A Tasty Tour of Portland's Burgeoning World of Breakfast Food Carts

Like two rivers merging together, Portland’s breakfast scene and food cart movement are starting to create a flood of fabulous, outdoor options for your morning meal. While it’s hard to keep up with the flow, here’s an attempt to show you around the burgeoning world of breakfast food carts.

It all started with the waffle, really. Way back in 2006, food carts were already happening when FlavourSpot appeared on the scene, in the parking lot of a video place at 2310 North Lombard. Word quickly spread of round, crisp waffles folded like sandwiches (known as “Dutch Tacos”), with fillings like sausage and pure maple spread, ham and gouda, the classic butter and powdered sugar, or the exotic S’More with gelatin-free mallow and Nutella.

FlavourSpot. Photo: Amaren Colosi

Things got so busy that they opened another location in 2007 at the corner of North Mississippi and North Fremont, and now the word is they’re opening yet another, downtown at the corner of Southwest 3rd Avenue and Ash Street, right next to Big Ass Sandwiches, Ninja Plate Lunch and Rick’s Wild Seafood. (And if that’s not a one-corner culinary tour, I don’t know what is!)

Lombard location open 6:30 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. weekends. Mississippi location open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, and 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday.

Just up Mississippi Street is one of the more ornate carts around town, Moxie Rx. Especially in nice weather, it’s less a “cart” than a wholesome all-American picnic in the middle of town, bringing together the road trip, the woman in an apron making biscuits, the neighborhood folks getting together, and the traveling salesman whipping out “elixirs.”

Moxie Rx. Photo: Amaren Colosi

Moxie inhabits a 1964 Kenskill trailer with picnic tables and a small counter parked in an empty lot. But what comes out of there! For drinks you can choose up to three fruits (grapefruit, banana, orange, lime, lemon, berries, apple) to have them juiced, or you can get one of the Elixirs, like the Healthy Glow (pineapple, cucumber, ginger, and apple) or the Three Bee Boom (apple, royal jelly, bee pollen, and lemon).

Can you feel that old-fashioned healthy vibe going through your body? Well, now it’s time to eat. Imagine eating these in a picnic setting right in the middle of a happening, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood: buckwheat Belgian waffle with banana, yogurt, and syrup; cheddar biscuit with herbed egg and applewood-smoked bacon, or smoked salmon; a fried egg sandwich with prosciutto, provolone, roasted peppers, and basil on ciabatta.

Whichever you choose, just by eating at Moxie you’ve already gotten a perfectly Portland start to your day.

Open 9 a.m.-3 p.m. weekends this spring, check the Moxie RX web site for updates.

Moving yet further up Mississippi Street one finds Mississippi Marketplace, Portland’s first intentionally-developed cart pod. Among the fantastic options here are two different kinds of breakfasts: The Ruby Dragon and The Big Egg.

As one might imagine, The Big Egg is all about eggs, but here they are all part of a sandwich. There are four standards, made with variations on Grand Central brioche (standard or vanilla-cardamom), with options like white cheddar, fontina, and gorgonzola cheese and applewood smoked bacon, Black Forest ham or house-made vegetarian sausage. One particularly divine option is the Mississippi Monte Cristo, with the ham and gorgonzola, drizzled with pure maple glaze.

The Big Egg. Photo: Amaren Colosi

The Ruby Dragon is the place to be for vegan cart breakfasts. The whole menu is vegan, but take it from this carnivore, it’s all good. From this cheerful, colorful cart come treats like quinoa pancakes topped with real maple syrup, blueberries and walnuts. I had the Abbot, which is an open-faced sandwich of curried tempeh on a bed of curried glazed cashews, with “veganaise” on Dave’s Killer Bread. As amazed as I was by the taste of this thing – and for only $4.50 – I was also intrigued by the promise of “an Ethiopian touch” on their fries. If you want to join in an exploration of vegan food, start at the Ruby dragon in the morning.

Let’s head downtown now, where our last three breakfast carts await. And we might as well start with waffles again, specifically at Parkers Waffles in the pod at Southwest 4th Avenue and Hall Street. (By the way, they just opened a second location, at 1805 Northeast Alberta, right next to The Nest.)

Down at 4th and Hall, it’s mostly a lunch scene, but Parkers is one of two good weekday breakfast options. They also take waffles in some unexpected directions. Here, a waffle is more like a sweet package to wrap up a sandwich in—sandwiches like the Iron Pig, with scrambled eggs, spinach, bacon, onion and cheddar. If you want to go really savory, they have options with pulled pork, brats, and gravy.

Parkers Waffles. Photo: Amaren Colosi

Back on the sweet front, they do an Apple Crisp (grilled granny smiths with brown sugar yogurt, bourbon butter and almond pecan streusel) that will change your whole idea of what a waffle is. There’s a peach version of that one, as well as a Nutella and grilled banana.

And if all of that doesn’t work for you, you can build your own waffle. Just beware: they might want to take your picture while you eat.

Southwest 4th Avenue and Hall Street, open weekdays 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m.; 1805 Northeast Alberta, open 8 a.m.-2 p.m. every day, plus 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Parkers isn’t the only option at 4th and Hall. There is also Buddha Bites, which sounds like it’s probably a vegetarian noodle place but has plenty of meat options—including a super-filling meatloaf sandwich, by the way. The Buddha-like sensibility is shown, however, in their use of seasonal, organic and local ingredients; free range meats and eggs; and by having gluten-free options.

Buddha Bites. Photo: Amaren Colosi

At breakfast, the staple is their home-made naan bread, which can be filled with eggs, bacon, cheese and jam, or with eggs, chipotle black beans and cheddar. The former might sound like a lot, and it is, but it’s really a whole breakfast plate, wrapped up in fresh warm naan, and it just oozes goodness.

They also do a veggie omelet, which you can add bacon or avocado to, and for an extra 50 cents you can get anything made dairy-free.

Open 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays

Our tour ends at Brunch Box, in a big pod at the corner of Southwest 5th Avenue and Stark Street. They are perhaps best known for their house-made English muffins—and if you haven’t had a real English muffin, get down there early one day, as supplies are limited. They make ‘em regular and “honey wheat.”

Brunch Box. Photo: Amaren Colosi

On these fine creations (and other daily bread selections) they make an omelet sandwich (egg, mushroom, onion, American cheese) and—brace yourself—an OMG! Breakfast Sandwich with egg, ham, spam, bacon, and American cheese. The place is not subtle; among several burger options at lunch is an OMG! Burger, served between two grilled cheese sandwiches on Texas toast. Seriously. It’s called The Redonkadonk.

Open Monday-Tuesday 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Wednesday-Friday 8 a.m.-7 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

And now that we’ve even contemplated, much less eaten, something like a Redonkadonk, it’s time to close this little tour of breakfast carts, and maybe go the gym. Or take a nap.