All-American Cart Burger Stevens Is Moving into Dig A Pony

Southeast Portland’s hip, weekend party bar Dig A Pony is about to up the Americana. Burger Stevens, the burger cart parked out in Pioneer Square with picture-perfect sandwiches loaded with veggies, is taking over the kitchen. Owner Don Salamone had a test run in the new kitchen as a pop-up earlier this month, serving burgers, hot dogs, and fried green tomatoes at the bar on July 3 and 4. Things must have gone well — Salamone moves in permanently starting August 1. The menu will include the fried chicken sandwich from Pioneer Square and classic burgers, as well as a sandwich with barbecue pork with shaved ham and pickles, “kind of done in the style of a Cuban,” the chef says. For the vegetarians, the kitchen will churn out griddled broccoli with green ranch and pickled peppers.

For those unwilling to hop inside the bar, Salamone is working on getting a take-out window on the Morrison side of Dig A Pony. “We just found someone, but they said it’ll probably be four weeks out,” he says. “You know how that goes, but fingers crossed.”

Burger Stevens opened in 2016, where it started serving cheeseburgers and egg sandwiches off Capitol Highway. It opened another location in the Pioneer Courthouse Square food pod in 2017, alongside carts like Fried Egg I’m in Love. This will be the cart’s first venture into a brick-and-mortar kitchen, especially one with plentiful booze.

Update, July 27, 2018, 12:13 p.m.
This story has been updated to include more information about the menu and take-out window.

• Burger Stevens [Official]
• Burger Stevens [Facebook]
• All Dig A Pony coverage [EPDX]
• Eat These 11 New Burgers Before the Hordes Gobble Them Up [EPDX]
• Double Down on Dessert and Franz Buns at Burger Stevens [Willamette Week]
• You Can Soon Devour This Delicious Burger at Pioneer Courthouse Square [Portland Monthly]