Tanoshi Ramen Will Cater to Night Owls, Vegans

News surfaced yesterday that Dallas' first dedicated ramen spot is moving into the old Baker's Ribs space on Commerce Street in Deep Ellum. Joey and Chi Le, who also own Wicked Po Boys in Richardson—and soon, an additional location in Preston Center—are the husband and wife team responsible for the upcoming Tanoshi Ramen. Eater caught up with Chi in between appointments today (in addition to being a restaurateur, she also maintains a dental practice) to grill her for more details on Tanoshi Ramen.

The Les do a lot of traveling, to L.A. and especially to New York, and were inspired by the ramen shops found up there, particularly Ippudo in Manhattan's East Village. "What we're trying to do is similar to those places up north in New York, plus our little twist on it," says Chi. "Once we decided to be in Deep Ellum, it kind of inspired us to go a little further with the concept. We're aiming toward Asian street food, and we'll also be staying open later on the weekends till 4, because that's when we love our ramen the most. So we're excited about that."

Menu-wise, Chi had this to say: "We definitely love our pork belly, and we love our ramen. Our noodles are going to be made in house and that's something we're really proud of. With Asian food it's definitely easier for us to gear toward the vegan crowd, they'll have a lot of options with fresh Asian vegetables that a lot of people aren't familiar with. Then just your typical Asian street food but there's going to be a few things that nobody has really seen before, and that's exciting for us. We love trying new things. It's going to be fun explaining to people what these things are."

The Les are teaming up with John Paul Valverde and Miguel Vicens of Coeval Studio (Campo, The Bowery, Outpost) on the design aspect of Tanoshi. "I think you'll be surprised with what we've all come up with. It's going to be very Deep Ellum." They're currently awaiting permits to begin construction but hope to be in business in the first quarter of 2013. "We're going to keep a lot of the core elements of the space, but we've got to do quite a bit of work in there. We're hoping for the end of February but it could get pushed to the beginning of March. Hopefully end of February."

· Ramen-Centric Tanoshi Moving Into Deep Ellum [CraveDFW]
· Dallas to Finally Get a Dedicated Ramen Spot [-EDFW-]
· Posts about Wicked Po Boys on Eater Dallas [-EDFW-]
· Posts about Coeval Studio on Eater Dallas [-EDFW-]