http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/inde ... es_se.html
Food-cart pod with amenities set to open in North Portland
by Karen Brooks, The Oregonian
Saturday July 11, 2009, 8:37 PM
Portland's funky food-cart culture, one of the most vibrant and diverse in the country with hundreds of carts on the streets, is about to get organized, financed and landscaped.
North Mississippi Avenue, home to several well-known if eccentric carts, will be the scene of a new slice of food-cart culture.
Stephanie Yao Long/The OregonianDeveloper Roger Goldingay (left) and designer and contractor Michael Tunson will open Mississippi Marketplace in this open lot in August. The building will house a brewpub called Prost! adjacent to 10 food carts.
Set to open at the corner of North Mississippi and Skidmore Street in early August, Mississippi Marketplace will be Portland's first curated food cart and market pod in a newly paved 10,000-square-foot lot. The project has been designed with an anchor tenant, a spiffy brewpub called Prost! set in a building transformed from a seedy board-up to a handcrafted Greek Revival beauty.
Ten food carts will be selected by developer Roger Goldingay, along with a cluster of booths devoted to crafts or a farmers market, depending on interest. Each cart will have amenities rarely available to food-cart owners: six to 12 seats per cart; access to a portable toilet; full-service electrical; a recycling plan; and someone to keep the grounds clean and tidy.
Until now, Portland's exploding food-cart scene has taken a more duct-tape approach. Many carts subsist on bare bones, with limited electrical power, seating and bathroom access. Then again, they are free to create their own moods, like the late-night party scene created by the cart pod at Southeast 12th Avenueand Hawthorne Boulevard.
Multnomah County has more than 375 food carts, with action blossoming in the suburbs -- and the applications keep coming.
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