The Northeast Portland Japanese restaurant has improved dramatically since it opened five years ago.

If you're skipping my First Thursday show tonight, you can learn more about beer, and hoppy beer at that, from the folks at Oregon Beer Odyssey.

In a cuisine often marked by clear lines and sharp patterns, Yakuza blurs the lines and redraws the patterns.

Don't miss the Secret Asian Man salad, which has perhaps the coolest name ever bestowed on a plate of greens and goodies.

On Sept. 12-14, the popular Italian chain will serve a free meal to grandparents with every paid entree.

Space is limited for the free event, which includes pairings with artisan food and a tour of the coffee roasting plant.

Beervana wouldn't exist without brewpubs, and McMenamin's History Pub celebrates the 25th anniversary of Oregon's brewpub law with a panel of the people who helped make it so.

The fund- and awareness-raising meal features blind waiters and a vegan menu, and it benefits a trains puppies to become guide dogs.

Biketobeerfest, Pints for Pakistan, how Oregon's brewpub law came to be, Rogue's Nano Fest, Hop Madness, Lucky Lab's back porch hop-shuckin' bee, blues and brews at the good 'ol state fair, Roscoe's Imperial IPA summit, Oregon Beer Odyssey class at Upright and some of my Eastern Oregon/Washington rustscapes on display this First Thursday (with Lompoc LSD or C-Note on tap, if Dave F is willing)...Lucy, you got some plannin' to do...

Hop season is upon us and here in one of the world's best hop-growing areas, it's a big deal... It starts with a couple of events in the next week and continues into a month or more of brewers making special fresh-hop beers that show off the Northwest's bounty of hops.