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1. Da Pine Grinds
1208 E Historic Columbia River Highway, Troutdale. 11 am-3 pm Tuesday-Friday.
The charmingly retro Sugarpine Drive-in has been one of Portland’s essential summer visits for three years now—and with the recent addition of on-site Hawaiian food cart Da Pine Grinds, the trip has only grown more crucial. Here’s the early recommendation: Grab the ahi shoyu poke, add in a P.O.G.—a frozen mixture of passion fruit, orange, and guava juice—then take your food to an oversized picnic table above the Sandy and, boom, a perfect afternoon.
2. Sweet Lorraine’s
1331 N Killingsworth St., sweetlorraineslatkes.squarespace.com. 11:30 am-3:30 pm Monday-Tuesday, noon-8 pm Thursday-Sunday.
It’s Hanukkah year-round at Killingsworth Station—or, at least, a reasonable facsimile of the Lower East Side of New York. The cart pod is where Aaron Tomasko and Rachel Brashear are serving voluptuous potato pancakes, as well as knishes, kugel, kasha varnishkes and East Coast sweets. The crispy, pillowy latkes are fried to order and come with the traditional accompaniment of sour cream and applesauce.
3. Jerry’s Pizza
3237 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-239-9208, instagram.com/jerryspizzapdx. 4-9 pm Monday-Thursday.
In just under a year, Jerry Benedetto has gone from tinkering with recipes for Chicago-style tavern pizza in his home kitchen to opening one of Portland fooderati’s most anticipated new restaurants. Now slinging pies inside the Bear Paw Inn in the Brooklyn neighborhood, his is the stuff of fond Midwestern memories: a thin, crispy crust with square-cut slices, preferably with sausage and hot giardiniera.
4. Piggins
1239 SW Broadway, 503-222-9070, higginsportland.com. 11:30 am-7 pm Wednesday-Sunday.
One of downtown’s most popular pandemic pivots appears as if it’s becoming a seasonal tradition. The basil-hued, cedar-trimmed food cart has returned to the courtyard of the Oregon Historical Society, acting as an extension of James Beard Award-winning chef Greg Higgins’ kitchen, with a menu that includes classics, like the iconic open-faced brisket pastrami sandwich.
5. Papi Sal’s
3612 SE 82nd Ave., papisalfoodcart.com. 4-8 pm Wednesday, 1-7 pm Thursday, noon-7 pm Friday, noon-8 pm Saturday, 11 am-7 pm Sunday.
Papi Sal’s is the must-try jawn at one of Portland’s biggest, newest food cart jawns. Its signature item? The Jawn. It’s pulled lechon, slow-cooked in sweetish barbecue sauce, with toppings that nod to both Philadelphia’s Italian-style roast pork (sharp provolone, “long hot” peppers) and Puerto Rican cuisine (sofrito mayo, sazón on the long hots, chicharrones). The real star, though, may be the sesame sandwich rolls, which owner John Hatch bakes daily in the truck.
