These burgers are smashing
Grilla Cheese sets the bar for smash burgers
CORE is a food truck pod and event space that I really want to succeed.
Located just south of Powell on SE 82nd Ave, the facility (shorthand for Collective ORegon Eateries) is one of the nicest physical food hall structures in Portland. The building is rarely used, save for game nights on Tuesday and Friday nights (as well seasonal vendor events). You can also wait inside for your food from the outdoor carts. From what I’ve been told, you can rent the space inexpensively for events as well.
Two businesses set up camp indoors: HeyDay, an excellent Korean coffee shop that serves up delicious savory donuts (Ca Phe Sua, or Vietnamese Coffee, and Baked Black Sesame are my faves), and Sandy’s Myanmar Cuisine, an exceptional kitchen that, for most dishes, you have to order 24 hours in advance. (Owner/chef, Sandy, is mostly alone back there!)
Most of CORE’s 36,000 square feet is outdoors, with an ample parking lot and, sadly, a decreasing number of food carts. This is likely in part due to location: 82nd Ave is not walkable. Whereas you tend to just stumble into food pods in various neighborhoods, any business along 82nd requires a dedicated trip, limiting the potential for walk-by traffic.
Change is ahead. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has made two visits to Portland in the last year. Just last month he came to oversee the (eventual) replacement of the I-5 Bridge. Last July, however, he rode an electric bus down 82nd Ave after some good news.
Portland’s city government recently took over responsibility for 82nd Avenue from the state transportation department, and the city will draw on $80 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to overhaul the former highway, along with another $105 million in state and local funds.
A few weeks ago, the Portland Bureau of Transportation revealed its plan for that money. Once completed, large sections of 82nd Ave will finally be walkable, which will likely influence how businesses operate along the corridor. A street originally constructed as a local highway, and which came to be populated by the city’s most diverse range of residents and businesses, is being transformed into what it deserves: a series of neighborhoods worth visiting and strolling around.
We initially visited CORE for the lamb gyro at Shawarma Express. Sadly, the cart has fled (to other locations). Tragic, though forcing us to try a newcomer, one which we have since returned to: Grilla Cheese.
A rainy night, as most are in Portland during the winter. We waited inside for our order, then brought the bag home. After one bite, Callan remarked that it was her favorite smash burger since we moved to the city nearly two years ago.
While smash burgers aren’t my go-to, I was also instantly enamored. This is the burger of my youth: substantial but not overpowering roll; the perfect balance of burger and cheese, chewy, not rubbery, warm and filling. I prefer medium-rare pub burgers; smash burgers are always well done, yet this one stopped right before burnt. Perfect.
Callan has long claimed that restaurants that nail burgers rarely get fries right, and vice-versa. I’ve often found this true. Not so at Grilla Cheese: these are true double-fried fries.
I’m a potato guy. Maybe it’s my Eastern European heritage. I’ll eat them in most every form, including every French fry imaginable. But there’s something about biting into a fry that collapses, toasty oil exploding inside your mouth, hitting the back of your throat as your teeth find an ideal crunch. A magical moment. Perhaps not the healthiest of options, but if you’re going to accompany such a glorious smash burger, you might as well do it right.
Grilla Cheese does it right.
According to one of the brother-owners, CORE is preparing to add two bars to the interior space, including a whiskey and wine bar. Hopefully, this will bring more traffic to the pod. We’ve already said goodbye to lamb gyros; I’m not willing to lose these burgers.
Or the fries.