Cult Fave Ramen Chain Ippudo Opens Its First Silicon Valley Location

Members of the Bay Area’s longstanding church of ramen will soon have one more spot at which to worship, as Ippudo, the Japanese ramen restaurant chain with locations in Asia, Europe, and Australia, will open a Silicon Valley outpost on Friday, February 14.

Ippudo was founded by Shigemi Kawahara in 1985 in Japan, and opened its first West Coast location in Berkeley in 2017. A San Francisco location of the chain followed in 2018.

Its Silicon Valley shop (19540 Vallco Parkway, Suite 130, in Cupertino), will have “six new menu items that were recently introduced at the West Hollywood location,” a spokesperson for the restaurant says, but failed to respond to follow-up questions on exactly what those six new items are. Hours will be 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. on weekdays (10:30 p.m. on Fridays), and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends.

And in other news...

• Local writer Dana Jennings says that the sesame chicken from Inner Sunset restaurant Nan King Road got her through some very hard times, and her recent discovery that the restaurant closed early last year has made her very sad. [Bold Italic]
• Krispy Krunchy, a popular Louisiana Fried Chicken chain with locations in Oakland and the Tenderloin, has opened another SF spot at Pier 39. [SFist]
• Fashion industry veteran Chris Silverman made a mid-career pivot to food, opening Binney Park in Oakland in hopes of bringing East Coast-style sandwiches (that is, sandwiches with “nothing funky or out of the ordinary”) to the Bay Area. [East Bay Express]
• Michael Nader, the restaurateur behind Pork Store Cafe, Stanza Coffee Bar, and Vinyl Coffee and Wine Bar, says that to keep Panini, his sandwich shop at 1457 Haight Street, open, he’d have to charge $15 per panini. He’s closing, instead. [Hoodline]
• Matt Horn’s long-anticipated Oakland barbecue spot “is mired in permitting red tape,” so he is — once again — doing pop-ups to “reconnect with the people.” [SF Chronicle]

Update: February 3: 9:24 a.m. This article was updated to account for a delay in Ippudo’s planned opening date.