![]() They all wore masks when they ordered, and their order takers talked to them from behind a pane of glass. On a recent Monday in the Hillsdale food cart pod, the lunch time crowd consisted of a smattering of customers sitting far apart at picnic tables that used to be more tightly packed. “Food carts are now filling that niche.” Easier to follow the rules ![]() “Some of them had some of their busiest days ever during this pandemic because there’s such a limit now on the amount of food available to the public,” Martin said. Jeff Martin, an environmental health supervisor for the Multnomah County Health Department, said food carts have been pretty much able to operate uninterrupted during the pandemic. By contrast, the number of permit applications for restaurants is 50% less. Multnomah County said the number of applications for mobile food unit permits is about the same as this time last year. Portland’s food carts are hanging on during the pandemic in a way that restaurants aren’t. “I do think that we’re uniquely positioned to make it through a downturn like this and in the strange environment we’re in, because we are designed for takeout,” said Leah Tucker, founder of the Oregon Mobile Food Association. Now, with sit-down dining severely limited, take-out options are king again. The big Portland food cart boom came more than a decade ago during the Great Recession, when the key to survival for food purveyors was to sell something fast and cheap that Portlanders could take back to their offices. Industry observers say food cart operators by their very nature have to be nimble. “It’s a lot different than just running the day-to-day in a kitchen,” Ingwood said. Also gone are the famous aluminum foil creatures the restaurant wrapped its po’ boys in. Ingwood had to pare down his menu to the top dozen or so most popular dishes. “If you’re going to go out of business because of this whole pandemic thing, this might be your only option rather than throwing in the towel.” “I think it’s the only move right now for any restaurant that’s trying to survive,” Ingwood said. ![]() He licensed the Montage name from the owners and grabbed the last open spot in the Hawthorne Asylum food cart pod. Montage Ala Cart opened as a food cart this month, with Ingwood as its owner. It didn’t take long before former executive chef Derek Ingwood figured out a way to sling the mac-n-cheese and jambalaya again.ĭerek Ingwood opened the Montage Ala Cart food cart in August 2020. One Yelp reviewer asked, “Oh Montage, what will Portland do without you?” ![]()
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