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The owners of Big-Ass Sandwiches, in years past one of the shinier stars in Portland's fast spinning food cart firmament, say it looks like they're going to be pushed from their Central Eastside location due to development.

Now the cart, known for absurdly portioned, french-fry stuffed sandwiches, is casting about for a new home.

"They're demolishing the building behind us," co-founder Lisa Wood says, adding that her landlord, Craig Sweitzer, said the cart "should plan to be out by spring." Wood and her husband Brian took to Twitter earlier today to announce the move, and solicit ideas for a new location.



It's unclear what project is in the works at the property, a warehouse at 304 SE 2nd. Sweitzer tells the Mercury a deal is pending, but isn't ready to be announced yet. He says he just gave the Woods a heads up that something might happen, and that their announcement is premature.

"We’ve got a project we’re working on, and it's not time to comment on it at all," Sweitzer says. "I’m surprised they're saying anything."

Wood, though she doesn't know specifics, says the development is a bar or restaurant, and that "we're going to be in the way of their beer garden."

Opened downtown in 2009, Big-Ass Sandwiches quickly became a gleeful obsession for the Portland masses, attracting a good deal of local and national press. In 2012, the Woods moved the cart across the river, citing ongoing issues with their landlord, City Center Parking.

"We just liked the neighborhood and hoped we’d be able to stay," Wood says. And they will stay, if they're allowed. There are no hard plans to close, and the cart is on a month-to-month lease with Sweitzer's company.

The tough year the Woods alluded to in their tweets references a second Big-Ass cart they opened last year on N Mississippi. It proved unprofitable, and had to close.

"It sucked our summer dry," Wood says.

The great thing about situations like this, of course, is they lack the necessary permanence of some of the tough closures Portland's seen in the last year. But Lisa Wood says moving a cart is tricky. It can be costly, and whoever the new landlord is will probably want first and last month's rent.

"We would like to consider any options that come up," she says.