"The spot, which the chef has envisioned as a New York café built into a prewar apartment, houses a new counter with room for two extra seats, bringing the total to six. Opening hours begin early, with broth and baos being offered from 9 a.m. onward. One hour later, the five bowls Purdie offered before - such as bacon-egg-and-cheese shoyu - will carry over, and she's introducing a sixth item here as well: a savory-sweet sausage-and-maple ramen that celebrates her southern roots and was inspired by a recipe for her grandmother's collard greens."
"Cooking is Purdie's second career. She was a fashion stylist before culinary school led to stints at Untitled and Red Rooster. During the pandemic, stuck at home, she sought comfort in ramen - and the movie Tampopo, whose titular hero takes over a noodle shop and whose journey inspired Purdie: "If someone asked, 'Where did this idea come from?' it was the fantasy of Tampopo," she says. "If I could have that moment like her, what would it look like?" She decided to find out. "I would just read, and then I started picking up on documentaries and I went to YouTube." She also acquired the two books she keeps at the shop as talismans: George Solt's The Untold History of Ramen and Princess Pamela's Soul Food Cookbook, written by self-titled princess Pamela Strobel, the South Carolinian Black chef who operated two East Village restaurants in the 1960s; the first, the Little Kitchen, was a 12-seater she ran out of her apartment."
Ramen by Ra will reopen in Bowery Market after a seven-month closure, expanding from a four-seat counter to a six-seat counter in a New York café-style prewar apartment space. The stall will begin serving broth and baos at 9 a.m., followed at 10 a.m. by six ramen bowls including previous offerings like a bacon-egg-and-cheese shoyu and a new savory-sweet sausage-and-maple ramen inspired by Purdie's Southern roots and her grandmother's collard greens recipe. Purdie transitioned from fashion styling to culinary work with stages at Untitled and Red Rooster, and she credits Tampopo, ramen research, documentaries, YouTube, and two talisman cookbooks for shaping the concept.
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