Note: This short review was part of our guide to the Portland area’s best new food carts of 2023, which originally published on Friday.
Flame Pizza is a very new project from Dais Fernandez and Julie Isaacson, a pair of recent Minnesota transplants making simple Neapolitan pizzas with fresh and local ingredients that just taste good. It might have only opened in August, but it is still The Oregonian/OregonLive’s No. 9 best new food cart in Portland for 2023.
At Flame, Fernandez and Isaacson chop all of their salads every morning and make their own dressings and many of the pizza toppings, including some plucked from the raised beds in their own Troutdale garden. And they do it all in the cart, including proofing their flavorful dough.
Read more: Portland’s best new food carts of 2023
In a world of deep-fried cart fare, a meal at Flame Pizza is a refreshing change. And that’s not by accident. “We wanted you to feel good after eating it,” Isaacson said. The delicious Blanca Fresca, covered with lemon ricotta and garlic confit and piled high with arugula on a thin, perfectly charred crust, is a sign that, just one month in, they’re already achieving their goal.
Order this: While it lasts, get the Blanca Fresca for the fresh summer flavors and the crunch and bite of arugula. If you’re going to order two (you should), try the Fig and Fennel, which pairs fig compote and fennel sausage.
4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, noon to 2:30 p.m. and 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, 1015 S.E. Stark St.; instagram.com/flamepizzapdx.
— Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052; lacker@oregonian.com; @lizzzyacker
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Dining and Cooking