THE CULINARY LANDSCAPE of NE Alberta has changed
significantly in the five years since I lived there. The street is
crowded with restaurants and cafés from one end to the other,
with seemingly little room to grow. But in the blank urban spaces still
left, a number of entrepreneurs have parked carts, trailers, and tents,
hoping to catch a bit of that Alberta Street buzz by thinking small and
cooking big. You could always find good food on Alberta, it’s just now
you don’t have to walk as far.
1027 NE Alberta, 206-8959
Tues-Thurs 11:30 am-9 pm, Fri-Sat 11:30 am- 2:30 am, Sun 11:30
am-3:30 pm
Grilled cheese is a deviously simple concept. Yes, you can have your
basic bread-cheese-bread combo. You can even have it cut into a cute
shape. But the beauty of the Grilled Cheese Grill food cart is in menu
items like the jalapeño popper, which uses corn chips, colby
jack, cream cheese, and jalapeños to expertly mimic everyone’s
favorite deep-fried heartburn bomb.
In extremis, the grilled cheese can be a religious experience. You
may see God after eating the Cheesus Burger—a cheeseburger with
the works, the bun replaced with two grilled cheese
sandwiches—but only after you’ve keeled over from a heart attack
after eating the delicious, greasy monstrosity.
Palm State Gumbo
1803 NE Alberta, 493-7286
Wed-Sun 4 pm-2:30 am. Mon-Tues 7 pm-2:30 am, Wed-Fri 11 am-1 pm
This little kitchen connected to a street-facing window is packed
with Creole flavor. Naming a place after gumbo requires that your gumbo
be up to snuff, and Palm State does not disappoint in that department.
The gumbo is thick, rich, and packed with big chunks of tender chicken
and spicy andouille. It’s dark, complex stuff, with a gentle spice,
notes of celery and pepper, and a little bit of fish to round it
out.
The rest of the menu is perfect for fueling your Alberta Street
stumble. A Muffuletta sandwich was spot-on. And even though I blanched
a bit at the cheesy Cajun hot link, smothered in cheese sauce, green
onions, and jalapeños, I’d have eaten at least two had I been a
bit more drunk.
NE 23rd & Alberta
Wed-Sun noon-8 pm
Vegan BBQ might raise the eyebrows of some and the ire of others,
but I’d suggest you get down off that Huffy bike and taste some
meatless chorizo or killer BBQ baked beans.
Hating vegans is no way to go through life, especially when there is
perfectly delicious food coming from this big mobile smoker. Yeah, it’s
not pounds of meat slathered in sauce, but the sauce at Homegrown
Smoker is delightful and the tofu curls can be toe-curlingly good. Not
to mention, for eight bucks you can acquire more food than you could
possibly eat and spare the life of a critter. Win and win.
NE 27th & Alberta
Wed & Thurs noon-8 pm, Fri & Sat noon-
midnight, Sun noon-6 pm
Before its use as a no-holds-barred spud-cooking pavilion, the Spud
Locker was originally built as a prototype mobile military mess unit to
be deployed during Desert Storm. It never made it into the fracas and
now serves peacetime duty as one of Portland’s more unique carts.
Here’s another simple idea taken to extremes. Step one: bake potato.
Step two: top it with whatever your heart desires. Creations on the
menu include anything from Fritos and nacho cheese sauce to a peanut
curry sauce and mixed veggies. Or you can let your inner child go wild
on one of these bad boys: Tillamook cheese, chicken sausage, and
sauerkraut, anyone?