You don't need a study to know that Portland is a great place to open a food cart. You only need to take a stroll through Cartopia, Prost! Marketplace or one of the city's other great pods to see the city's food carts flourishing.

So it should come as no surprise that in a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce study, Portland ranked as the friendliest place to run a mobile -- or in Portland's case, stationary -- food business.

"Not only is it relatively easy to obtain permits and licenses, but doing business in Portland is a clear and straightforward process," the study says. "There are no proximity restrictions or sales taxes."

Portland ranked eighth in the study for ease of setting up a food cart, with an average of $1,877 in fees paid (compare to $811 for Denver or $17,066 for Boston). But in the annual operations category, which measured "the rules a food truck operator must comply with to maintain legal compliance annually," Portland was at the very top, with an average of just $5,410 in fees.

According to the study, food trucks -- what Portlanders call food carts -- account for $2.7 billion in revenue in 2017, up from $650 million just 10 years ago (though still a drop in the bucket compared to America's $799 billion in annual restaurant sales).

So where should you go?

Over the past seven years, The Oregonian/OregonLive has visited more than 300 food carts in every corner of the city to name the best new carts of the year. (For the curious, here's our best new food cart guides from 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.)

But what about the very best overall? Back in 2016, we sorted through 50 great Portland food carts to pick our our 15 favorites.

-- Michael Russell