The Oregonian published its first deep dive into Portland’s food cart scene in 2009, highlighting 10 incredible carts that had risen above the fray. Already, a couple of things were clear: Something exciting was bubbling up from the city’s streets, and the most exciting street of all was North Mississippi Avenue.
Along with the sweet and savory baked treats at nearby Moxie RX, that inaugural guide featured two noteworthy carts at the pod, an L-shaped lot wrapped around German beer bar Prost: Shins drummer Jesse Sandoval’s Southwestern-inspired Nuevo Mexico and the great breakfast sandwich spot The Big Egg. Within a year, inventive dessert cart The Sugar Cube and meatball hero slingers Garden State had joined the mix, with Koi Fusion and its rabid social media following not far behind.
This was Portland’s first food cart super group.
In those early years, as I was researching our annual guide to Portland’s best new food carts (the 2019 edition will drop this week), finding something to write home about at the Mississippi Marketplace cart was a virtual lock.
But over time, many of those favorites left, to be replaced by lesser lights. Visits turned up less and less of interest. If there was a low-water mark, it might have been early 2018, when law enforcement authorities said a little-used cart parked at the pod since 2016 had been used to launder drug money.
Prost owner Dan Hart had watched the pod fall into its state of semi-neglect from behind the plant boxes ringing his pleasant beer garden. But as a tenant, he had little say in the operations. That started to change in 2017, when Hart and partner Chris Navarra purchased both the Prost building -- planning to restore its historic facade -- and the lot.
Once the rehab underway, Hart began tinkering with the cart lineup, slowly replacing carts as leases came up or owners picked up stakes. He first brought on heavy hitters including Caspian Kabob (Persian), Desi PDX (Indian fusion) and Pastrami Zombie (sandwiches and burgers), then convinced the great Vancouver taqueria Little Conejo to truck their tacos south of the Columbia River. But his biggest score came in May, after Matt’s BBQ -- makers of Portland’s best smoked brisket and sausage -- were booted from their original home on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. To no one’s surprise, the pairing of German beer and Texas-style barbecue proved a hit. Matt’s now boasts a Salt & Straw-worthy line at lunch.
“We were busy on MLK, but it really took off once we got to Mississippi,” Vicedomini says. “I hope to have Matt’s BBQ there for the next ten years."
Hart wasn’t done. In June 2018, he opened two new micro businesses of his own: Bloodbuzz, a bar cart that pours (domestic) craft beer and frozen radler palomas starting at 8 a.m., and Breadbox, a sandwich cart better known today as the place that makes breakfast burritos for Bloodbuzz. And this spring, Prost debuted the latest addition to his suddenly resurgent pod -- an impressive, 2,000-square-foot, all-weather covering and patio expansion that brings Prost and its pod -- now called Prost Marketplace -- closer than ever. Customers can now bring drinks outside to the carts, just as they have always been able to bring food into the bar.
“So many pods were all about opportunity: they were vacant parking lots, a chance to make a few dollars while they waited to the lot to be developed,” says Hart, who lives next door to Prost. “This place was designed to be a food cart pod. For us to be able to purchase it, with what we’re doing at Prost, it means it can stay here forever. We’re not looking to build a highrise here; we’re looking to improve on what we have.”
Prost and its pod can be found at 4237 N. Mississippi Ave.
-- Michael Russell