickles and American cheese, and the other is made with grilled onions and Colby jack. Please note: I add avocado to my Cheesus. I grew up near Fallbrook, California, and I love avocado on a burger.

Gregg Abbott opened the Whiffies Fried Pies Food Cart in March 2009. Gregg grew up in Upstate New York and gradated from Lyme Central High School. Barry Davis is now the principal at Lyme Central, and back in the day, he was Gregg’s social studies teacher. Mr. Davis remembered Gregg and shared that he was a very smart student.

From there, Gregg went on to attend Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and when he finished school, he got on a Greyhound bus and came to Portland to see a former girlfriend who had moved here. He left the bus terminal midday and walked across the Broadway Bridge, checking the city out on foot.

Gregg remembered walking back over the Steel Bridge just at dusk, stopping on the bridge and looking out across the water. Gregg said that it was right then, standing on that bridge, that he became captivated by Portland. The longer Gregg lived in Portland, the more he liked it. “Portland was like a city version of Evergreen,” he noted.

Gregg fondly remembered “that sense of wonder you get when you first come to Portland.” He found Portland to be like a huge, citywide performance art production, and he was excited to become one of the performers. Gregg believes that Portland is a place where you can do your own thing and make something of yourself.

Gregg had wanted to open food cart of his own for eight years before he opened Whiffies. For a time, he had a job working downtown, and he used to have lunch at the Honkin’ Big Burrito Food Cart and at the Divine Café Food Cart. Gregg remembered thinking, “I can do that. I could open a food cart and be in business for myself.”

While Gregg was growing up, his parents ran a catering company out of the family home, and Gregg got an insider’s view into what it takes to succeed in the food industry. Gregg’s dad was the chef, and his mom handled the books and the marketing.

Finally, it was time to move ahead with his long-held dream of self-employment. Gregg found a food cart for sale on Craigslist and went to Seattle to pick it up. He met the couple and paid for the cart, and as he was hooking it up to the truck to haul it back to Portland, it started snowing. Gregg told himself, “This is a bad idea.” The winters he spent in Upstate New York paid off, and he made it home just fine.

Greg wanted to make something that was easy to prepare and delicious to eat. He wanted to offer gourmet fair food. Gregg noticed that no one was offering hand-held fried pies, and he and his father, Dion, began to perfect recipes and figure out the menu.

Gregg and his dad, who is also a restaurant consultant, had an inside joke between them. Neither of them likes overpriced dishes that are insubstantial—“Like when a chef puts three spoonfuls on a plate and sells it for fifty dollars.” They called those kind of meals “Whiffies.”

Gregg felt that his fried pies were going to offer people good food for a good value—they would be anything but “Whiffies.” His dad once asked him, “What are you going to name your food cart?” Gregg answered back, mostly teasing, “Whiffies.” When it came time to fill out the business paperwork and put down an actual name, Gregg chose Whiffies. He needed a name right then, and that is what came to mind.

Gregg had been to Potato Champion and loved it. He was convinced that his soon-to-be-open food cart would do very well there. Gregg called up the landlord and said, “I am opening up a food cart, and Mike with Potato Champion says that I should put my cart at 12^th and Hawthorne.” The landlord replied, “Well, if Mike says that you should be here, you are in.” Later, when Gregg actually got to know Mike, he shared that story with him, and Mike got quite a chuckle out of it. Food cart owners do what they have to do to make it work.

Gregg has done well with his business, and it has been good to him. Gregg even met his future wife, Claire, at Whiffies. She came to the cart in 2009 for her birthday, met Gregg and subsequently sent him a message on Facebook. Greg saw that she had been posting pictures of food on her Facebook page, and he messaged her back on Facebook and suggested that they go out to dinner sometime—they could both take pictures of the meal.

The next time you are near 12^th and Hawthorne, stop by and get yourself a Whiffies fried pie.

What’s Next: Gregg is planning to get a second food cart so that he can cater events. He gets a number of requests to have a Whiffies Food Cart come to events.

When You Go: There are so many good options! I love the barbecue brisket and the chicken pot pie. On the sweet side, I am very fond of the peach, the Oregon mixed berry combo and the “Mounds” (coconut pudding and chocolate).

Recipes: You can find a Whiffies recipes in the Food Truck Cookbook by John T. Edge.

Food Writer’s Perspective:

JEANNA BARRETT

Jeanna Barrett is the founder and chief dater at 50 Food Truck Dates (the50dates.com), a site about modern dating amid the national food truck craze. Jeanna goes on blind and “real” dates with men to food trucks in cities across the nation and then writes afterward about the date and the food. Part food blog and part dating rag, Jeanna hopes to simultaneously find love and not gain twenty-five pounds from street food. Through her project, she’s also launched National Food Truck Date Day (February 14), a movement to change the negative sentiment around Valentine’s Day. She resides in San Francisco by way of Seattle, but her food truck travels have taken her to Portland, Austin, New York City, Boston, Chicago, LA and Philadelphia. Where there are food trucks and/or guys, you can find her.

I first visited Portland’s food truck scene in May 2013, ten years after the last time I had stumbled into Portland in my early twenties to stay at a two-story dive motel near the Doug Fir, where I cheers-ed a man in a bathrobe grilling hot dogs in the parking lot and sang Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” at the top of my lungs through the Pearl District. To say my 2013 trip was different is an understatement, yet it was still hilariously similar to grilling hot dogs in a parking lot. This time, nearly a decade later, I came to eat my way through one of the more famous foundations of our nation’s street food scene.

When I was twenty-one, the food cart scene in Portland was in its infant stages—something I didn’t notice or hear about while walking the streets of the City of Roses. Now Portland’s street food has grown into something so famous that it was my first chosen stop on a series of “food truck pilgrimages” I had planned in half a dozen of our nation’s cities. My plan for these pilgrimages was to taste every food truck morsel I could possibly fit into a long weekend, coupled with a taste of the city’s dating scene.

I landed in Portland during a gray and drizzly May morning, and my baby sister picked me up so we could immediately start to tackle my list of more than twenty food carts I hoped to squeeze into four days of meals. We drove down SE Hawthorne in search of Fried Egg I’m in Love, my first chosen Portland food cart. I’ve been a huge virtual fan of the cart since stumbling across its account on Twitter because I love puns, breakfast sandwiches and the Cure. (Yes, social media is super important for food carts, otherwise traveling food writers like little ol’ me wouldn’t know about them!)

We saw food carts poking out on nearly every corner we drove by, and as I pointed and shouted, “There’s one! There’s one over there!” my sister exclaimed, “It’s like a mini treasure hunt!” Yes, driving around to find one of Portland’s best food carts really is like a treasure hunt.

Once we had moved to downtown for a food cart lunch, I was struck by the sheer number of carts that inhabit each corner of Portland. The city has truly been transformed by the pods and blocks of stationary carts painted in bright colors, often paired with picnic tables and community spaces. While very different from San Francisco’s food truck scene, where the food is served in full-sized trucks that roam the city, always changing location, I love how Portland has built vibrant, intriguing food cart pod communities found everywhere throughout the city and has turned food carts into a way of life in the Pacific Northwest. My very favorite “pod” is located at 23^rd and Alberta, which even features a beer cart to wash a drink down with your cart meal (beer and food is the best choice for dates).

During my Portland culinary cart exploration, which included eating at nine food trucks in the first day, I found that while the number of food carts in Portland shows years and depth of street food knowledge that far surpasses many of America’s cities, there are still a number of mediocre “roach coach” carts throughout the city. But take the time to do a little research and make special trips to each of Portland’s pods, and you’ll find more than a few hidden food cart gems as you explore. Here are some of my favorites.

Vada Holes from Tiffin Asha: I was able to snag a visit to Tiffin Asha during the first week it was open thanks to Steven, and I fell in love with food cart owner and chef Elizabeth Golay’s south Indian food. Since most of the Indian food you’ll eat in Indian restaurants is from northern India, southern Indian food is a unique little treat not to be missed. As a fan of sweet and savory, I was obsessed with Tiffin Asha’s Vada Holes—a savory dal donut rolled in coconut-chili fleur de sel and served with sambar. The donut is warm and chewy, as well as perfectly spicy and sweet. They’re served in orders of five and eight vadas, but really I wanted twenty-four, so I recommend starting out with four orders of the large vada holes. Don’t mistrust an expert.

Black Pepper Dumplings (Khinkali) from Kargi Gogo: If I tell you that Kargi Gogo serves Georgian food, do you think peach pie, barbecue and sweet tea? Think again. Kargi Gogo is authentic Georgian street food from the Republic of Georgia, and the cart owners Sean and McKinze know how to cook it because they spent two years there while volunteering for the Peace Corps. The story of how the cart came to be is interesting; however, I was most intrigued by the steaming salt-and-pepper dumplings that were being handed out their cart window. There’s no shortage of dumplings in different cuisines across the world, but the heavily black-peppered dumplings from Georgia are something different and special. So moist is the meat inside that it’s actually swimming in juices and is better eaten upside down, holding the top of the dumpling like an upside-down top. First bite a hole in the dumpling and then suck the juices out and finish off the dumpling in an incredible spinning circle of spiced dough.

Chicken and Rice from Nong’s Khao Man Gai: I feel like Nong’s Khao Man Gai (or, simply, Chicken and Rice) is synonymous with talking about the success and deliciousness of Portland’s food cart scene. Often called one of the most popular food carts, the chicken and rice dish is an unsuspecting treat, and if you only had one hour and one food cart to visit in Portland, I’d tell you to go now, run, to Nong’s. When I first received the brown paper bag from a tall, loud and somewhat strange man who said to me, “Today is the 144^th day of the year!” as I approached the cart window, I didn’t know what to expect. Could anything sound more boring than “chicken and rice”? When you unwrap the white butcher paper, you’ll find rice, chicken breast, a few slices of cucumber, pieces of cilantro and a little side cup of sauce. Pour the sauce all over the chicken and rice, stir and prepare to have your mind blown. I have no idea what’s in that sauce, but it is by far one of the more exploding mouthfuls of flavor experiences I have ever had. From ginger to lemongrass to chilies, I couldn’t place my finger on the dozens of flavors, but I knew that I wanted to eat that chicken and rice dish one hundred times over. You can even buy bottles of the sauce Nong makes now at the cart and specialty stores throughout Portland to bring home a little piece of Nong’s Khao Man Gai to your kitchen, which I did. Two bottles in my usually-never-checked suitcase.

Naughty in Nogales Tater Tots from Timber’s Doghouse PDX: Often when I think of street food, I think of the greasiest comfort food that makes your mouth water and your belly ache. Who doesn’t love a burger, hot dog or fries smothered and covered in cheese and gravy? Even better, who wouldn’t love a big serving of tater tots, smothered and covered in jalapenos, grilled onions, pineapple, bacon, pepper jack cheese and spicy sauce, all served up in a dog bowl? The Naughty in Nogales Tater Tot bowl from Timber’s is literally the messiest, dirtiest, spiciest, creamiest and naughtiest pile of salty comfort food that you’ll ever need to order before you can die happy. You’re welcome.

The FoPo Christo from the Egg Carton: I’m a huge fan of breakfast foods and bacon, so I was over the moon to hear about all the different breakfast food carts located throughout Portland—so much so that I did my own miniature breakfast food cart tour while visiting. Again, being a huge fan of sweet and savory dishes, I fell in love with the FoPo Christo from the Egg Carton, which is an amazing combo of sweet and salty breakfast foods. The FoPo Christo is a twist on a Monte Cristo—an oozy fried egg, bacon, Canadian bacon, cheddar cheese, spicy mustard and strawberry jam between two slices of French toast. A perfect food cart start to a Pacific Northwest morning.