Tap Tap’s new restaurant opened on Saturday, October 19. | Tap Tap Cuisine A year after its debut on N Williams, Tap Tap Cuisine now has a full dine-in restaurant serving Creole fried chicken, bouyon, and more Haitian recipes Tap Tap Cuisine, a popular Haitian food cart on N Williams, opened its first standalone restaurant on Saturday, October 19. Bridgetown Bites first reported the news of the opening at 3434 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland. The cart opened in September 2023 serving fried plantains, pwason fri (fried fish), and legumes with goat meat. Owner Dieuson Alix grew up in Haiti and remembers his mother waking up every morning between 1 and 3 a.m. to prepare food to sell to keep the family afloat; some days she would walk nearly 70 miles between neighborhoods. While Alix was still in school, he would wake up early to lend a hand with preparing spices or getting a head start on the cooking. From a young age, Alix felt the drive to do something that could change his family’s situation. “Seeing my mom going through that struggle in life triggered me and inspired me to add a different chapter in the book,” he writes in an email to Eater Portland. “I’ve always dreamed of creating something bigger for my mom, family, culture, and community to celebrate our resilience.” In 2016, Alix moved to the United States as an international student at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, before completing a bachelor's in psychology at Bushnell University. But, Alix’s mother struggled with him being so far from home and knowing he had no family stateside. His mother imagined the struggles he could face due to the color of his skin and even returned the money that Alix had sent to help her. At one point, Alix almost dropped out of school to go back home. Instead, inspired by his mother’s cooking and grit, he opened Tap Tap Cuisine. Recently, Alix’s mother has been able to join him in Portland as well. While the original location for Tap Tap only offered some outdoor seating, the permanent location has a full indoor dining room. Alix has the opportunity to expand the menu in the larger space. The new location serves dishes like Creole fried chicken, bouyon (beef or goat soup), and diri kole ak legim (jasmine rice with red beans and eggplant). The original location for Tap Tap will remain open as well. “We want to be able to share a part of our culture that social media usually doesn’t talk about,” Alix writes over email. “We want to show people Haiti and Haitians are not what they always see on social media.” Tap Tap Cuisine is located at 3434 NE Sandy Boulevard and is open from 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.