restaurantMystery Diners · Season 8, Episode 7 · Aired November 17, 2014
À La Carts Food Pavilion
Portland, Oregon
Open. The rescue stuck and it continues to operate.
What happened after
Food cart pavilion still listed as active; Nov 2025 directory update is the most recent signal found.
What happened on the show
Rod and Linda Gramlich were fielding tenant complaints about the on-site manager of their Portland food-cart pavilion. Charles Stiles sent a single mystery diner, Amber, undercover at one of the carts. As aired, the manager had let the role go to her head, charging vendors a bogus cleaning fee she pocketed, taking a free haircut from the lot's one salon in lieu of it, and having a custodian steal soda and napkins from one cart to stock an unauthorized burger vendor she was quietly leasing to, extorting a real burger owner who refused to pay. The confrontation has the owners firing her and the custodian. Because Mystery Diners was later accused of scripting these reveals, this food-cart sting is best read as broadcast rather than as independently confirmed.
After the cameras left
A La Carts Food Pavilion appears to still operate, though the signal is faint. The Portland cart pod at 4926 Southeast Division Street is listed as active, with a late-2025 directory update the freshest sign found, but no current hours or activity confirmation, so we hold it at low confidence in our 2026 pass. A directory timestamp is a mild positive, not a firm one, and Mystery Diners left no rescue to trace. The likeliest read is a going cart pod, but we stop short of asserting it outright.
Sources
Confidence: low. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.