Entry No. 61 — the Portland file — filed under: german
Otto's Sausage Kitchen
Otto Eichentopf left Germany in 1911, landed in Aberdeen, Washington, and by 1922 had a meat market on SE Woodstock Boulevard; the current building went up in 1936–37 with a smokehouse that ran two full stories, and the shop has passed child to child ever since — three generations of Eichentopfs are involved today. The reason to come is not the retail case of forty-plus house sausages but the grill they run on the sidewalk out front, which their own site advertises as operating through "rain, sleet, ice, wind, snow, and even sunshine." The menu at the grill is deliberately tiny: old-fashioned wiener, smoked pork link, chicken sausage, then a condiment table of Beaver mustards, sauerkraut, onions and relish that you load yourself. Roadfood's Michael Stern ranked those old-fashioned wieners third in the country, and the Sterns put Otto's on their national top-ten hot dog list, which is a strange thing to be reading about while standing on a sidewalk in Woodstock. Everything is cooked to order in front of you, so the queue moves at the speed of the grill, not the register.
→ Three more weird eats & drinks in Portland — never the same twice
The story
Otto Eichentopf was born in Germany in 1890 and had a meat market running in Aberdeen, Washington, by the 1910s. In 1921 he moved south to Portland with his wife Selma and son Edwin, and by 1922 had a shop on Southeast Woodstock Boulevard. The building you walk into now went up in 1936-37, with a two-story smokehouse in back and a grocery, the Moreland Market, filling the front. Edwin took over in the 1940s; his son Jerry started full-time at eighteen and bought the business in 1983. Jerry and his wife Gretchen have three daughters, Heidi, Christie and Bereka, and Heidi's husband Justin and their two kids work there too, which is how one storefront runs three living generations of Eichentopfs at once.
They make more than forty sausages on site, many off Otto's own German recipes: bratwurst, British bangers, frankfurters, chicken sausages, ham hocks. The room fills in around that with imported mustards, European chocolates, German beer and wine, local honey and pepper jellies. Outside, muralist Michael Burge Smith covered a 64-foot wall with roughly 1,000 square feet of Swiss and German Alps in 2014, then returned in 2019 for a 33-foot panel of German folklore, so the building announces itself from a block off.
The reason people drive across town, though, is the grill on the sidewalk out front. Everything on it is cooked to order, and it has collected national attention odd for a residential stretch of Woodstock: Jane and Michael Stern put Otto's in Roadfood, Serious Eats listed it among contenders for America's best hot dog in 2011, Epicurious ranked it among the country's top ten hot-dog makers, and Food Network sent Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. None of that changed the format. You order at the grill, dress it yourself at a condiment table, and eat standing up.
What it's like
You will smell the smokehouse before you find the door. The grill sits on the sidewalk out front and everything on it is cooked to order, so the line moves at the speed of the fire rather than the register; three or four people ahead of you is a real wait. Order, then take your sausage to the condiment table and load it yourself: Beaver mustards, sauerkraut, onions, house relish, as much as the bun will structurally support. There is no dining room and essentially no seating, so you eat standing on the pavement alongside everyone else, which is the correct way to do it. Go inside before the 5 p.m. close and the deli case becomes the second half of the visit; point at links, ask what was smoked in-house, and keep moving; the people behind you are buying dinner, not sightseeing.
The move: Show up mid-afternoon, get one of each — wiener, smoked pork link, chicken sausage — dress them heavily at the condiment table, and eat standing on the pavement like everyone else. Then go inside before the 5 p.m. close and build a real haul from the deli case: a couple of the German smoked links, sauerkraut, mustard, and dinner is handled without either of you cooking.
📍 Before you go Store hours are Mon–Sat 10–5, Sun 11–5; phone (503) 771-6714. The outdoor grill runs year-round but on a seasonal clock — roughly 11 a.m.–4 p.m. in summer, closing at dark in winter, when they move sausages to the indoor sandwich counter instead. Seating is essentially the sidewalk, so this is a stand-and-eat affair. Their site's www redirect is currently broken; reach it at ottossausage.com without the www, or just call. Street parking on Woodstock Blvd is usually findable outside the lunch rush.
- 📍 Portland
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 4138 SE Woodstock Blvd, Portland, OR 97202
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Bible Club — Otto's shuts at five and has nowhere to sit; Bible Club is a mile and a half west in Sellwood, has no sign on the door, and is only warming up around then.
- The Raven's Wing Magical Co-Op — Two miles southwest in Sellwood, with walk-in tarot on offer, which is a clean tonal swerve from eating a smoked pork link off a paper tray on a public sidewalk.
- Village Merchants — A short hop north to SE Division for the same instinct in another register: a shop that buys from the public four days a week and resells nearly all of it.
More weird in Portland
Good to know
Where is it, and can I park?
4138 SE Woodstock Blvd, in the Woodstock neighborhood in outer Southeast, which is a drive or a bus ride from central Portland rather than a walk. Street parking on Woodstock is usually findable outside the lunch rush.
Is the outdoor grill always running?
It runs year-round but on a seasonal clock, roughly 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in summer and closing at dark in winter, when sausages move to the indoor sandwich counter instead. Store hours are Mon-Sat 10-5 and Sun 11-5. If the grill is the point of the trip, call (503) 771-6714 first.
What does it cost?
A sausage off the grill is lunch money. The budget risk is inside: forty-plus house sausages, imported mustards and German beer will quietly turn a cheap stop into a grocery run.
Is there anywhere to sit?
No. Seating is the sidewalk, so plan on standing, and dress for whatever the weather is doing rather than assuming you can duck inside with food.
Their website will not load. Am I doing something wrong?
No. The www redirect is currently broken; ottossausage.com without the www works, or you can just call the shop.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia · pdx.eater.com
last checked: 2026-08-26