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One of the largest and most popular cart pods in Portland is closing in less than two months.
Division Street cart pod Tidbit Food Farm and Garden will close this October to make way for development after the lot was sold, says pod co-founder Christina Davis.
Since opening in 2014, the pod at 28th Avenue and Divsion Street has quickly become one of the busiest in the city—home to at least 20 different food carts including Paper Bag Pizza, Hapa Ramen, E-San Thai and Wasabi Sushi, not to mention a Scout beer cart presiding over a busy beer-garden area.
When Tidbit opened in October 2014, Eater reported that their lease would last at least five years, but Davis tells WW today their lease will only keep them on the lot until November 1 of this year. The last day of business will likely be Sunday, October 8, Davis says.
"The lot has been sold and the development is going through," says Davis. "There was a lot of uncertainty about it until the very last minute. This last weekend, we knew we had a lease through November 1, so it was up in the air as to whether it would be extended…. We're going to begin moving people off on October 11."
The developer remains undisclosed, but in December of 2016, TVA Architects submitted an application to build a four-story, 67-unit mixed use complex on the site. Cart owners have been informed of the October move-out date.
Since its founding in 2014, Tidbit has arguably become the new model for cart pods designed not as stopgaps for new development but rather a viable business model all to themselves, centered around beer carts as both draw and profit center.
Tidbit's influence can be seen in the newly refurbished Cartopia pod on 12th and Hawthorne—home to Chicken and Guns, Potato Champion and a new Bottle Rocket beer cart—as well as the similarly comfort-driven beer-garden pod on Southeast 28th and Ankeny, and perhap's even beer-bar Prost's new buyout of the neighboring Mississippi Avenue pod.
Davis says she and partner Aaron Blake are "keeping our eyes out" for future locations for new projects like Tidbit. "If something happens in the future," Davis says, "it'll be an opportunity to make something cooler."
Related: How Beer Helped Save Food Carts