Join us from January 19 to February 1, 2022 at restaurants around Portland, Oregon to celebrate cross-cultural collaborations around food!

For two weeks, you can get a one-of-a-kind meal we’re called the Umi Kobe Combo, a Happy Meal for the late-night crowd featuring singular Umi Ramen Spirit served as an ice cold Kobe-style highball with a yakisoba-pan: yakisoba noodles tucked into a tender milk bun. Each restaurant will bring their own unique spin on this classic Japanese after-school snack!

Participating Restaurants:
Expatriate, 5424 NE 30th Avenue, Portland
Oma’s Hideaway, 3131 SE Division Street, Portland
Obon, 720 SE Grand Avenue, Portland
Sunrice at Deadshot, 2133 SE 11th Avenue, Portland
Ippai PDX (tbd!)

A few spots will run just yakisoba-pan without the highball:
Oyatsupan, 6025 SW Regatta Lane, Beaverton
Shizuku, 1235 SW Jefferson Street, Portland

Find just the Umi Ramen Spirit at:
Zilla Sake, 1806 SE Alberta Street, Portland

The Kobe + Portland Project began when two friends, Kyoko Shinohara and Lola Milholland, realized how much spirit their home cities, Portland and Kobe, share around food. With support from the City of Kobe and a host of collaborators, they dream up (almost) annual events to bring contemporary riffs on yakisoba into people’s lives. Each year, artist Jillian Barthold creates zines and illustrations to bring their ideas to life!

Umi Ramen Spirit has a remarkable story of its own! Four years ago, distiller Andy Garrison of Stone Barn Brandyworks reached out to Lola to see if she had any ramen noodles she couldn’t sell. He wanted to try to make a whiskey-like spirit using Lola’s excess noodles. Umi was a brand new company, and as Lola was learning the ins and outs of managing her inventory, she was overjoyed to find a home for her soon-to-expire product. Zero waste—a win-win. Over 1,000 days of barrel aging later, they had Umi Ramen Spirit presented by Stone Barn Brandyworks. The flavor? Omoshiroi. 

Both Andy and Lola are massive fans of the Japanese sitcom Midnight Diner. In one episode, a character orders yakisoba-pan. In a dreamy state, Andy linked this unusual carb-on-carb snack to the unusual whiskey begun long ago. And so the Umi Kobe Combo was born.

Join us for Year 3 of the Kobe + Portland Yakisoba Project: Midnight Diner edition. Two weeks only—we promise it will transport you!