September 30, 2015
Minority & Small Business Week
Food cart owners
make business splash
Page 10
Opportunity Knocks
M ike B ivins
P ortland O bserver contributor
by
Portland’s food carts have
drawn rave reviews and accord-
ing to CNN lay claim to the title
of “World’s best street food.”
But the scores of food carts do
not just offer some of the best
food anywhere — they often
serve as stepping stones to other
opportunities for their owners.
The power of economics on
a small scale is evident at the
Central Eastside Food Carts
pod at 510 S.E. Martin Luther
King Jr. Blvd. where the owners
of Chop Chop, Mediterranean
Moroccan Cuisine and Sila Thai
have found success.
Mouhcine Cherkou, 35,
opened Mediterranean Moroc-
can Cuisines after emigrating
from Morocco in 2009 and
describes coming to the Unit-
ed States as “the American
Dream.”
Cherkou says he had no fear
joining the local food cart in-
dustry. He previously managed
the kitchen at the Ristorante
Roma.
“If you have skills and can
cook really good you are going
to be okay,” Cherkou says.
Sila Thai’s owners Jonathan
Owens and his wife Moon Yod-
photo by M ike B ivins /P ortland O bserver contributor
Opening Mediterranean Moroccan Cuisines in the Central Eastside Food Cards Pod on Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is
living the ‘American Dream,’ says owner Mouhcine Cherkou who emigrated from Morocco in 2009.
thaisong-Owens are a tag-team
duo.
All of the foods at Sila Thai
are “my wife’s creations.” Ow-
photo by M ike B ivins /P ortland O bserver contributor
Wing Fei Lee, the owner of the popular Chop Chop food cart at the
Central Eastside Food Carts Pod says the lower costs associated
with operating food carts make them profitable. In a few weeks he
will be moving to 8635 S.E. 82nd Ave.
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ens says. “She’s very particular
and meticulous when it comes
to each individual dish [and]
she makes very few things in
bulk.”
Owens says the food cart
is doing good, bringing in the
cash needed to pay the bills and
even save a couple of dollars.
The couple looks to eventually
move up to a “brick and mor-
tar” business.
Chop Chop’s owner Wing
Fei Lee is a 56-year-old Hong
Kong native who has lived in
Oregon for the past 30 years.
He was thinking about open-
ing a food cart 15 years before
they became so popular, but he
doesn’t see a restaurant in the
cards as his next business op-
portunity.
A top notch exhaust fan
could run you $15,000, Lee
warns. And a walk in freezer
to keep perishables fresh could
set you back another $5,000 to
$10,000, he says.
Instead, Lee, says he makes
a hot sauce that his custom-
ers really enjoy and that he is
“looking to bottle it and sell it
down the road.”
“I’m confident that when
the time comes I can bottle the
sauce to put on the shelf in the
grocery store,” Lee says.
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