Eat Mobile 2010: The Highlight Reel

Willamette Week's third annual Eat Mobile food cart festival finally arrived Saturday afternoon, and it was huge. How huge? We squeezed 30 carts under two and a half blocks of the Morrison bridge and packed in some 1,900 hungry Portlanders (check out the line!), who between them drank 150 gallons of Pabst Blue Ribbon and ate every last bite of food. (Check out the big Eat Mobile photo slideshow by Roger Bong, too.)

The winners of the sorta-prestigious Carty Awards, chosen by a panel of foodie luminaries, were Garden State for overall tastiness and Moxie RX for style. The People's Choice award, to no one's surprise, went to Whiffies Fried Pies. The surest way to a Portlander's heart is, apparently, a deep fryer. Flavorspot, who brought their ever-popular maple-sausage waffle taco, came in a close second.


Carty award winner Kevin Sandri of Garden State.


Whiffies Fried Pies owner Gregg Abbott.

Other crowd favorites included The People's Pig, who had a whole roasted piggie in the window; Flavorspot, whose epic line late in the evening nearly blocked out the view of The Dirty Mittens rocking onstage; Pyro Pizza, who dished out caramelized-onion pies with astonishing speed; Addy's Sandwich Bar, who brought duck confit; and Fifty Licks Ice Cream, who created a Red Bull Cola ice cream for the event.

• Aasif Mandvi, who was in town promoting his new movie, was spotted at the fest by Foodcartsportland blogger dieselboi. And at least one Portlander may have found true love.


• Nick Zukin posted an excellent roundup with pretty photos on his blog.


• There are more great photos at Daily Blender.


• Portland Food Adventures also had a good time, as did Tomatoes on the Vine.


• Hungry Vegan posted a meat-free take.


• Eater PDX noted an important link between Eat Mobile and Ruth Reichl (squee!).


• Pechluck offers a detailed report on just about every cart.


• PDXfoodiepalooza was particularly impressed with the bathroom situation.


• Even the Yelp crowd seem to have liked it, and they hate everything.

A huge thank you to all our participating food carts, event sponsors and army of Eat Mobile volunteers. We are already hard at work planning Eat Mobile 2011, if you have suggestions for the event or want to apply to be a featured cart next year, email jsword [at] wweek.com.

All photos by Roger Bong, rogerbong.com.



Tasty ice cream from Fifty Licks.



The crew behind Micro Mercantes delish tamales.



Banana peanut butter sandwiches at PB&Js.



Photo: Eat Mobile judge Scott Givot, prez of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, fills out his Eat Mobile score sheet.


One of Portland's future food cart lovers.


The People's Pig—with pig.


Dirty Mittens play Eat Mobile.



Potato Champion's Mike McKinnon.





Y La Bamba serenades the Eat Mobile crowd.



Flavorspot nabs its runner up certificate for the Cartys "People's Choice" award.