Zipper Falafel Spot Chickpeadx Closes Sunday

Middle Eastern mainstay Chickpeadx is giving up the falafel game. Earlier this month, the Zipper-based falafel spot announced on social media that the restaurant would close after five years in business on December 30. But like Perierra Creperie at Cartopia announced earlier this week, the team behind Chickpeadx will be back in February with a new schtick.

“We felt like we had taken the falafel concept as far as we could go,” owner Yair Maidan says. “Sales were decent, but not good enough to inspire an expansion... We looked at a couple of different options, but we decided to rebrand and try a different menu.” Maidan isn’t quite ready to announce the next project, but it will be “completely different — a different part of the world, a different part of (his) personal background.”

Chickpeadx started as a cart before the team found a spot within NE Sandy’s Zipper building. Chickpeadx, which makes its falafel in-house with Washington chickpeas, has been one of the city’s favorite falafel shops since its founding.

• Chickpeadx [Official]
• Chickpeadx [Facebook]
• Previous Zipper coverage [EPDX]
• Portland’s Essential Falafel Spots, Mapped [EPDX]
• Falafel’s Rising Star Chickpeadx Opens Inside the Zipper [Portland Monthly]