After months of preparation, the 1847 Food Park has opened in downtown Milwaukie. Located on the former site of the Peake Funeral Chapel, it sits adjacent to City Hall, not far from Pfriem‘s Milwaukie Tasting Room and the Milwaukie Farmers Market. I was at a media/industry event there last night and got a chance to take a look at it—here’s what I saw.
The 1847 Food Park offers a variety of appealing things to the citizens of Milwaukie and anyone who wants to hang out there: food carts, indoor and outdoor seating, fire pits, year-round community-centered events, and a three-story structure that is home to the Sky Bar—pictured at the top of this article—which offers views of the food park and downtown Milwaukie area.
1847 Food Park: What’s in a Name?
So why 1847? Milwaukie was founded in 1847 by Lot Whitcomb, who arrived here via the Oregon Trail. More details from the Milwaukie Arts Committee:
“The food park is at the corner of SE Main and Scott streets. The name Scott comes from Richard Scott, who owned farm land just north of Seth Lewelling. (Scott Park, just behind the current library, also bears his name.) Now, it was Lewelling’s farm that developed the Bing cherry, but in later years, and perhaps after his death, parts of Lewelling’s property were sold to Scott … There’s lots of history in these few blocks of downtown.”
Peake Funeral Chapel
While their building is gone, they still remain through Stehn Family Funeral Homes, which acquired the business in 2023. The building was demolished that same year, with demo permits having been filed In 2022:
“Full demolition of existing structures on site, including 2-story, 1480 sf 2-unit apartment building & 2-story, 6690 sf funeral chapel. Existing utilities to be disconnected & capped.”
In those early days, there was the idea that this parcel could become apartments. From the Milwaukie Review:
“The property has been marketed to developers of market-rate apartment buildings. If the developer installed ground-floor retail with residential units on higher floors, there are some potential tax abatements available due to the land-use zoning of the area.”
Of course, that never happened, and we have the 1847 Food Park firmly in its place.
What To Expect at the 1847 Food Park
Here are more details on the elements at the food park:
- Food carts: Up to 17 food carts offering diverse cuisines. Some of the carts include The Sushi San, Burgerlandia, Greek Gods Gyro, Soi Thai Asia, Smaaken, Adelina Mexican, Rendered BBQ, and Crazy Philly. There will also be some carts rotating through on a weekly basis.
- Full bar: Seasonal and specialty cocktails are on the menu, as well as mocktails and other NA drinks. There with 32 taps of curated beer options, including cider and wine, thanks to good folks at Migration Brewing, who will the anchor of the Sky Bar on the ground floor. New School Beer has more details on how this connection came to be.
- The rest of the Sky Bar building: The second floor has seating, with roll-up doors, and the third floor can be booked for private events.
- Six Feet Under: A speakeasy-type of space, the name of which is a throwback to the funeral home that used to be on this property.
- Family-friendly: Plenty of space to accommodate gatherings of friends, families, and groups.
- Dog-friendly: Dogs on a leash are welcome in their open air spaces. A watering station is available.
- Fire pits: Fire pits and heaters are activated during the chillier months to keep things cozy. There will be fire pits on the rooftop deck.
Chatting with Eric Saunders of RMCC Development
While perusing the space I ran into Eric Saunders, one of the developers of the 1847 Food Park. We talked about the additional fire pits that will be installed, the progressive addition of food carts over the coming weeks, and the way things are going with food pods incorporating actual bars (instead of bar carts).
He also mentioned that dealing with permitting in Clackamas County was an easier experience than in Multnomah. And that the food park project has already made an impact on downtown Milwaukie’s economy by encouraging new businesses to open nearby. He and his team are excited that this place will be a nice amenity for those living nearby—the food park is within a short trip from around 500 apartments and homes.
You can see some of the food park’s construction photos on the DC Builders website.
At the Bar
Here are some of the drink menus at the bar (click to enlarge).
And here’s the beer menu—the top row of beers were brewed specifically for 1847 Food Park’s Sky Bar.
More Views of the 1847 Food Park
Frst, a variety of seating options.
Downstairs they have a big fireplace and seating around it that looks like a nice place to hang out.
From an accessibility standpoint, this is what I’ve learned: There is a small elevator that can take you from the lower level food carts to the upper level. There is also a ramp that will get you into the first floor of the bar. They do not have an elevator to get from the first floor up to the second or third floors.
Here are some photos from the three-story building that towers over the space.
The bartender made me a mocktail—the Virgin Marion. It was tasty and looked good on the edge of the fire pit.
The 1847 Food Park will be open (Sundays to Thursdays, noon to 9pm; Friday and Saturday noon to 10pm.
Check it out when you can!
1847 Food Park [opened February 5, 2026]
1925 SE Scott Street, Milwaukie
1847 Food Park website | Instagram | Facebook
Updated February 4, 2026 to indicate their opening to the public has adjusted.
Updated February 9, 2026 to update their opening date to the public.
Updated February 12, 2026 to add info about the accessibility options.
Meg Cotner
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I use a walker and all I can see is stairs, stairs and more stairs. Is there an elevator for access to upper floors? Is accessibility really as bad as it appears?
Hi Patrick, I’m really glad you brought this up, and am honestly a little embarrassed that I didn’t pay enough attention to this detail. Your comment has inspired me to make a checklist to bring with me when I do a “site visit” (that sounds more official than it is) at restaurants, shops, food cart pods, etc. And accessibility is going to be on that checklist. I’m going to email my contact there at the 1847 Food Park and ask him what he knows about site accessibility.
I will say that I was told there are going to be a few disabled parking spots when they finish up the parking area. I noticed a ramp between the bar and the fire pit area. Right now, you can access food carts and seating on the lower level via Main Street, and you can access the floor where the bar and upper level of food carts are from SE Scott. However, I do not remember seeing much in the way of a ramp between the lower level and upper level of food carts. I may have missed it, or it may not be there. I’ll ask.
One thing I was concerned about was that there are no hand rails along the sides of the steps going up through the building. I’ll ask about that, too.
Thanks again for bringing this up. It’s important that folks of all abilities can enjoy a space like this. I’ll update the article when I have additional details on accessibility.
Thank you for adding accessibility to your checklist! It’s something which makes me throw up my hands in frustration when I’m reading a review, getting excited about going there, then sometimes the last sentence will contain something like “…is in the basement…” of some old building downtown. Sometimes I think the proprietors of all kinds of businesses don’t care about those with disabilities because they aren’t the young, beautiful, hip people they want to have in their establishments.
If I’m not mistaken, I swear I saw a lift specifically for wheelchairs that connects the lower to upper level of the food cart areas. I think it was to the right of that big outdoor fireplace. I hope I’m correct about that.
Thanks for this, Tim! That would make a lot of sense.
Patrick, I live very close to this area and walk by it all the time. I use a cane and am very attuned to accessibility and, though the area is obscured from view somewhat, it does appear that there will be challenges to access all the areas, but it’s not impossible. The sidewalk area surrounding the Food Park will allow access to all parts of the Park, but there are currently serious problems with the sidewalk and they need to be redone on that corner. Frankly, most of downtown Milwaukie has major sidewalk accessibility issues and needs to be redone. The tree roots have caused some crazy, unpassable hills that wheelchairs would not be able to get over, and likely many walkers. I, for one, will complain loudly if they do not fix the sidewalk around the outside of the park as it appears it’s the only way to access the lower portion (on Main St) of the Park.
Cool, looks nice, thanks for the good article and photos
It is NOT open. We’ve been eagerly awaiting this from the moment it was announced, so when we saw your article we made plans to bike over there for dinner. We got there a little after five today, February 4th, and the whole thing is still enclosed in chain link fence with trucks and construction equipment lying about. I hope they get their act together and announce an actual opening date soon cause this is the second or third “fake out”. It was supposed to be open in the Fall, then they announced a soft opening on New Years which obviously didn’t happen…
Crazy, the press release I received said open today. I entered it yesterday off of Main Street and had no problem, and the chain link fence was still up. I’ve edited the article to reflect a change in the opening timing.