I love to travel, but I got the travel bug a little later in life than most since I have my own business and never felt that I could get away.
For the first seven years of operating The Hall Company I never left New York City until I realized that all my colleagues were traveling, the journalists I worked with were all going on press trips and I was working day and night, plus I wasn’t adding anything enlightening to the conversations I would have with these folk when they returned. I had not had a 38 course dining experience at El Builli or even one at French Laundry for that matter. I didn’t eat and drink my way through Tuscany or the South of France. What a bore I was!
So I started my quest to become a traveler, and luckily since I am in the hospitality PR business I was able to combine pleasure with a little business on the side. When recalling my favorite experiences it’s usually not the most elaborate meal from a particular place, it’s the simpler homier meals that truly give you a taste of the local cuisine and culture; comfort food at its best. During one of my many trips to Japan I found it at Ivan Ramen. Ivan Ramen is a tiny noodle shop at 3-24-7 Minamikarasuyama Setagaya-ku Tokyo 157-0067 (www.ivanramen.com). Japan in a suburb of Tokyo, and when I told my Japanese friends where I wanted to go they said it’s like we’re in New York City and you’re taking us to New Jersey for meatloaf, but I convinced them and we hopped the train to the Rokakouen Station to visit Ivan. I’d met Ivan years before in NYC with one of my clients Katy Sparks. They had worked together, and Ivan was a complete Japanaphile. It was always his dream to live and work in Tokyo and when he had the opportunity he jumped on it. He was a self proclaimed ramen junkie, but being American no ramen shop would let him learn their secrets so he did what any self-respecting chef would do, he opened his own shop and did it his way. What my friends and I encountered was fresh noodles made by hand, fresh broths with depth of flavor, and traditional as well as unique offerings. Luckily being a New Yorker I called Ivan ahead so we wouldn’t have to wait because like most restaurants in Japan he has all of 10 seats, and we ate, sipped and slurped to our hearts delight. I think the trip on the train took longer than the time it took us to eat, but we were so satisfied that it made the train back to the City seem like minutes.
Ivan has a catch phrase Slow Food…Fast. It references the slow food movement that chefs are disciples of, and the quickness in which diners devour their art, and judging from the happy smiling faces at Ivan Ramen, he is no longer the gaijin who wanted to cook ramen, but a full blown artist member of the Japanese ramen community.
Steven Hall is the President of The Hall Company in New York that specializes in restaurant PR. Steven loves to travel and one of his favorite countries to visit is Japan.