Ramen Club features a new menu every month and serves it up every Wednesday.
Writer: Karla Walsh
The little details make a big deal for Trish Myers, owner of Ramen Club, a noodle and more restaurant in the Kitchen Spaces location near Drake University.
“People can taste how much care you put in. Everything is handmade,” Myers says. “Our noodles and broth are made from scratch weekly, as are our toppings and the soft-boiled eggs. Every single egg is peeled by hand.”
Myers perfects her ramen noodles through “countless trials and errors” by scouring cookbooks and websites and talking to noodle pros. She ran Ramen Club speakeasy-style throughout 2019, then hosted an official pop-up with Lucky Lotus in February 2020. Then the pandemic hit, pressing pause on the brand’s progress.
“I had momentum and it seemed to have abruptly ended; I wasn’t sure what I was going to do,” Myers says. “That’s when Gas Lamp reached out and gave us a little hope.” Myers took her menu and sold it takeout-style out of the music venue’s kitchen for a few months in summer 2020.
After serving lines around the block at Gas Lamp, Myers officially decided to establish Ramen Club as its own business in October. She and her team of four fellow cooks began hosting weekly Wednesday sales out of the communal cooking area at Kitchen Spaces (1139 24th St.), which continue with a new menu each month.
I was lucky enough to order during February’s Mexican-inspired lineup and am still thinking about the zingy citrus-infused pozole broth, roasted hominy and chewy ramen noodles. And the Miso Brussels ($6), which are still on the menu, are umami-rich, yet not overpowering or overly greasy in the least. The March lineup is in partnership with fellow Kitchen Spaces brand Dumpling House and features Pork Shoyu ($15) and Vegetable Matcha ($13), plus sides and desserts. You can also find Ramen Club’s noodles at other spots, too, like in the Bartender’s Handshake’s ramen menu items and Lucky Lotus’ non-instant noodles.
What’s ahead for the eatery, Myers is hesitant to say—likely because the journey the past 18 months has been unpredictable. Myers works as a freelance food stylist for the Mittera Group by day, then spends evenings and weekends prepping for Ramen Club.
“We’ll keep pushing this forward and eventually find something that fits our needs more permanently as a business,” Myers says. “Ideas will change, but the soul of Ramen Club will still be a special part of the future.”
Keep up with Ramen Club at facebook.com/dsmramenclub and on Instagram at @dsmramenclub. Place an order for Wednesday pickup at ramenclubdsm.square.site.
