Pepper Box Cafe: Food Review

FIRST MEAL: Start your day with Pepper Box tacos.
By Martin Cizmar

Last October, the Pepper Box food cart was scrambling to move from a redeveloping lot, leaving Hatchheads to bemoan the city's lack of decent New Mexican food. Things are very different now.

Out of nowhere, Southeast Portland got two other spots specializing in the Southwestern state's unique brand of chile-topped Americana. Now, the new brick Pepper Box Cafe joins them. All three spots have moments—La Panza has a killer prickly pear frozen margarita, and the Blue Goose makes an epic green chile cheeseburger. But if you're looking for the truest Albuquerque experience, it comes delivered to the Formica tables at this dinerette.

The counter-service Pepper Box is open for breakfast and lunch. Go early. The best items on the menu are three large breakfast tacos on rustic housemade flour tortillas, especially the aptly named primo ($4.50), made with spicy pastrami, pickled peppers, lightly fried white onions and scrambled eggs in a smoky chipotle cream sauce. The original taco with the house chorizo blend and earthy red chile ($4) is the best bargain, almost a meal on its own thanks to shredded sharp cheddar that melts over crispy squares of fried potato. Those potatoes, plus a mess of sauceless but well-seasoned pinto beans, were also found on the huevos rancheros ($8) plate, which we got with a thick salsa of mild green chiles.

The lunch options aren't quite as impressive—turned into steak fries, those potatoes were more crunch than flavor. The burger's ($8) chopped green chiles weren't quite spicy enough to stand up to the patty, pickles and mustard. It's no match for the Blue Goose's version. Likewise, Pepper Box's bowl of red chile ($6) with pinto beans and carne adovada wasn't as good as the version at La Panza, which has a bigger chile pop and beans stewed until soft and juicy. Still, a year after the near end of worthy New Mexican in town, it's great to have three spots worth comparing.

EAT: Pepper Box Cafe, 932 SE Morrison St., 841-5004, pepperboxpdx.com. 7 am-2 pm Tuesday-Friday, 8:30 am-3 pm Saturday-Sunday.

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