Who would have believed that one day the abandoned filling station at 72nd & Prescott would host a real food cart pod? Certainly not me. And yet, today, it definitely does, with a taproom, coffee, five carts and a restaurant across the street.

This page is the best guide you'll find to all these food carts. Bookmark it; I'll update it periodically with the changes in the pod.

They are carts, though, so opening hours and menus can vary. Particularly, most of the carts cut back on hours during the rainy season, and expand them during the summer. But sometimes, carts are just closed.

The Pod consists of the old filling station and its grounds, and neighboring properties. Inside the filling station is Junior's Coffee in the mornings and early afternoon, and Upright Brewing in the late afternoon/evening. Three carts sit on the Upright/Juniors property. Next door, in front of a disused HVAC shop, are two additional carts. Finally, there is a middle eastern deli (Samo's) across 72nd from the whole complex.

The food cart pod has ample outdoor seating, about 1/3 of which is covered from rain. Because of the angle of the sun, during sunny days you'll want to move around the outdoor seating; only about 1/3 is actually shaded in the aftenoon. Upright/Juniors has a small amount of indoor seating, including three small tables, and around 12 bar seats. If you're eating inside, you should really order a drink from whichever business is open (Juniors or Upright).

Information last updated November 9, 2024

Junior's Coffee

Serves: Coffee, espresso, and tea

Location: Inside the main building

Hours: 7am to 3pm, 7 days a week

Junior's coffee is the 2nd coffee outlet by the folks who also own Guilder (the Princess-Bride themed cafe). They offer espresso drinks, coffee and tea 7 days a week, and a very small selection of pastries. They roast their own fair trade, organic, family-farm coffee, which is also available by the bag.

Juniors/Guilder is the only coffeehouse I know of in Portland that offers shakeratos in the summer.

Upright Brewing

Serves: 10-12 beers on tap, plus assorted things in bottles and cans.

Location: Inside the main building, behind the bar

Hours: 3pm-ish to 10pm, weekdays, noon-10pm Sat & Sun

This is the 2nd taproom for Portland-based Upright Brewing. Their beers skew towards real ale, side-taps, and other artisan service, including sours, a British-style bitter, lager, pilsner, and saison, as well as the mandatory IPAs. Particularly, if you appreciate a lower-alcohol beer (4.5-5.5%) so that you can have multiple pints without falling off your stool, this is your place.

DesiPDX

Sadly Closed

Maybe they'll come back someday. Their original location, in the Prost! foodcart pod, is still open.

Schmunchburger

Serves: Burgers, fries, and the Schnitzelwich

Location: Cart along 72nd ave

Hours: 1pm to 8pm Tues-Sat (usually)

Schmunch adds a burger-and-fries option to the food cart pod, although their burgers are a little special.

Yes, they do have a veggie burger option. They also theoretically have schnizel sandwiches, although those seem to run out a lot.

Niños Birrieria

Serves: Tacos, quesadillas, birria, quesabirria, chips, etc.

Location: truck in front of 7131 Prescott Street

Hours: 10am to 9pm 7 days a week

Niños is the always-open standby for this pod, rarely closed during dining hours. Birria lovers will find lots to eat here, but others have options as well, including fish tacos and taquitos; they have quite the menu for a food cart.

Note that when they say "hot", they mean it. Do not take the "bomb shell challenge" unless you regularly participate in hot pepper eating contests.

They have a breakfast menu too.

They're also a good option for non-beer-drinkers since they regularly have aquas frescas.

R-Haan Thai Kitchen

Serves: Thai standards, including noodles, stir-fries and rice dishes

Location: cart in front of 7131 Presscot Street

Hours: 11am to 8pm Thursday-Monday

R-Haan is the newest cart, and I've eaten there only once so far. The cart offers everything a typical American Thai restaurant would offer, including Pad Thai, Tom Yum and Panang Curry.

Pine State Biscuits

Serves: Biscuits and Gravy

Location: Airstream on the left side of Upright building

Hours: Friday 4pm-9pm, Sat/Sun 8am-2pm

This is yet another outlet of the Portland-leading biscuit franchise. They offer biscuits, biscuit sandwiches, and biscuits with both meat and vegetarian gravy, plus assorted seasonal specials. They're pretty much just open for brunch on weekends.

Samo's

Serves: Middle eastern street food, plus diner griddle standards

Location: Across 72nd ave. from the food cart pod, in the Samo's building

Hours: 9am to 10pm 7 days a week

You may have noticed the lack of a felafel/schwarma cart. Well, that's because Samo's is just across the street. If that's what you have a yen for, hop across the street, get your schwarma wrap, and come back for an Upgright beer.

Looks like I am selling my pottery in person this year! Leikam Brewing in Portland -- our town's only kosher beer brewer -- will be hosting craft fairs for both Hanukkah and for Christmas. The first of these is on November 21st, in time for Hanukkah starting on Nov. 28th. The second fair will be on December 12th.

I'll have all of the items from my store and more with me, so it's a great time to pick up a handmade gift without paying shipping. I was hoping to have more Judaica to sell, but looks like a lot of that will be stuck in the kiln until after the sale.

See you on the 21st!

Hanukkah Craft Fair
Leikam Brewing
5812 East Burnside, Portland, OR
November 12, 1pm to 5pm

Over the past 2 years in Portland I have become familiar with pretty much all of the fish markets on the East side, due to various quests to find particular seafood items. I will save you some time by sharing this with you:

H-Mart has an excellent fish counter, particularly if you're looking for whole fish or shrimp. The one in Beaverton is larger than the one on Belmont but they're both good and affordable.

Fuban also has a lot of whole fish and seafood. Their main virtue is cheapness, so only shop there if you're really good at picking out seafood.

Flying Fish Company right now is good for a tiny selection of very high-quality fish and a larger selection of gourmet frozen seafood. After they move to their new location, their selection of fresh fish will improve.

Portland Fish Company is a great place to go if you're looking for advice & guidance, or if you want to special-order some particular seafood in advance. Both FFC and PFC are on the high end of seafood pricing (although not as high as Zupans).

Hollywood Fred Meyer has I think the biggest seafood counter among the FMs; they smoke their own salmon there. This is a good place to go for salmon (anytime), dungeness (in season) and to look for a sale on "basic" seafood like rockfish, shrimp, and snow crab.

The various New Seasones generally have pretty good fish counters; their selection is broader than Fred Meyer and their prices are usually higher. I was actually not impressed with Burnside Zupans fish counter; I felt it has the same selection as New Seasons for 20-75% more.

Desipite its name, Sheridan Fruit Company actually has an excellent (premium) fish counter, with a good assortment of super-fresh fish.

PacificSeafood is the largest international shipper of seafood in the world. We just happend to be blessed, right here in Portland, with one of their handful of retail fish counters. This means that if you give them enough time & notice, they can get you just about anything if it's obtainable anywhere. Note that they sell primarily wholesale to restaurants, though; you get the seafood the way you get it and they won't clean it for you. Very affordable, though.

For the ultimate in affordabilty, though, there are several Chinese-American-owned seafood markets on Division or Powell near 82nd. These markets focus on the Asian restaurant trade, so their selection is limited, a lot of seafood is live, and everything is low-priced. If you're looking for 5lbs of live spot prawns for $25, this is where you'd get it (if your timing is good).

Best Places to get Whole Fish: H-Mart, PacificSeafood, Fuban

Best Places to get Inexpensive Wild Salmon in Season: Hollywood Fred Meyer, PacificSeafood

Best Places to get Dungeness Crab in Season: Hollywood Fred Meyer, New Seasons, H-Mart

Best Places to get Live Shellfish: Chinese markets near 82nd

Best Place to get Imported Frozen or Tinned Seafood: Flying Fish Company

Best Places to get Advice on What/How to Cook: Portland Fish Company, Flying Fish Company

FuzzyChef Pottery is moving studios from San Francisco to Portland Oregon. As such, we will be shut down and not taking online orders for the next 5 to 7 weeks.