On this week's episode of "What's Eric Eating," Shion Aikawa joins CultureMap food editor Eric Sandler to discuss Ramen Tatsu-ya. The conversation begins with Aikawa, now the senior vice president of culture for a restaurant group that includes four locations of Ramen Tatsu-ya plus three affiliated concepts, recalling the process of opening the company's first location in north Austin 10 years ago this month.
From there, the conversation turns to the Houston location that opened in Montrose five years ago. As Aikawa notes, it's the company's largest ramen restaurant and, in true Houston fashion, offers the most on-site parking. After discussing the company's other concepts in Austin — barbecue-inspired izakaya Kemuri Tatsu-ya, shabu shabu restaurant Dip Dip Dip Tatsu-ya, and cocktail bar Tiki Tatsu-ya — Aikawa acknowledges that bringing at least one to Houston is in the company's long term plans.
"I know that we want to have sister restaurants, have a community that can be put together at different places. At the moment I can't tell you anything, because if I feel like i tell you something, Eric, it has to happen," he says.
"We're here to stay in Houston, definitely. Now we're in our stages of planning to get to more and more locations where we feel there's a good community of people willing to dine with us."
Listen to the full episode to hear a few preliminary details about BBQ Ramen Tatsu-ya, the company's new restaurant that will merge what it has learned about barbecue and ramen. "We ask ourselves, 'what can we do with ramen that we haven't done before.' I would say this one is our first foray into a possible multiverse of ramen," Aikawa adds.
Prior to the interview, Sandler and co-host Matt Harris discuss the news of the week. Their topics include: Texas celebrity chef Tim Love closing his three restaurants at Levy Park; the announcement that Gatsby's Prime Seafood will open in the former Tony Mandola's space; and Tim Hortons opening in Katy.
In the restaurants of the week segment, they share first impressions of Pacha Nikkei, the newly opened restaurant in Westchase that's devoted to Peruvian-Japanese fusion. They also discuss their recent meals at Neo, the innovative omakase experience that won the CultureMap Tastemaker Award for Best Pop-up/Startup.
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Shion Aikawa is this week's guest.
