i’ve heard people refer to portland, oregon as the “vegan paradise”, “vegan heaven”, or “vegan mecca”. being a los angeles native, i was expecting my first trip to pdx not to live up to all the hype—after all, down here it seems like there’s a new vegan restaurant popping up everyday. boy oh boy was i wrong. at the risk of pissing off some angelenos, i’m gonna say that portland was every bit as vegan-rad as people said it was. there were more vegan restaurants than i could ever eat at, vegan options at all the omnivorous restaurants, and most uniquely, vegan-friendly food carts littered throughout the city. i understand that it’s kind of a “thing” to eat at food carts in portland, they are everywhere and a huge part of the culture. unfortunately, i only had one food cart experience. fortunately, it was at flavour spot.
vegan sausage and maple waffle
flavour spot wasn’t my first choice for dining when i was in portland, as it was quite a trek from my downtown hotel and has been known to have long lines. however when some parking restriction bullshit required that we move our car before 8am on a weekday, flavourspot, which opens bright and early at 6:30, appeared to be the only breakfast option available to us. it also came highly recommended from trusted bloggers foodeater and melisser, so we decided to give it a try.
i ordered what every vegan is supposed to order on their first visit to flavourspot: the vegan maple sausage waffle. let’s just say like my expectations for vegan portland were exceeded, my expectations for this sausage waffle were fucking owned. i loved it. the big, pillow-y, soft waffle was filled up with juicy vegan sausage, all slathered in an insanely sticky and creamy maple sauce. vegan-insanity. oh, and this thing was only like 4 bucks.
the flavor flavour combo on the maple/sausage/waffle was unreal. i have never had such a divine savory-sweet experience. i am so glad that flavourspot broke my portland food cart cherry…and i hope to be back again someday.
all that being said, we showed up when there was no line, and our wait was still kind of long. plus, we had to drive about 15-20 minutes to get there. keep that in mind. as far as i’m concerned though, it was worth it.
you can find the flavourspot i went to on north lombard, in a video rental store parking lot…but there is a second location as well that’s open less hours.
original flavourspot:
2310 N Lombard St
Portland, OR 97217
(503) 289-9866
Mon-Fri. 6:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Sat-Sun. 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
2nd flavourspot:
NE Fremont St & N Mississippi Ave
Portland, OR 97255
Mon-Fri. 8:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Sat. 9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Sun. 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
flavourspot in portland, oregon
one more thing: pdx fucking rules.
i wish i lived here
Check out the new quarrygirl.com FORUMS!
7:36 pm on August 6th, 2009
I am SO glad you liked it! I’m not a mock meater & I LOVED it!
7:58 pm on August 6th, 2009
Hey, I like what you’ve got to say and I appreciate all the information you post here. I only have one main compliant and please don’t take this personally but does your keyboard not allow you to use capital letters? It’s insanely frustrating to read your blog when you don’t write properly. I also feel too ashamed to forward anything you write on here to anyone because of the writing. Please, if you can, construct proper sentences so your work will be taken seriously.
8:07 pm on August 6th, 2009
That’s it, I’m finally going to check that place out this weekend.
9:06 pm on August 6th, 2009
mark twain yo crazy!
9:42 pm on August 6th, 2009
Oh My God I Am So Jealous!!! Why Can’t There Be Anything Like This In Los Angeles?????
9:52 pm on August 6th, 2009
mark twain –
not sure if you noticed, but there are plenty of entries on this blog (by writers other than myself) which boast perfect spelling/capitalization/grammar.
however, i don’t feel the need to adhere to pointless rules that tell me when to press the shift key so that readers like you can feel more comfortable.
if i want to worry about my capitalization, i’ll do it at my day job.
and if my message is getting lost on you because everything is in lowercase, well that speaks more about you than it does about me.
thanks for reading.
2:47 am on August 7th, 2009
i’m reliving it all over again through your blog post!
6:56 am on August 7th, 2009
mark twain: how insulting! you come here to enjoy free content, yet have nothing nice to say. your focus on capitalization clearly implies you are more focused on “form over function” as a way to live your life. so, apparently, are your friends if you’d be ashamed to share content here with them. it must be awful to be so anal about something so silly. I bet you never have any fun at all.
9:28 am on August 7th, 2009
holy get in my mouthhh.
10:42 am on August 7th, 2009
What the what?! *notice I can capitalize leTTers two. I make the happy-hapPy go with for me… **haha Mr. M said “anAl.”
11:11 am on August 7th, 2009
I wish I could go to Portland :]
Are the other cities in Oregon the same? My aunt lives in Medford, I was wondering if you had any idea if it will be similar to the food in Portland?
Btw, I love your blogs :] I can’t wait to try the restaurants here in LA.
2:57 pm on August 7th, 2009
Traci Niole,
No! Medford is not the same. The closest vegan food to Medford is probably in Ashland, and even there it’s hardly a vegan paradise. There are basically two good cities for vegans in Oregon–Euegene and Portland.
8:15 pm on August 8th, 2009
I’m a native Portlander, but have been living in LA for the past three years.
Please don’t forget that the reason you were able to enjoy the lush green trees and relatively clean air is because it rains there about 7 1/2 months out of the year. It’s insanely depressing for some, and many people simply can’t handle the weather.
Anyway…I agree the vegan offerings are outstanding. When I was there last month for a visit, Food Fight was telling me no restaurants serve Daiya cheese in PDX!
Yay for LA!
10:59 am on August 9th, 2009
That looks delicious!
You’re probably out of OR already but you should seriously try Cafe Yumm in Eugene (other locations around OR as well I think) next time you’re there. The Yumm sauce is AMAZING (and dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free etc.) and haunts my dreams at night. Blarggg why they don’t hook me up to it with an IV I don’t know….or at least ship it out of state.
http://www.cafeyumm.com/index.html
I promise I don’t work for them. Just obsessed with the sauce.
4:52 pm on August 8th, 2010
I am in omnivore (sorry) and have had this in the non-vegan style….WOW!!!! My eyes rolled back into my head, toes curled up…OMFG, I have never tasted heaven – but I’m sure this is what it tastes like!
I am soooo fortunate to live in PDX, and visiting any of the 450 or so food carts is a pleasure- it seriously beats going to a traditional restaurant ANY day! There is a portland food cart website, not sure of the address, but I’m sure it can be Googled easily.