Local Ramen Noodle Company Changes Direction During COVID-19

The overwhelming affect that the coronavirus pandemic has had on the hospitality business has been equally as devastating for restaurant purveyors throughout all classes. For some Japanese eateries in Southern California serving ramen, the downturn has immediately affected one in all its key suppliers: a San Diego-based firm that focuses on making recent ramen noodles.

Based in 1986, Fuji Ramen operates out of a small manufacturing unit in Chula Vista and for greater than three many years, has labored completely with eating places all through San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles together with Izakaya Naruto in Chula Vista, Hanaoka in Nationwide Metropolis, and Orochon and Hanaichi within the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles.

Compelled to promote their solely business supply van when their wholesale enterprise took a dive because the pandemic raged on, homeowners Kanju and Hiroko Otawa are working the corporate with assist from their household and a few volunteers. Now of their 70s, the couple cares for an grownup son who’s blind and Kanju is getting dialysis therapy for renal failure whereas on the ready listing for a kidney transplant.

For the primary time since its inception, Fuji Ramen has shifted to promoting their ramen noodles to the general public. Over the summer season, they began providing on-line orders through Fb with contactless pick-up at central areas in Mira Mesa and Chula Vista. Different retail spots embody the Mira Mesa and Otay Ranch farmer’s markets and The Fancy Fish in Mira Mesa. They’ve since expanded so as to add a drop-off in Irvine and simply this month, began shipping nationwide. The handmade noodles can be found in packs of 12 or 24 servings.

As the present spike in coronavirus instances threatens to hamper eating places as soon as once more, the corporate says it plans to proceed promoting direct to customers. Because of demand, Fuji Ramen is working to develop a vegan model of the noodles in addition to a ramen broth base.

Courtesy photograph