Small Bites: Off The Griddle, Wellspent Market, Pamana, and More

kick-fremont-fest-2021-portland-oregon — Scenes from a past Fremont Fest. This year it’s happening August 2, 2025.

Off The Griddle on Alberta has soft opened. A new vegan spot in the old Chilango space called Off The Griddle has opened their second location. They offer vegan brunch and lunch dishes, and a full bar (would love to see more NA cocktail action on it). Here’s the menu. They’re open 9am to 3pm, 7-days a week. And their grand opening down the line is going to be a big party. 2215 NE Alberta Street, Portland

Local Small Business Expanded Repair/Restore Grants have reopened. Thanks to a newsletter from Councilor Jamie Dunphy, I learned that this Prosper Portland grant program reopened on July 21, 2025. The grant money helps small business owners—those located on the ground floor and are customer-facing (this also includes food carts)—who have been vandalized help pay for repair work. Read more here.

Food Front will sell their property to Market of Choice. 92% of 688 MOC member votes cast went to Market of Choice as the buyer of the Food Front property. Looks like it will sell for $1.54 million. Read more on NW Examiner (which is now a Substack). 2375 NW Thurman Street, Portland

And speaking of Market of Choice—they now carry Bill Oakley’s hot dogs! Bill Oakley’s Signature Summer Dogs by Zenner’s Sausage Company are now available at all Market of Choice locations. Multiple locations

Food trucks are coming to Maywood Park. Maywood Park, a “city within a city,” is pretty much purely residential, with no commercial strip of its own. But the Maywood Park city council has partnered with Suburban Events to bring some food trucks to their Commons space. For now they are on a trial run—food trucks will visit twice a month, every other Thursday from 5pm to 8pm for a time.

So who’s coming? Here is the current schedule (subject to change):

Thursday, August 7: Sheesh Shawarma
Thursday, August 21: Briskets & Gravy
Thursday, September 4: Kama’aina Comfort Foods of Hawai’i
Friday and Saturday, August 15 and 16 is the city’s annual Garage Sale, and Amelia’s Mexican Food #2 (Fri) and Nacheaux (Sat) will be in the city from 10:30am to 2pm.

Great news for Maywood Park! 9840 NE Failing Street, Maywood Park

You can invest in Wellspent Market. This independent market on SE Division and in McMinnville is looking to expand by way of their deli department (Portland), full-service cheese and charcuterie counter (McMinnville), and a catering arm. And they are doing so by launching a crowdfunding campaign where you can invest via SMBX. “No banks, no VCs—just you, us, and a better way to build something together.” Read more about it here. 3402 SE Division Street, Portland and 1140 NE Alpine Avenue, McMinnville

Fremont Fest is tomorrow. From 10am to 6pm, head to NE Fremont for the annual Fremont Fest. There will be a beer garden, food trucks, live music, a drum line, bubble parade, 150+ vendors, and more. NE Fremont Street between 42nd and 51st Avenues, Portland

The inaugural Summerville Street Fair is tomorrow, too. From 10am to 4pm in Sellwood, the very first Summerville Street Fair is happening. There will be 80+ vendors including food + drink, vintage, ceramics, apparel, tarot, aura photography, and lots of crafts + games for the kids. SE 13th Avenue between Bidwell and Spokane Streets, Portland

Cafe Olli needs your help. Earlier this week Cafe Olli’s woodshed was set on fire. If that wasn’t bad enough, it had just been stocked up and now none of the wood is usable due to the chemicals used in fighting the fire itself. They’ve been dealing with a lot lately (equipment repairs, slow business, vandalism). They ask you to “show up, sell us out.” I hope you can stop by and enjoy their beautiful food;

Additionally, starting Tuesday, August 5 they will adjust their hours away from operating as an all-day cafe. They will be open for brunch Thursdays to Sundays 9am to 3pm, and open for dinner on Thursdays to Saturdays from 5pm to 9pm. However, their sister bakery, Ollini, will be open six-days a week—Tuesdays to Sundays from 8am to 2pm. 3925 NE MLK Jr Blvd, Portland

Oven & Shaker will close in Lake Oswego. They announced the closure of their location in Mercado Grove in Lake O. The final day of service will be dinner on Sunday, August 10. You can still visit them Monday to Thursday from 3pm to 9pm, Friday from 3pm to 10pm, Saturday from noon to 10pm, and Sunday from noon to 9pm. They’d love to see you before they close. 4055 Mercantile Drive, Suite 100, Lake Oswego

And Pizzeria Otto will open in Lake Oswego. They’ll be taking over the Oven & Shaker space. They have locations on NE Sandy Blvd and 67th Avenue as well as in Foster-Powell on SE Foster and 71st. (Also of note: a Pizzeria Otto alum runs the Reeva pizza cart on NE Sandy and 77th Avenue). The Lake O Otto location will open late fall/early winter. 4055 Mercantile Drive, Suite 100, Lake Oswego

Hong Phat’s $5 meal deal. Over at the Hong Phat Supercenter on SE 82nd Avenue they have a $5 sandwich and drink special. Yvette Chao has the details. 4200 SE 82nd Avenue, Portland

Toast La Tea is not just milk tea anymore. Over on Facebook, the Toast La Tea folks said, “Toast La Tea is now officially a RESTAURANT!” They serve breakfast and brunch every day and have a happy hour Monday through Friday, 2pm to 6pm. You can get beer on tap, cocktails, and a variety of Vietnamese dishes, as well as fusion dishes like Salted Egg Stir-Fry Noodles and Salted Egg Sauce Pasta. Their full menu is here. 2446 SE 87th Avenue, Suite 105, Portland

Pamana is coming to The Hoxton Hotel. This boutique hotel in Old Town is going to welcome Pamana to its lobby restaurant space starting September. Pamana is the successor to Baon Kainan, a Filipino food cart. The owners, Ethan and Geri, are closing up the food cart and reopening as Pamana. The current restaurant in that space, Lovely Rita, posted on Instagram, “We’re gearing up for Pamana to take over Lovely for a long term residency.” Congrats to everyone! 15 NW 4th Avenue, Portland

Nevermind is looking at a fall opening. I ran into Quinn Matthewstearn earlier this week and we got to chatting about Nevermind, the new bar he’s involved with that is opening on SE Division and 12th. The team is aiming for a late September opening, and are working with Taqueria Los Gorditos next door on the menu. 1216 SE Division Street, Portland

Fair Weather has closed. This little brunch and coffee spot announced their closure on Wednesday. They were located in the original Jacqueline space (Jacqueline moved up the street). They said, “We had a blast cooking brunch & making coffees for y’all. Thank you so much for the support. Keep an eye on the space, because we will have pop ups, events & special dinners in there moving forward.” 2039 SE Clinton Street, Portland

Jacqueline will open Sunday evenings. While I was looking into the Fair Weather closure, I went to the Jacqueline website and a window popped up announcing, “Jacqueline will be open on Sunday evenings beginning August 10th!” They’ve been closed on Sundays, so this means they’ll be open every day of the week. 2500 SE Clinton Street, Portland

Roux Week returns in October. This festival, “celebrating food & drink culture featuring women” will be back in Portland on Monday, October 6 to Sunday, October 12, 2025. Look forward to “pop-up dinners, chef collaborations, a live podcast, delicious desserts, game nights and more.” Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, August 5. Multiple locations

Stories you may have missed on Bridgetown Bites this week:

Woodblock Bakery Will Open in Woodblock Chocolate in Portland
What We Know About Maglia Rosa in Portland
RingSide Steakhouse Reopens on August 4 in Portland
Frontera Sur Will Open Soon in Portland
The Portland Trung Nguyên Legend Cafe Soft Opens This Weekend