Now: Brooklyn Carreta Is Open in Portland (Photos)

The new food cart pod Brooklyn Carreta is open in Portland after months—no, years—of preparation and construction. I stopped in for a sort of soft opening at the end of March and was very happy to see the place (mostly) complete. The people seemed to be enjoying the final product.

At the writing of this article they are in what they call “Sneak Peek Weeks”; the grand opening will be later in April.

As I’ve mentioned before here, I first caught wind of the plans for Brooklyn Carreta back in August 2022. I visited the site last September when it was truly under construction. When I saw the finished space last month it was really fun to witness the ideas and plans that Garner Moody explained, come to life. And there was at least one element that they ended up implementing that they hadn’t anticipated originally—but it’s a great addition.

These Sneak Peek Weeks are a way for them to ease into operations as, “a soft opening period designed to welcome the neighborhood and select influencers for an early taste of what’s to come.” Their team can take time to “get into the rhythm of service, fine-tune operations, and be fully ready for the big launch.”

The Courtyard Mural

When we walked in to the courtyard we saw this big mural art on the wall. The artist is Jeff Sheridan.

As you walk through the big open courtyard, to the left is a covered and heated outdoor seating area. In the courtyard there will be more seating to come.

Inside The Building

Inside there is seating to the left, a big bar in the middle, more seating to its right along with a large TV on the wall, and on the far right is the game room and—surprise!—a coffee bar, which was the aforementioned new addition to the original plans for the space.

Drinks

I had a very nice mocktail—this was the Casamara Club Alta Italian Aperitivo Soda. It’s a bottled drink, but very tasty. Nicely balanced—a little sweet, a little bitter—and served in a nice sturdy glass that felt good in my hand. I’d get it again.

Here are the drink menus (click to enlarge).

I hear the fishbowl margaritas are very popular.

Here’s the bar.

They repurposed some of the structural wood from the La Carreta restaurant that was formerly on this site—there are some pieces that are over 600 years old, which kind of blows my mind. They used that in the bartop and also in some of the seating. This decorative wood design also uses that repurposed wood.

And that coffee bar I mentioned earlier also uses repurposed La Carreta wood.

Upstairs

I also was able to go upstairs—this is what it looked like while they were building it.

The area was crowded when I was up there, so I wasn’t able to grab a photo, unfortunately. But this will be a great place for watch parties and larger groups to have a kind of dedicated space for convivial times.

Food Carts and Parking

Of course, there are the food carts. There are a handful already there on site, but more are coming. See who to expect here. They have room for 18 carts in total. There will be no duplicates as far as cuisine goes.

It’s fun to see familiar names: Rollin’ Fresh (sushi burritos), Havana Station (Cuban), and Tierra del Sol (Mexican) for starters. These last two you may know from the Portland Mercado.

There’s also off-street parking—40 spaces total, located on the site and across the street in an overflow parking lot. You can also park on nearby streets.

You can stop by and enjoy drinks and food from whatever carts are there, 7-days-a week from 11am to 9pm, now. Big congrats to the Brooklyn Carreta folks for opening and making such a nice space in SE Portland!

Brooklyn Carreta [opened April 2025]
4534 SE McLoughlin Blvd, Portland
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