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Little Bites: The Pod: A cluster of food carts for your convenience, with more to come

The Pod allows everyone to get the food they are craving and new additions to the land will allow more carts and more seating.

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It's time to eat and you're craving some freshly beer-battered salmon and sweet potato fries from So Wild Fish and Chips, but your lady friend is insisting on rice and veggies. At best, such a situation means one of y'all is going to need to compromise on your dinner plans. At worst, you're going to need to find a new girlfriend.

Lucky for you both, there's now The Pod, an open parking lot with four food carts, seating options and even a bathroom!

She can order from Bee's Thai Food, which offers a smattering of curry dishes, Pad Thai and noodle plates as well as a handful of starters, like egg rolls. And you still get to tuck into your greasy (but not overly so) fish and chips. Problem solved, everybody wins.

Actually, there's no bathroom yet, but there will be soon, says So Wild General Manager Justin Brown, who recently signed the lease on the property's lone building. What was formerly Fairway Motors (on 3rd Street and Dekalb), is now a project in the making as Brown works to clear out the garage to make room for picnic tables and additional seating inside the building.

So far, other than So Wild and Bee's Thai, the Pod is serving as a semi-permanent home to two other mobile food carts. Parrilla Satellite does you right with exotic wraps and rice bowls while Crazy Delicious (opening any day now) will be serving pancakes and waffles for breakfast, switching over to chicken and waffles and pulled pork sliders for lunch and dinner.

Brown has big ideas for The Pod, and we hope to see them come to fruition. On his wish list are more food carts (up to seven or eight total), a liquor license and live music. Among the potential carts to move into The Pod are the Honey Pot (sweet and savory pies) and the Paddy Wagon (freshly-ground hamburgers and spiral fries). The So Wild owner also hopes to hang works from local artists on the walls inside what was once a used-car dealership. Brown says he hopes folks walk or ride their bike since he can then convert additional parking lot into seating areas. A fine notion, since this location offers great views of Mt. Bachelor and the Cascades.

In this struggling economy, it's good to see small, independent start-ups find success. It's also good for your relationship, right?

The Pod: 344 NE 3^rd St., 10am-ish-dark (or later, depending on sales)