It is safe to say that most people opening a new restaurant today would put together a pretty thorough marketing plan. You might invite the press and give out some free meals, drop off flyers at every house and apartment complex in the area, get yourself into a coupon book and also start a web site. If you were real savvy and aware of social media marketing, you’d even set up a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account. What you wouldn’t do is skip every item on that list, except for one. Well, that’s what Gregg Abbot has done and his 3 month old restaurant is the hottest thing in Portland right now. Oh ya, did I mention Whiffies is a modest food cart that sells fried pies?

Whiffies Fried Pie’s is uniquely Portland. It is located in the food cart pod of southeast 12th and Hawthorne. In just 3 months Gregg has managed to turn his creation into Willamette Week’s Food Cart of the Year, a case study in proper social media marketing and an overnight business success. Oh, did I mention that Whiffies is only open 5 days a week and on most days it doesn’t even open until 8pm?

Gregg has done this with a simple, one step marketing plan: Twitter.

I first heard of Whiffies through Twitter and in fact most of my offline friends still have no clue what Whiffies is. With a respectable but not necessarily unheard of 1,500 Twitter followers, Whiffies has gone viral on the web. Approximately 60% of Whiffies business comes from Twitter, owner Gregg Abbott estimates. At around 200 pies per night, that’s 120 sold because of Twitter alone. Or only 80 sold without Twitter, as another way to look at it. At $3 per pie, Twitter means the difference between what I would guess are respectable profits and just barely making it.

I am sure by now you are wondering what the heck a fried pie is. My first thought was those 2 for $1 hostess things sold at 7-11. I don’t blame you if that’s what you are thinking but trust me when I say that those are a worse than poor comparison. Whiffies pies are made from the most soft and flaky pastry dough. From there, Whiffies offer’s two types of pies: sweet and savory. Savory pies are like a pot pie in a tasty, one hand package. When I visited the cart this evening, the daily menu included chicken pot pie, bbq brisket and bbq vegan on the savory side. But what really made Whiffies famous is their sweet pies! On the menu for my trip were blueberry, apple, coconut creme and the unique peanut butter with chocolate chips pie. Sweet pies are very much like a traditional pie, only warm from being fried-to-order and edible with nothing but your hands and a napkin.

My wife and I ordered a blueberry and also peanut butter with chocolate chips. I started with the peanut butter creation and it was absolutely amazing! Only problem was that it was so good and so rich that I was ready to be done even with plenty more pie left in my hand. I then had a bit of the blueberry pie and it was everything I had hoped it would be, and then some. The pie ‘crust’ is slightly salty which plays off of the sweet filling perfectly. Despite our immediate fascination with pies from Whiffies, we couldn’t finish them all. They really are larger and more filling than they look. If you need something to wash down your recently devoured pie, Whiffies also sells homemade lemonade and sweet tea for only $1 each.

In a town that is becoming well known for it’s food carts, the 3 month old masterpiece that is Whiffies lives up to every single bit of the hype they have managed to generate through Twitter.

Whiffies is located on SE 12th & Hawthorne and is open Tuesday through Saturday. Most days the cart opens at 8pm but takes it’s first orders early on Friday and Saturday at 6pm. In a popular part of town for local bars and other night life, Whiffies is always open until 3am for the late night crowd. Find them on Twitter, @whiffies or at their just-as-simple-as-they-are web site.