ILLUSTRATION: Jason Rainey

When most people wanna say thanks, they send a card or an email. When Micah Camden wants to say thanks, he makes the whole city dinner. Camden is the goofy, endearingly bloviating restaurant honcho and chef behind not two, not three, but four restaurants crowded around the intersection of Northeast Killingsworth Street and 30th Avenue. The 30-year-old former L.A. makeup artist often explains that he shifted gears from faces to food after seeing chef Todd English celebrated as one of “Sexiest Men in America” in a magazine (“he was up there with Tom frickin’ Cruise”). But Camden’s not all jokes. The self-taught chef has also managed to open a quartet of well-regarded eateries—and keep them running—in a market where other owners are struggling to keep one afloat: Three years ago, he started with Japanese pub Yakuza; in 2007, Beast, the prix fixe dinner house he co-owns with chef Naomi Pomeroy (Camden is not involved in the kitchen at Beast), moved in next door. Italian kitchen DOC debuted in 2008 a block down 30th Avenue, and just this summer, his British pub called Fats took over the corner spot Grolla once called home. This Monday, Camden and his biz partner Dayna McErlean celebrate the “birthdays” of all four operations by throwing open the doors of Yakuza, DOC and Fats to Portland at large, and offering free food and cheap drinks for all, from free sushi and “killer” mini Kobe beef burgers to Italian crostini and Scotch eggs. (Beast will not be participating in the Block Party.) “We’ve had a pretty dreamy three years—four restaurants, three years, one corner; that’s pretty cool,” he explains. “It’s just a thank you to everybody who comes [to eat].... People in the neighborhood like me—or loathe me—I make that kind of impression. I’m clumsy, I babble, and it seems to work.” The party will also herald the start of a long happy hour (3 to 7:30 pm daily) and dinner service for formerly brunch-only Fats. The new menu’s packed with Camden’s Brit experiments, including crunchy-good chicken liver-and-onion sandwich and a Fats burger served with Welsh rarebit. Not surprisingly, though, Camden is already onto his next venture. “It’s a bar,” he hints. “And it’ll be located within the Camden Corner hemisphere.”

Headout Picks

THURSDAY SEPT. 24

[DISH] INDULGE @ THE JUPITER
Local distilleries take over rooms at the Jupiter Hotel, while Le Pigeon, Biwa, Navarre and Laurelhurst Market provide nibbles. Jupiter Hotel, 800 E Burnside St., 230-9200. 6-10 pm. $30.

FRIDAY SEPT. 25

SATURDAY SEPT. 26

[JUNK FUNK] WEDDING IN VEGAS
SCRAP and Opera Theater Oregon raise cash by hosting a crazy recycled wedding, with DIY bouquets and veils, and Live Opera Jukebox belting out Vegas-style showtune requests from the audience. CMD Agency, 1631 NW Thurman St. 7 pm. $20. Tickets at scrapaction.org

MONDAY SEPT. 28

TUESDAY SEPT. 29