Entry No. 47 — the Portland file — filed under: breakfast
Fried Egg I'm in Love
The name is a mangled Cure lyric — "Friday I'm in Love" — and it sets the rules for everything downstream: the whole menu is fried-egg sandwiches named Yolko Ono (sausage patties, pesto, sourdough), Egg Zeppelin (veggie patty, cheddar, aardvark aioli) and Free-Range Against the Machine (avocado, tomato, havarti). Jace Krause and Ryan Lynch started it in 2012 as a rent-to-own food cart on about $10,000; it now runs a Hawthorne shop, a Mississippi Ave brick-and-mortar that opened in January 2024, and the downtown cart at Pioneer Courthouse Square. There is a full vegan track — vegan "egg," vegan sausage, vegan breakfast burrito, cold brew with oat milk — so the pun survives dietary negotiation. Mimosas and bloody marys are on offer, which tells you the intended hour. Every location shuts by mid-afternoon; this is a breakfast operation that has never pretended to be anything else.
→ Three more weird eats & drinks in Portland — never the same twice
The story
The name is The Cure's "Friday I'm in Love," 1992, run through a griddle, and it committed the business to a bit it has never once dropped. Jace Krause and Ryan Lynch started it in 2012 with roughly $10,000 and a rent-to-own deal on an existing food cart; by Krause's own account he had basically no experience running a business at the time. The menu is entirely fried-egg sandwiches with band-pun names — Yolko Ono (sausage patties, pesto, fried egg, toasted sourdough), Egg Zeppelin (veggie patty, fried egg, cheddar, aardvark aioli), Free-Range Against the Machine (egg, avocado, tomato, havarti).
It grew one address at a time. A second cart landed at Pioneer Courthouse Square in 2017, around when Krause became sole owner; the first brick-and-mortar opened on SE Hawthorne in Sunnyside in 2019; a cart followed at Prost Marketplace in north Portland in 2020; and the largest room, at N Mississippi and Fremont, opened in January 2024. Netflix's Somebody Feed Phil filmed there in 2022. The business raised prices in 2023 as egg costs climbed, and staff began organizing a union in 2024.
What's actually behind the counter is more careful than the puns suggest. There's a house-made vegan sausage built from gluten-free oats, polenta and vegetables, a vegan "egg," a vegan breakfast burrito, gluten-free sandwich options, hash brown patties, and a coffee blend developed with See See Motor Coffee Co. alongside nitro and oat-milk cold brew. Hawthorne is counter service hung with local art, pouring mimosas, craft cocktails, draft beer and kombucha; Mississippi has a full bar, vinyl records and two heated dog-friendly patios; downtown is a cart and nothing more.
What it's like
Hawthorne is order-at-the-counter, grab-a-table, and on a Saturday the line reaches the sidewalk by 9:30 — it moves, but it exists. The sandwich comes fast and wrapped, and the yolk is meant to run, so keep it over the paper and don't start a conversation mid-bite. Mississippi is the sit-down version: full bar, vinyl on, two heated patios, dogs welcome, though the dining room is closed Mondays and Tuesdays for takeout only. The Pioneer Courthouse Square cart has no indoor seating at all, which is fine in August and a decision in February. There are no reservations anywhere; order online if you're on a clock. Everything shuts by 2 or 3pm — nobody here is pretending this is a dinner.
The move: This is a morning move, not a night one. Set an alarm, walk into the Hawthorne shop at 3549 SE Hawthorne around 9am on a Saturday, order one Yolko Ono and one Free-Range Against the Machine so you can trade halves, add a bloody mary each, then carry the caffeine four blocks east and browse Hawthorne's record and book shops until the sandwiches wear off.
📍 Before you go Breakfast and lunch only — Hawthorne runs 7:30am–2pm Mon–Thu, until 3pm Fri, 8am–3pm weekends; Mississippi is 7:30am–2pm weekdays and 8am–3pm weekends, with the dining room closed Mon–Tue (takeout and delivery only those days). The Pioneer Courthouse Square location at 780 SW Broadway is a cart with outdoor seating only, daily 8am–2pm — bad in rain, fine in August. Weekend lines form; order ahead through their online ordering links if you're on a clock. No reservations.
- 📍 Portland
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 3549 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97214 (Hawthorne); 3330 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR 97217 (Mississippi)
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- The Perfume House — Two blocks west on Hawthorne, and the sequencing is the joke: leave smelling like a sausage patty, then ask a thirty-year veteran to walk you through 1,500 fragrances.
- Artifact: Creative Recycle — The natural post-egg drift — a short walk south to Division for secondhand furniture and clothing held to a "well-loved, not well-worn" standard.
- Space Room Lounge and Genie's Too — Same boulevard, opposite hour: all-day breakfast under glow-in-the-dark aliens and a garlic-vodka Bloody Mary, served until 1am, long after Fried Egg has locked up.
More weird in Portland
Good to know
Which location should I pick?
Hawthorne (3549 SE Hawthorne) for counter service and cocktails, Mon–Thu 7:30am–2pm, Fri to 3pm, weekends 8am–3pm. Mississippi (3330 N Mississippi) is the biggest, with a full bar and heated patios — but Mon–Tue is takeout only. Pioneer Courthouse Square (780 SW Broadway) is a cart, daily 8am–2pm, outdoor seating only.
Can I eat here if I'm vegan or gluten-free?
Yes, and not as an afterthought. There's a vegan "egg," a house-made vegan sausage of gluten-free oats, polenta and vegetables, a vegan breakfast burrito and oat-milk cold brew, plus gluten-free breakfast sandwich options.
Do I need a reservation, and how bad are the lines?
No reservations, ever. Weekend mornings queue at all three; online ordering is the workaround, though the downtown cart only takes online orders Monday through Thursday and on Friday as business allows.
Can we go for a late lunch or dinner?
No. The latest anything closes is 3pm — Fridays and weekends at Hawthorne, weekends at Mississippi. Everything else is a 2pm shutdown.
What about rain, or the dog?
The dog is fine at Mississippi, which has two heated dog-friendly patios. Rain is the downtown cart's problem: no indoor seating, so a wet January morning means eating standing up in Pioneer Courthouse Square.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-08-26