Crafty Ramen, a popular Guelph-based ramen shop, has opened its first location in Toronto on the popular Ossington strip as it continues to expand its footprint with physical locations as well as e-commerce.
The concept first began in 2017 by co-founders Miki and Jared Ferrall.
Khalil Khamis, CEO of Crafty Ramen, said the business is now in Guelph, Kitchener, and Toronto.
“Jared is a chef by trade. He’s worked for some of the fanciest kitchens in the world like Gordon Ramsay and the Point One Per Cent (wealthy people). Jared and Miki met in Vancouver while Miki was learning English. They moved to Japan together and ended up working on a super yacht. Jared was a chef on that boat. They toured the world and during that time they figured out that they wanted to not do food for the Point One Per Cent and open something that could be for everyone,” said Khamis.
“Jared has family here in Guelph. Everywhere they went on the boat they ate ramen, they had a passion for the product and wanted to do something around ramen. When they went back to Tokyo before coming to Guelph here they studied (at a ramen school in Tokyo) and they travelled the country eating bowls from top to bottom. One thing they learned is a couple of the key pillars of ramen are regionality and creativity.
“So when they settled in Guelph and opened their ramen shop here they really wanted to have a local take on ramen. We source all of our broth, our noodles, proteins, all of that is sourced locally, made in house from scratch. There’s a couple of ingredients that we need to source from Japan but for the most part we’re sourced locally.”
Khamis comes from a franchise background. He lives about a 10-minute walk from the Guelph restaurant and met the Ferrall’s as a regular customer about a year after they opened.
“I said this is incredible. I love the food and the brand and you guys have done a great job, let’s partner and grow restaurants. So after many conversations and meetings we partnered and we opened our second restaurant in downtown Kitchener four months before the COVID pandemic. We opened in November 2019,” he said.
Then they started to create the ramen meal kit where people could buy the broth, noodles and toppings on the side. In the early days of the pandemic, they were able to make about 100 at a time and put them on its website for local pick up.
They were selling out in minutes. People on social media across the country were asking Crafty Ramen to ship these meal kits out.
The company’s e-commerce was launched in December 2020 and started shipping the ramen meal kits across Ontario and that organically grew into independent grocery stores reaching out to them who wanted to sell the meal kits.
“Through that we learned there’s nobody doing restaurant quality ramen in grocery,” explained Khamis.
Recently it launched its frozen ramen product as well. That is available from coast to coast with numerous partners scattered throughout the country.
“It’s been going very well,” he said.
“A bowl of ramen is more than a meal — it’s an experience of comfort and connection that lives at the heart of everything we do at Crafty Ramen,” said Miki Ferrall, Crafty Ramen co-founder and VP of operations. “We opened Crafty to create a space that feels like ‘home,’ where people can unwind and share their day over something warm and familiar. We’re so excited to continue to grow our community and make Toronto our newest home.”
Now, with the opening of their third restaurant location, Toronto ramen-lovers (and noodle-curious) can get a taste of a Crafty Ramen bowl made fresh for themselves. The space serves as an homage to the shops Miki grew up with in Japan. Diners seated along the bar have a full view of the open kitchen and are encouraged to watch and learn, while the narrow intimacy invites everyone inside to engage in the cooking experience as their meals are prepared.
The closeness of the space also allows guests to enjoy the interior ‘craftiness’ of the restaurant’s decor. Two back walls are covered in an intricate Japanese pop culture collage, assembled by hand by Miki herself, while the adjoining wall is made to recreate the feel of an open-air ramen stall, with an awning overhanging the seating area and a mural hand painted by a local artist. Every aspect of the design sets the tone for a space alive with fun, care, creativity and appreciation for the full ramen experience.
The new restaurant also includes a mini-market at the front of the shop so that guests can easily grab from an array of Asian-inspired products made by other local small businesses, along with Crafty Ramen’s own make-at-home meals and sauces — and soon an exciting new frozen ramen product launching in the coming weeks.
Khamis said e-commerce has really shone a light on the brand but its focus is around brick and mortar and the grocery channels.
“We’re going to look to open another restaurant corporately early next year in Q1 of 2024 and then we’re going to explore franchising. We have some super passionate community members that have reached out . . . so we’re going to explore what that looks like next year,” he said.
