Fellow fans of ~RAMEN SHOP~ in Rockridge will be thrilled to know business partners (and evil culinary masterminds) Jerry Jaksich, Rayneil De Guzman, and Sam White have secured the luggage shop space next door (Rockridge Luggage & Leather Goods at 5816 College Avenue), and will be expanding their footprint. But it’s not going to be a case of knocking down the wall in between the businesses and making it a big restaurant; partner Sam White says they want to keep the intimate feeling of Ramen Shop.
The new space will become an intimate cocktail bar—no food will be served, except maybe a couple of bar snacks—and will double as a waiting area. The current front bar area will become a place for diners to eat, adding 15 precious seats. White says it should help with lessening the overall wait times.
Another big component to all this is they’ll be moving their office over, adding another kitchen, and therefore gaining more storage space for their ingredients (and broth!), which means they’ll be able to move to being open seven days a week (Ramen Shop is currently closed on Tuesdays). Since the gents will be gaining storage space for the kitchen, they expect to be able to expand to being open nightly in November or December, and lunch on the weekends is also being looked at. They get the keys October 1st, and expect the entire addition will be done in late winter or early spring of 2015. For now, they’re gearing up for another trip to Japan in October, so expect them to come back with even more inspiration and ideas.
Cheers to the Ramen Shop’s expansion! Photo: © tablehopper.com.
