Lil' America | |
|---|---|
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| Opening date | April 2023 |
| Address | 1015 Southeast Stark Street |
  Lil' America | |
| Coordinates: 45°31′10″N122°39′20″W / 45.5195°N 122.6555°W | |
Lil' America is a food pod (or group of food carts) in Portland, Oregon's Buckman neighborhood, in the United States.
The pod opened at Stark Street and 10th Avenue in southeast Portland's Buckman neighborhood in April 2023, [1] [2] in the space previously occupied by MidCity SmashBurger. [3] Businesses in the pod are LGBTQ- and/or BIPOC-owned. [4]
The project is a collaboration between ChefStable and the restaurant group Win Win. [5] [6] KOIN has described Win Win as an "organization that creates equitable and sustainable opportunities in the food industry for the queer and trans community". [7]
Businesses, which pay a monthly flat fee to operate in the pod, [8] have included:
Frybaby was named Food Cart of the Year by The Oregonian in 2023. [19]
Cartopia is a food cart pod located on the corner of SE 12th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard in Southeast Portland, Oregon.
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The Hawthorne Asylum is a food cart pod in southeast Portland, Oregon, United States. There are more than 20 carts, as of April 2021. The pod also has picnic tables and fire pits.
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Handsome Pizza was a pizzeria in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the business closed in August 2022.
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Bing Mi is a Chinese restaurant in Portland, Oregon. The original food cart specialized in the Chinese street food jianbing. The brick and mortar Bing Mi Dumpling and Noodle Bar opened in 2022 and focuses on Northern Chinese noodles and dumplings. The food cart closed in December 2023.
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Smart Donkey Burreria, or simply Smart Donkey, is a Mexican restaurant in Portland, Oregon. Chef Oswaldo Bibiano operates the food cart in southeast Portland's Richmond neighborhood, in a converted car wash. Smart Donkey has garnered a positive reception and was named one of the city's best new food carts of 2022 by The Oregonian.
Sweet Lorraine's Latkes & More, or simply Sweet Lorraine's, was a restaurant in Portland, Oregon. Spouses Aaron Tomasko and Rachel Brashear began operating the food cart in February 2021, initially serving latkes and later expanding to include other Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine such as matzah brei, kasha varnishkes, knishes, noodle kugel, and sufganiyah.
Yoshi's Sushi is a Japanese restaurant in Portland, Oregon. Chef and owner Yoshimasa "Yoshi" Ikeda started the business from a food cart in southwest Portland's Multnomah Village neighborhood in 2019. Yoshi's has garnered a positive reception, ranking fourth in The Oregonian's list of Portland's best new food carts of 2019 and seventh in Yelp's 2024 list of the one hundred best sushi restaurants in the United States.
HeyDay is a doughnut shop in Portland, Oregon. Lisa Nguyen started the business as a pop-up restaurant in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, before moving to the food cart pod Collective Oregon Eateries in southeast Portland's Lents neighborhood in 2023. Specializing in mochi donuts, HeyDay has garnered a positive reception.
Câche Câche was a seafood restaurant in Portland, Oregon's Buckman neighborhood, in the United States.
