Long-time friends the Dennis and Debbie Gorton & Jon and Kinnell Steward always looked forward to their annual camping trip with several other families, and the meal everyone looked forward to on the trip was Chicken Sundaes! As new families would join the group they would ask "what is this crazy dinner...I've never heard of a Chicken Sundae?" We would just smile & say "wait until you try it!"
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n the spring of 2015 the Gorton's had an opportunity to sell Chicken Sundaes at a fundraiser for a friend who was battling brain cancer. They were an immediate hit! That June during the camping trip, we decided to bring Chicken Sundaes to the people. We pooled together our own money to buy equipment and supplies and two months later Chop Chop Chicken Sundaes made its debut at the 2015 Vernonia Friendship Jamboree. This was our first real event and the response from the public was great!! We decided to see where this crazy idea would take us, so we started selling at Farmers Markets and various other events. We were a pop-up restaurant, so we would pull up, unload our equipment, build a restaurant, prep our food, sell the food, cleanup and pack it all back into the utility trailer. It was a ton of work. We knew if we were going to keep following this dream we would need to find an easier way to do so & that meant building a food truck. We put a plan together & went to our local Wauna Federal CU and acquired financing to purchase a truck & the search began to find the truck. We found one in our price range in February 2017. Dennis designed the workflow and we took to to a local Food Truck/Trailer builder to have them build it out for us. The truck was completed in early April of 2017 and we started running the business out of the truck. What a world of difference this made! Chop Chop Chicken Sundaes has built a fan base all over Oregon, the PNW and parts of the world. Even though it is still long hours & hard work, we're having so much fun. We love meeting people & introducing them to Chicken Sundaes. In 2019 our Food Truck was named one of USA Today's 10Best Food Trucks in Portland. In the fall of 2020 we grew to five of us & brought in business partner; Cathy Rottle. During the middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic we opened our first brick & mortar restaurant in Bridgeport Village. With more space we were able to expand our menu and offer Chopped Salads. Our name may have changed to Chop Chop Chicken Sundaes & Salads - BUT we are still dedicated to making each customer feel special and continue to serve quality food that puts a smile on their face. We proudly make all our dressings, marinades & gluten free gravy from scratch. We look forward to continuing to grow our business and introduce more people to this crazy thing we call Chicken Sundaes! Once you've had one, you'll understand! Trust us --- the gravy makes it!
