The foodie neighborhood around East Burnside and 28th Avenue is getting its own homegrown ramen shop this October, as Boxer Ramen readies its fourth outpost in the Burnside 26 building’s corner spot, last home to embattled bar Americano.  

Boxer already has locations downtown, on Northeast Alberta Street, and along Northwest 23^rd Avenue. And this longtime east side food hub, home to Navarre, PaaDee, and Güero (not to mention Holman's) is a no-brainer. “East Burnside is perfect. There’s such a glut of people over there but no ramen,” says chain owner Micah Camden. The local restaurant empire builder has one of the highest comfort food chain success rates in Portland, with both Little Big Burger and Blue Star Donuts (with biz partner Katie Poppe), and most recently Heart Pizza (with Boxer biz partner Matt Lynch), firmly entrenched on his Portland food Monopoly board.

Camden notes that the East Burnside space is nearly double the size of his other Boxer restaurants, which means seats for around 40 people at the new location. The October opening will also bring the debut of a new ramen bowl to his lineup of flavor-packed pork broths—tonkotsu to fiery red miso—and bonito curl-topped okonomiyaki tots. “It’s a short rib ramen," he says. "Like beef bourguignon a la Japanese.” Camden developed the recipe with chef-about-town Morgan Brownlow, who also helped dream up Heart’s pies. Camden raves: “It’s gonna be epic."