re: White Star Market BR

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As shitty as Carreta's always has been I'm surprised to see another one popping up around there.

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What?

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I had to pop into both Cash America Pawn Shops and experienced having to whip out and hang in the turn lane and all that jive. It sounds like they are doing something with the road?

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Uh... What?

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Carreta's is a mexican restaurant on Government St. There are several other new ones around the state I have seen lately.

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The original is in Hammond or Covington. I haven't seen any other ones pop up. The one on gov't has been there for ~15 years if I had to guess.

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Some of the banter on this thread is regarding traffic and pedestrian issues on Government St. I am sort of curious on what they are planning.

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It's currently 4 lanes, 2 each way. The plans include redoing all of the sidewalks from (I believe) 19th street to Lobdell while also reducing that stretch to 1 lane each direction with a turning lane in the center and converting the extra lane to a bike lane. It isn't geared towards reducing traffic congestion (though it may in some respects with the addition of the turning lane - im skeptical), but rather to make it safer to navigate for motorists, bikers and pedestrians alike.

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There's another one on Magazine St recently. Ididn't carrots and peas in my rice so I started going to other mexican places and never looked back

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Cool. I enjoy it for what it is. Halfway decent Tex-Mex at a better price point and better overall taste than Superior.

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I thought there was a Mediterranean restaurant where Caretta's is.

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Maybe you're thinking of Roman's or Arzi's down the street a little ways I honestly forgot what was there before.

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Hell I grew up going to the Picadilly in Westmoreland

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Same

The original Serop's was my first experience with that food. It was magical.

have a question. Are there any food cart pods in BR? I think I've seen pics of similar venues in Austin, but they are a big deal in Portland. It's a really cheap way to set up what amounts to an outdoor food court. The owner of the space needs to make sure that all of the cart spaces have utility hookups and maybe set aside some space with some picnic tables for seating. The food trucks/carts pay rent for the space with utilities.

Some food carts cater to breakfast/lunch, some are more dinner/late night bar crowd. I remember leaving a craft beer establishment a few years ago in Portland at around midnight with a couple of other TD members who were in town visiting. One of them asked me if there was a Taco Bell nearby that we could hit up before they went back to the hotel. I took him to a food cart pod instead, and we had our choice of Mexican, Poutine, Crepes, or Wood-fired Pizza. Awesome.

White Star Market seems like an awesome idea, but it also seems like it will take up a lot of time and money to get this thing going, and I may be wrong, but it doesn't appear that any of the vendors are doing anything that couldn't be done from a food cart.

The food trucks flourished at one time, but it kinda died down. They still have occasional round-ups and park at various places around town, but we don't have a permanent food truck hub like some other cities do.

I think it could be pretty successful since there doesn't seem to be debilitating rent/overhead requiring constant business to stay afloat. All of the trucks surrounding a legit seating area would be awesome.

I went to this one below in San Francisco, and it was packed. I think it would kill here. Sadly, a lot of stuff here gets half-assed. We learned via the weekly roundup that people aren't going to rush out to sit in some random business parking lot to eat in the sun. It would need to be a dedicated space built up for this.

This one just opened not far from my house. I have been working out of town, so I haven't been yet. It is one of the more elaborate ones and has 30+ carts, plus a bar and taproom. I would still think the investment isn't as much as what White Star Market is. The land is probably the biggest expense. Looks like a pretty cool place and I want to go next weekend.
Beaverton Food Cart Pod

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Probably even bring my bocce ball set.

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Beaverton is not where you'd hang out.

The other nice thing about it is that most of those carts are owned by people who aspire to own a brick and mortar restaurant one day. Having a cart gives them a change to build a following and attract investors for the next step up.

ETA: I forgot that you are a party of 3, now, so you might want to hang in Beaverton.

LINK

I tell you what - I want the life the cute little girl who owns Basel's truck has. Smart idea, and she didn't have to do much at all.

Parents own Calvin's.. she buys a food truck.. and parks all week places selling Calvin's deli items out of her truck. She doesn't even have to make food on the truck, in most cases It is just little chicken salad boxes and pimento cheese boxes from the deli at Calvins. Brilliant idea.