Every summer, the Grant Magazine staff holds a journalism camp for rising seventh through ninth graders. Their stories are posted here, on the Grant Magazine website.
It’s 9:45 a.m. at the Tidbit food cart pod. All the windows are closed, but the doors are open. The scent of cooking food wafts between picnic tables and under sunshades. The early sun glints off glossy truck exteriors, casting light onto the gravel. From open side doors come the secretive sounds of preparation: hushed clangs and the gentle swishing of boiling water.
Every so often, someone emerges from a truck and greets another. They share looks and a laugh, returning to the truck with supplies or tool. Someone sets up a radio and plays mellow jazz that fills the area, perfectly complimenting the atmosphere.
This is a typical scene at the Southeast Portland food cart pod, before most carts have opened. Amongst a sea of 21 food carts, one sticks out. It’s a contemporary Japanese noodle spot, Hapa Ramen, owned and run by a married couple.
Inside the Hapa Ramen cart, Michael Littman works while he talks, boiling eggs, starting broth and tending two other pots on the stove.
“People from the community like it because it’s a great place to come, and bring your family,” Littman says. “You can bring your dog, you can bring your cat, you can enjoy any different type of food you want and it’s a pretty relaxed atmosphere.”
Littman and his wife, Sarah, were motivated to open a food cart from a simple love of food.
“Our particular inspiration was noodles,” Michael Littman says. “My wife loves to eat Japanese noodles, and we kind of looked around Portland and discovered that there wasn’t many places that do actual Japanese ramen noodles. So that got us thinking about doing our own business.”
The Littmans also have a background in Japanese cooking. Both speak Japanese, and Michael Littman grew up eating Japanese food. He has relatives in Japan and lived there for several years in both high school and college, and again later in life as a teacher.
When the inspiration came to open a food cart, Littman and his wife trained with a professional Japanese ramen chef, who spoke almost no English. From there, they have specified their recipes to create an operating food cart, which opened in August 2014.
Across the pod from Hapa, Dogtown PDX offers a less traditional menu. Hot dogs seem like a classic cart food, but Will Hernandez puts a major twist in the recipe: almost as many toppings as the size of the hot dog itself. One of the more interesting menu items is the Sonoran Dog, which is bacon-wrapped with refried beans, salsa verde, avocado cream, grilled onions, and pico de gallo in fry bread. Hernandez says that he finds inspiration for his hot dogs in everything he eats.
The customer favorites generally consist of fried chicken, lamb sausage, and polish pups. None of them are hot dogs. “It’s actually really funny,” he says.
Working in food service since 15, Hernandez became motivated to open his own restaurant. Then, he became interested in food carts and decided that they were a better fit for him. Originally, Hernandez thought that he would end up pursuing photography or graphic design, but was drawn to cooking because of the “magic” that comes from putting simple ingredients together to make a whole.
“I take flour and water and yeast, and I have a hot dog bun,” he says. “It’s amazing.”
He also loves the freedom that food carts give him. “You’re working for yourself,” he says. “You’re working hard, but you’re not killing yourself for a…boss.”
He remembers a time that a working friend passed on an extra pair of concert tickets. Hernandez was able to close the cart for the day and enjoy the concert with a friend.
While Littman and Hernandez clearly have experience in professional cooking, Ingrid LeGore, the co-owner of Ingrid’s Scandinavian food cart, draws experience from relationships.
“I have less [experience] than my partner in there, my mother,” she says. “She’s worked in a couple of restaurants. This is actually my first job in food. But I’ve cooked my whole life.”
LeGore grew up making lefse, a traditional Norwegian flatbread that is sold at the cart. She learned how to make it when she was 5 years old and decided that due to the fact that it’s relatively unknown in the states, it made sense to try cooking them in a restaurant. Then, she proposed the idea of a food cart, and her mother pushed the idea forward. They’ve been at Tidbit ever since.
All three owners agree that Tidbit is a great location. “I think that this is an up and coming area, so tourists want to come, families can walk here, you know,”LeGore says. “It’s a good area.”
Overall, they all say that the area is very family friendly, which is an asset to their business and the atmosphere of the pod.
LeGore also mentions that it was fairly easy to earn a spot in Tidbit (she says that her timing was perfect), but Hernandez, of Dogtown PDX, dealt with a different experience. Before finding Tidbit, he continually applied for a spot in a pod, but was always placed in the least favorable conditions.
One day, he drove past the empty lot that would become Tidbit, and figured it would be ideal. He says that he called and applied for a spot. After a few days, he phoned again, and was told, “Oh, we thought we already called you to say no,” he remembers. Hernandez was discouraged, but didn’t give up. He continued to call three more times, and finally got a spot. Now, the business is doing well.
As the Tidbit food cart pod thrives, all three cart owners are happy with their business. Of course, success comes with challenges.
“Whenever you do a business, you don’t know how hard these challenges are until you actually do it,” Littman says. He goes on to list many difficulties, highlighting limited space and manpower. In the confines of a truck or cart, fewer people can fit, let alone work, and less storage and cooking space is available. “And people expect their food to be served in a timely manner, so you’ve got to be efficient at it,” he adds.
Hernandez says that the most challenging part of operating a food cart for him is preparation. He says that he spends hours driving around town looking for better deals. LeGore adds that the offseason, winter, is really difficult for food carts compared to restaurants that have indoor seating.
Also, as Littman mentioned, food carts are always a temporary structure, because a landlord can always sell the land to a builder who would develop it. In many ways, food carts can represent change. Many food cart owners use their cart as a way to work toward a restaurant, or work on an idea. Also, food carts are inspiring a change in Portland, and swiftly becoming a trend. For now, they’re in a good place.
Littman sums up why the location has been so good. “It’s been really good, because, it’s a neighborhood pod. I think the concept for this particular location thought about the people that live here, versus just trying to, you know, open a pod, because it’s something cool to do.”
