FOOD CART POD
Winner: Portland Mercado
7238 SE Foster Rd., portlandmercado.org
Outer southeast’s Latin-themed food cart pod is your favorite food cart pod winner for the second time. Tucking into a plate of ropa vieja from Que Bolá?, carne asada from Adelas or any of the other delicious offerings from the carts is the main draw, but Portland Mercado also wins major points for hosting family-friendly events.
Top 5
Happy Valley Station and Hillsdale Food Cart Park (tie)
Prost! Marketplace and Rose City Food Park (tie)
Winner: Jim & Patty’s Coffee People
Multiple locations; jimandpattys.com
Jim & Patty’s might just be the ultimate neighborhood hangout — except, of course, that people trek from all over the city to sprawl on their comfy couches, excavate the stash of toys in the play corner and, of course, munch on their decadent and justly famous sour cream coffee cake.
Top 5
Papaccino’s Coffee House & Cereal Bar
PIZZA
Winner: Pizzicato Pizza
Multiple locations; pizzicatopizza.com
With 15 locations in the Portland metro area, you’re never too far away from a Pizzicato. And that’s a good thing — our kids never say no to a slice of their pizza. But we especially appreciate Pizzicato’s Dough for Dollars fundraiser program, which gave $120,000 to local schools last year.
Top 5
Out of this World Pizza and Play
BEST KID-FRIENDLY RESTAURANT
Winner: Laughing Planet Café
Multiple locations; laughingplanetcafe.com
Laughing Planet, with its nine metro area locations, gets so many things right, from their healthy and gently priced kid options to the now-iconic tabletop dinosaurs for kids to play with while they wait for their food. Bravo for a deserved repeat win in this competitive (and delicious!) category.
Top 5
Winner: Pip’s Original Doughnuts
4759 NE Fremont St., facebook.com/PipsOriginal
Owners Nate and Jamie Snell built their business on the premise of giving back — like with their free birthday dozen giveaway. Their social media feed is also chock-full of gratitude for customers, their employees and other local small business. And then there are the doughnuts themselves — the addictive little bites of happiness for which we can all be grateful.
Top 5
Annie’s Donut Shop and Coco Donuts & Coffee (tie)
CUPCAKES, CAKES AND COOKIES
Winner: Saint Cupcake
Multiple locations; saintcupcake.com
From chocolate on chocolate to toasted coconut, repeat winner Saint Cupcake offers more than 15 tempting varieties of cupcakes to choose from. And with storefronts in nearly every quadrant, they make it easy for working parents to pick up celebration goodies for a midweek birthday.
Top 5
Baker & Spice/The Cakery and FAT Cupcake (tie)
BEST BRUNCH
Winner: Slappy Cakes
4246 SE Belmont St., slappycakes.com
Sure, you could stay home and make your own pancakes. But isn’t it more fun to venture out to Slappy Cakes, where they have every topping under the sun, many different flavors of batter and the chance for you and the kids to get artistic in the shape of your cake?
Top 5
ICE CREAM
Winner: Salt & Straw
Multiple locations; saltandstraw.com
For our Portland kids, a celebratory cone often means a trip to Salt & Straw. You can almost feel sorry for them that the bar for ice cream is set to such a high level at such an early age. After all each lick incorporates culinary alchemy and just a little bit of magic — how else can you explain why seemingly uncomplimentary flavors taste so so good together?
Top 5
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