Pix: entremets after dark, from the Pix-O-Matic

East Burnside dessert fans have been wondering what would happen to Pix after Cheryl Wakerhauser stepped back from the full dining-room chapter, and the answer we FINALLY clocked on the sidewalk in Kerns is almost too Portland to believe: the entremets are still here, the red building at 2225 East Burnside is still the address, and a refurbished Shoppertron vending machine is now the 24-hour pastry case! Wakerhauser trained in southern France, launched Pix at the farmers market in 2001, and built the Burnside room as a French pastry shop that also wanted Champagne, movies at dusk, and a sense of humor. The dining room has had chapters — tapas, a serious sparkling list, a ten-year build-out she actually retired on schedule — but the desserts never left. Out of all the mousses, macarons, and late-night boxes circling in that machine, the plate we still come to say out loud is the chocolate tart, with the Amélie waiting right behind it.

The Pix-O-Matic is the first thing visitors point at, and we do not blame them. It is a refrigerated Shoppertron 431 on the sidewalk, stocked daily with individual desserts in little brown boxes, plus macarons, and then — because this is Pix — the occasional rubber chicken, French beret, tin of smoked fish, or Golden Girls mug riding the same carousel. It runs around the clock except for a 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. restock window. In 2026 they even added a Zoltar fortune-teller next to the sweets, contactless dollar, paper ticket, the whole carnival bit. We use the machine the way it was meant to be used: late, after a dinner that skipped dessert, when every other case in the neighborhood has gone dark. Swipe, wait your turn on the sidewalk, take the box. It is not a gimmick if the pastry inside is still Pix pastry!

When we are choosing from the carousel, the chocolate tart is the clean order on a bread-and-pastry map — dark, glossy, the kind of glaze that looks poured for a photo and then actually tastes like chocolate. The one people who know the shop will push you toward, though, is the Amélie: orange-vanilla crème brûlée sitting on top of a glazed chocolate mousse with caramelized hazelnuts, a praline crisp, and Cointreau génoise, all tucked into that cameo-mold silhouette that makes it look like a tiny film still. Opera cake is the other classic we look for, the layered almond-and-coffee construction that tells you whether a French case is serious. Jane Avril, Shazams, and seasonal mousses rotate through the machine. We do not make a whole trip for one macaron. We take a small box if we are already here.

The room behind the machine is not gone, it just changed jobs. Can Bar has taken over part of the indoor dining area and the patio Thursday through Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m., so you can buy a dessert from the Pix-O-Matic and sit down with tinned seafood and a drink instead of eating on the hood of the car. Special-order cakes still pick up seven days a week starting at 8 a.m. if you planned ahead. The shop is also sliding toward classes and private events, which is why we always check whether we are walking into the full patio night or just the sidewalk carousel. Both count. They are not the same visit.

This is NOT a morning bun run and it is not a country-loaf hunt. Come when you want dessert, or come when the machine is the only bakery still open. We like Pix because it refuses to pretend it is a bread bakery. The chocolate tart is the order we put on the map. The Amélie is the order we talk about in the car. The Pix-O-Matic is how we still get one of them when the rest of Kerns has gone dark, and that late-night swipe still feels like a magic trick EVERY single time!

More on the place page: Pix Patisserie