Recently Shuttered Portland Dining Institution Le Bistro Montage Is Being Resurrected as a Food Cart

The new menu includes the godless and wildly tempting “nacho-ronies,” referred to as “the best dish you never had.”

By Christen McCurdy

A month after closing, Le Bistro Montage is staging a comeback—as a food cart.

The iconic late-night Cajun restaurant announced its closure at the end of June after 27 years serving mac and cheese and po'boys in the Central Eastside hours after most other Portland restaurants closed.

On Wednesday, the restaurant announced via Facebook that its chef will open a cart at the Hawthorne Asylum food cart pod at Southeast 10th Avenue and Madison Street.

The menu included in the post is a pared-down version of Montage's classic menu, featuring the jambalaya, the po' boy and the much-loved classic mac and cheese, plus variants.

You can still add chicken, andouille sausage and gator to any dish—and the po'boys come wrapped in the tinfoil sculptures that were the old Montage's trademark.

Whether any of it will taste the same in the light of day—the cart will operate from 11 am to 8 pm — and in the ambience of a cart pod rather than a low-lit cavern under the Morrison Bridge remains to be seen.

And change isn't all bad. The new menu includes the godless and wildly tempting "nacho-ronies," referred to as "the best dish you never had": housemade tortilla chips topped with Cajun pulled chicken  and nacho cheese macaroni along with fresh-cut pico de gallo and cilantro.

The cart is set to open Aug. 8.

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