Community over competition is a phrase you hear a lot if you spend time in the Portland restaurant scene. For the most part, it seems to be true. Like any industry, there is some hot goss and some seriously spilled tea, but chefs are always willing to gas up their own. We reached out to five of Portland’s premier restaurant and cart owners–Earl Ninsom (Hat Yai, Langbaan, Yaowarat, etc), Gabriel Rucker (Le Pigeon, Canard), Alkebulan.
Our food editor found the top vegan cafés, food carts, restaurants, and dessert shops for everyone vegan or not. Here's where to grab takeout, go fancy, or please a meat-loving skeptic.
Surrounded by a virtual Instagram grid of perfectly plated street tacos and behind-the-scenes cooking videos is an image of Walter Mercado—a beloved Hispanic astrologer—standing in an embellished pink cape, his hands outstretched as if presenting the overlaid text: “Trans POC eat free.” It’s a policy that speaks to the core of vegan taqueria Mis Tacones’s mission of making Portland’s predominantly white vegan scene more welcoming and accessible for brown, working-class queer people. “I’ve always seen.