Local restaurant use their noodle in time of crisis
Before Boris announced to the nation that England was about to go into a second national lockdown, I had the pleasure of meeting Ashley (aka Chef Hatter) and Danielle, owners of Ramen+Chill in Hamlet Court Road, Westcliff. We talked about how Ramen+Chill was born and the ethos they live by, the instant success and following that they had upon first opening; and how the first lockdown proved to be a valuable learning experience for the future. It’s clear from the 8 foot Yoda painted on the outside of their building that this is not your typical Ramen restaurant, but somewhere far edgier to compliment the ongoing HCR regeneration.
Legra Marketing: Hi guys, it’s great to meet you both. I’ve got to say, I’m loving the decor and what you’ve done with the place!
Danielle: Oh thank you, yes, it’s very Ramen+Chill. Very unconventional Haha!
Legra Marketing: Unconventional? How do you mean?
Chef Hatter: Well, I think people expect us to be a traditional Japanese ramen restaurant because we have “ramen” in our name, but actually we’re so much more than that. You can see just by looking around the inside of the restaurant that, of course we are heavily influenced by Japanese pop culture, but we’ve put our own spin on things. I guess you could say that we’re a cross between Kill Bill and Goodfellas. We’ve got some really cool artwork, predominantly based around Star Wars and other pop culture references like Giri/Haji and we also have a portrait of a traditional geisha lady.
Legra Marketing: Kill Bill and Goodfellas, I think you’ve nailed it with that description! So tell me more about how Ramen+Chill. What makes you different?
Danielle: Well, we’re Essex's first ever ramen bar serving up Chef Hatter’s style ramen, cocktails, craft beer and plenty of chill in our trendy venue.
Chef Hatter: I’m a Michelin bib gourmand chef and have been in the industry for over 20 years. Because of my fine-dining background, we use a lot of techniques in the kitchen here that the top restaurants use like sous-viding, dry-curing, ageing etc. Our signature Tonkotsu is traditional Japanese ramen, but in Japan it’s really salty, so we’ve given it our own twist. We also make all our own Katsuobushi in-house and all the garnishes for our cocktails.
Legra Marketing: Sounds amazing! So talk me through from when you first opened to where you guys are now.
Danielle: We opened on 28 February 2020 and the response in the local area was just amazing. Everything was going really well, we had lots of customers coming in and some great reviews online.
Chef Hatter: And then coronavirus came along and suddenly we’re in a national pandemic and locked down. We took the opportunity to completely redecorate the restaurant with the colour scheme you see today, it gave us the opportunity to put our own stamp on the place and make any necessary adjustments in line with the government guidelines on social distancing. I don’t know if you noticed, but we’ve got an 8 foot Yoda on the outside wall of our building but at the time, the inside just didn’t reflect the same vibe as outside. We wanted to create a really relaxed and fun environment that people could feel comfortable in.
We never intended to offer delivery or takeaway when we first opened but obviously we’ve had to during the lockdown and it’s been a real learning experience. We had to be careful with what we were offering to customers because as a dish, ramen doesn’t travel very well, so we looked at our menu and started offering our wagyu yakuza burger, tofu burgers and things like kimchi mac & cheese, using our own homemade kimchi, and a selection of our small plates and people were loving it. Then we went onto Just Eat and things just exploded.
Danielle: Once restrictions started to lift and we reopened the restaurant we started offering cocktails until 1am which was incredibly popular. We were offering 2-4-1 cocktails on a Friday and making between 120 - 180 cocktails in an hour! Then in September, the new 10pm curfew restrictions came in and we really started to panic thinking that we’d lost three hours of crucial trading time on a Friday and Saturday night but in fact, since the curfew, more and more people have been coming in for food.
Chef Hatter: We’re actually doing better financially now on a Friday and Saturday than we were when we were open as a late night bar, so COVID has been such a learning curve for us where we thought we’d got it right but we didn’t. We were focusing on the alcohol and being a bar, but actually, we’ve got an amazing product in our ramen and an amazing selection of small plates, it’s made us take a step back and focus on our food.
Legra Marketing: So after lockdown restrictions were eased, how did you get the word out that you were open again?
Danielle: Lots of social media activity. We take a much less conventional approach when it comes to communicating with our followers. We’re not afraid to speak our mind as you’ll see from our recent free packed lunches for kids over half term announcements on Instagram.
We post lots of photos, we share to certain local Facebook groups and we’ve had some newspaper and radio coverage too, we’ve also had quite a lot of word of mouth recommendations which at the end of the day, you just can’t buy that kind of coverage. Our social reach and engagement has been phenomenal recently, I suppose because everyone has their phones in their hands a lot of the time, but also I think people felt very strongly about the government's decision to stop free school meals during half term.
Legra Marketing: Do you think Lockdown 2 will have an impact on your business or do you think you’re more prepared for it this time?
Danielle: This new national lockdown is going to be difficult for everyone but we’ve just got to adapt to it and do our bit like everyone else. Once this new lockdown has been lifted, we’ve got a game plan in place to keep people safe. We’re installing screens so that people from different tiers can essentially still sit on the same table but in a safe way and within the latest government guidelines which we’ll continue to monitor and react to as quickly as we can.
Legra Marketing: So what can we expect from Ramen+Chill in the next couple of months?
Chef Hatter: We’re launching Ramen ‘n’ Roast every Sunday starting from 6th December so get in touch with us to book your tables!
Legra Marketing: Guys, thank you so much for speaking to me. I wish you and all the team the very best of luck. Stay safe.
Danielle & Chef Hatter: Thank you, you too.
