"I built this business when there were only seven or eight food carts in town, maybe nine," Rich Winiarski told The Bulletin this month, a few days before Big Ski's Pierogis served its final plate on Sept. 14. As of August, Bend had roughly 153 food carts operating from permanent locations, and Deschutes County counted 290.
Those two numbers make it sound like the cart scene is simply crowded. The closures this summer tell a more specific story. The carts that left almost all pointed to the same season, and it wasn't summer. Last winter decided who stayed. The coming winter will mostly reward the pods built to keep diners warm and the operators who have moved under a permanent roof.
Winter Wrote the Closing Notices
The 2025–26 ski season was thin. February reporting put Central Cascades snowpack at 28% of normal. Mt. Bachelor opened two days before Christmas, and December–January bus ridership to the mountain fell 46% year over year. Fewer skiers in town meant fewer lunch lines, and the owners who closed this summer said so directly.
- Big Ski's Pierogis: closed Sept. 14 after more than 11 years. The Bulletin reports it lived through a slow winter made worse by poor snow conditions at Mt. Bachelor that brought in fewer tourists.
- Dump City Dumplings: closed Aug. 31 after 17 years at 1244 NW Galveston Ave. Co-owner Dan Butters pointed to a difficult winter.
- Himalayan Bites: closed at On Tap at the end of August after a decade. Owner Tenzin Sherpa said business had been declining for three years.
- IndoDaddy: closed in late July after four years. Owner Jason Wiggers is reworking his menu and looking for a new spot, ideally on the west side.
- MidCity SmashedBurger: closed in June instead of moving to Base Camp as planned, according to the owner's Instagram.
Sherpa explained the physical side of it plainly. "We have harsh winters. That is one brutal part that I didn't want to deal with anymore," he said, adding that without a cooling system, summer in the truck felt "like I'm living in a box." A cart is a small metal kitchen. Bend's weather works on it at both ends of the year.
Costs moved too. Winiarski said the "freebies" are gone. Those were the deals where breweries let carts park for free or cheap so beer drinkers would stay longer. "Now everybody sees the value in a food truck," he said.
More Visits Overall, Spread Across More Pods
The citywide numbers are healthy. Bend has topped 1 million visits to its food cart pods four years in a row. As of early September 2026, the 16 pods that report to Visit Bend had logged more than 900,000 visits for the year, and nearly half came between June and August.
Visits are up slightly compared with the same point in 2025. Tim Neville of Visit Bend credited the new Base Camp and Ballers & Brews pods for some of that. But more than half the lots are behind where they were at this point last year, and the largest drop is about 12%. Neville also noted that total visits barely moved between 2023 and 2024, even though another pod opened. "This indicates average traffic per location could be slightly diluted as the options on where to go increased," he said.
Put that next to the closure list and the picture gets clearer. Summer crowds are spread across more lots than before. Then the season that pays least, which last year paid even less than usual, decides which operators can last until spring. Bend Chamber of Commerce CEO Sara Odendahl described it this way: "I don't think we've reached an apex as much as we've reached maturity."
Where the Growth Went Instead
The new spots this summer have one thing in common. They're either a building with carts outside or a cart operator moving into a building.
Base Camp opened in July at 319 SW Century Drive, next to Powder House. Todd and Shanda McGee and their son Hayden built it with 10 carts, a bar and event space. The main building has seven roll-up garage doors, and there's a 1,000-square-foot covered, heated patio that The Source described as "essential for keeping guests comfortable as fall gives way to winter." Hayden McGee, the general manager, doesn't see oversaturation. "I see all the other lots are busy and so are we," he said.
On NW Galveston, the same street Dump City left, Mimi's Bagel Deli opened its brick-and-mortar at 1314 NW Galveston Ave. on Sept. 6. Owner Frank Anello moved up from a north-end food cart that closed in 2025.
Crepe Oh! Holics opened a permanent downtown location in mid-August. Owner Nataliya Gonzalez is still waiting on cart permits and plans to add a cart at the start of next year if she can secure a spot. Himalayan Bites' Sherpa plans to take six months to a year off and then open a brick-and-mortar with a refreshed menu.
One move went the other direction. Joe Kim, who owns the downtown Korean restaurant Yoli, started a Yoli food truck at Ballers & Brews in mid-July. He said he had held off for years because he wasn't sure the scene would last, but he's since seen "how much it has been supported by the community." That's a restaurant with a kitchen and dining room already behind it, adding a cart. It isn't a cart depending on one season to get through.
A Cold-Weather Guide to the Pods
If winter is what sorts the scene, the pods worth knowing are the ones designed for it. Cart lineups change often, so take the names below as current at the end of September 2026.
The Lot, 745 NW Columbia St. In summer the garage doors stay open. When it gets cold, the seating area is enclosed, with heaters and heated benches. The pod has four carts and is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The Podski, 536 NW Arizona Ave. A January 2026 report in The Source described an indoor taproom, a separate enclosed heated tent and picnic tables around a wood-burning fire pit, with carts serving through the winter.
Crosscut Warming Hut No. 5, 566 SW Mill View Way. It's open daily from noon, with indoor taproom seating and porch and garden patios. Visit Bend points to its indoor fireplace and outdoor fire pits for cold days. Crosscut's own site lists Abe Capanna's, Alebrije Oaxaca and On A Wing & A Crepe in the garden.
On Tap, 1424 NE Cushing Dr. Fall and winter hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, and carts generally serve until 8 p.m. The renovated indoor tap house has communal seating and heaters, and the beer garden has fire pits. Ma Dee Thai Street Food is new this fall.
Ballers & Brews, 20869 Redside Ct. The tap house has indoor seating, and the two covered pickleball courts are heated and closed in with winter vinyl curtains. Hours vary by cart.
Base Camp, 319 SW Century Dr. It's open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The two-story building is fully heated, and there are fire pits outside along with the covered patio.
A few pods are better checked before you go. At Ponch's Place, 62889 NE Oxford Ct., the beverage operation paused on Aug. 7, but the food trucks are still open on variable hours. Midtown Yacht Club at 1661 NE 4th St. has covered seating under shade sails, but no source we reviewed confirms heated or enclosed winter seating. The cart list at Crux Fermentation Project, 50 SW Division St., differs depending on where you look. Its own menu page lists El Sancho, Red Road Pizza, Alpine Smash Burger and A Broken Angel, plus seasonal shave ice.
"Unfortunately, you're going to see your carts that you love so much go away and new ones will replace them." Mikel Lomsky, owner of The Podski, to The Bulletin
Next Year's Map Is Already Being Drawn
City Economic Development Officer Katy Brooks says Bend still has room for more carts, especially in the north and southeast parts of town. The pending projects line up with that.
- Hangar 97, an aviation-themed pod and taphouse at Murphy Road and Silverado Springs Drive in south Bend, was expected to break ground this year. As of The Bulletin's Sept. 4 report, it still wasn't approved.
- The Easton Neighborhood Food Lot, an eight-cart pod on the southeast side next to Caldera High School, filed a pre-application with the city in mid-June.
- Old Line Tailgate Company, a Maryland food truck and restaurant known for southeastern barbecue and crab cakes, plans to open at Redmond's Dry Canyon Club by the end of the year and then expand into Bend.
- Crepe Oh! Holics plans to add its cart in early 2027, if it secures a spot.
Old Line owner Pat Acuña sees Bend's cart scene from the outside, coming from a place where East Coast laws keep trucks moving almost daily. "Pods do not exist out here. No one even knows what a pod is," he said. "The food truck scene over here is at least a generation behind where it is (in Central Oregon)."
Whatever happens with this year's snowpack, the carts that make it to next summer will mostly be the ones parked beside a heated room, and the operators who outgrew the trailer are already serving from storefronts on Galveston and downtown.
Seasons like this one show what people around here value about where they live, down to which heated patio they go to on a January evening. If you're weighing a move across town or thinking about selling, Julie Reber brings that same close attention to how each part of Bend actually works day to day. Schedule a Free Consultation.
