Portland Food Cart Pods All Have Bars

Gone are the days when dinner at a food cart meant bringing a six-pack or a brown bag to a picnic table. These days, what sets the great cart pods apart from the good is beer.

DIY garage project Captured By Porches Brewing was the first to pioneer the concept in 2010 with a funky converted short bus with beer faucets drilled into the side. It looked like something from the set of Into the Wild. When CBP started pouring at the D-Street Noshery food truck pod on Southeast Division Street, the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission didn’t know what to make of it. But after government agencies rubber-stamped their plan, the floodgates opened. Before long, CBP had other beer buses parked around town on Northeast Alberta Street and in St. Johns, and even though the family-owned brewery has since parted ways with its buses, several of its locations still exist under new owners.

These days, no self-respecting lot owner would dare to lease excess space to a food truck without putting in some sort of ramshackle drinks cart. Tap trucks are practically ubiquitous as food truck pods themselves at this point.

An ‘80s-era Italian box truck parked in a gravel lot on Southeast Belmont Street called EarthLab Libations regularly hosts guest brewery nights and has one of the best tap lists in town. Behind a martial arts studio on Northeast Glisan Street, the Beer Spot has a curated list from the former buyer of Lardo and Grassa. Scout Beer opened its own pod and is brewing beers inspired by campouts and s’mores for its two tap trucks. Even Breakside Brewery has parked a restored Winnebago with a kegerator on 82nd Avenue.

Let’s just hope the mobile ghost kitchens don’t figure out the reason why their business model is such a failure. Cart pods deserve a leg up.