The Story of Ramen

Ramen Restaurant and Teaching Center The Story of Ramen Settles into the Mission | Eater SF

"Opening a new brick-and-mortar space at 3231 24th Street (between Capp and Cypress Streets) in the former George’s BBQ location, the Story of Ramen will serve weekday lunches from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., offering sides like gyoza and ramen with broth options including classic pork tonkotsu, chicken, and a vegetarian broth, with Chan’s signature spicy versions available. Online ordering, take-out, and delivery will be added later this fall. Evenings will continue as a ramen school, where Chan—who has been educating students in various San Francisco kitchens for two-and-a-half years and studied at Japan’s International Ramen School in Yokohama—will teach a two-hour noodle-making course and a four-hour broth-and-noodle master class; he notes that “people are surprised that it’s not as hard as they thought” and that students sometimes don’t even know what ramen flour is. Having left tech three years ago to pursue ramen full time, Chan has carved out a niche in the “food experience” market through web bookings for classes and hosts special events like birthday parties and corporate team-building (about 70 percent of his groups are coworkers from companies such as Facebook, Uber, and OpenTable). While the storefront will provide ready bowls like spicy tonkotsu for customers who don’t want to work for it, Chan says he doesn’t want the shop to be “just a ramen restaurant” and still plans to incorporate education into the operation." - Caleb Pershan