Former Ejay Rin restaurant becomes a new lunch spot, opens today
The recently closed Ejay Rin is now a lunchtime spot. It’s owner has firm plans to develop the former noodle bar into a more sophisticated convenience market, the first of its kind in the Manchester district.
Ejay Rin, a ramen bar that opened in the Manchester District in July, officially closed last Saturday. Owner Andy Howell, however, is not giving up the location. He also has big plans for the former restaurant.
Located in the Corrugated Box Building, Ejay Rin had difficulty amassing customers, says Howell, for two reasons. The first: “Richmond is not really ready for the [noodle bar] concept,” said Howell in a phone interview with RVANews this morning. Although popular in New York City, Japanese ramen bars have yet to make it down the East Coast. Howell suspects that Ejay Rin was five years ahead of its due time.
The second reason why Ejay Rin failed, is that Richmonders are not ready to drive across the 14th Street Bridge into Manchester, a sparsely populated and seldom frequented destination to try cutting-edge culinary dishes. The lack of amenities in Manchester, however, gave Howell an idea.
Through the end of the year, the former Ejay Rin location will exclusively be a sandwich and salad lunch spot. The new operating hours will be 11am – 2:30pm, Monday through Friday.
Beginning in 2012, however, the location will expand its concept and become Camden’s Dogtown Market. The reason? “There isn’t a single convenience store,” in this area, said Howell. Residents of the Manchester area have to drive into Forest Hill if, for instance, they want to buy a loaf of bread or any other basic foodstuff. Not only will Camden’s Dogtown Market offer typical convenient store fare, but they will utilize their approximate 25-seat restaurant layout to additionally offer a sit down lunch menu. Later, they plan to add dinner hours. Howell spoke of coming from a family of grocers. His grandfather, for instance, owned a grocery store in Georgia.
When asked about Ejay Rin, Howell said, “We haven’t gotten rid of the idea.” He has deliberately kept signage and equipment specific to the ramen bar concept. This was done in the hope of reopening the restaurant closer to a denser Richmond population, such as in Downtown or the Fan. “We’ve perfected our noodles; we’ve perfected our broths,” said Howell. There’s no intention of having all of those things go to waste.
The new lunchtime restaurant opened today. Below is their menu (click on the image to enlarge to a PDF):
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Nathan Cushing
Nathan Cushing is a writer, journalist, and RVANews Editor.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
“’Richmond is not really ready for the [noodle bar] concept'” – I don’t think this is true at all. Richmond was ready for the noodle bar concept when Steve Kim opened Kimbo’s Noodle Bar in 2000. (Damn but I miss that place.) It would be more accurate to say that Richmonders are not ready to pay $10-$12 for a small bowl of lackluster noodles with some fancy sauce smeared on the plate. Not when there are so many better (and more affordable) downtown lunch options, including some in Manchester.
Which brings me to my next point of disagreement, “Richmonders are not ready to drive across the 14th Street Bridge into Manchester…” also not true, as anyone who’s waited for a table at Plant Zero Cafe knows. You just have to offer something special enough to make the drive worth it, and unfortunately Ejay Rin didn’t.
That said, I wish Howell luck with this new phase in his venture, and I think his plan to open a convenience market in that space is a great one.
I hope he returns to his noodle-bar concept soon, and that next time he focuses less on “cutting-edge culinary dishes” than on perfecting a basic bowl of noodles. I feel confident that downtown RVA’s lunch crowd would support a fast-casual, inexpensive, Shophouse-style noodle bar in droves.
Too bad, I love noodles. Chef Andy used to have some great values at Cafe’ Rustica. I ate way above my pay grade there.
Wren’s comments are exactly right.
I have to say wren, you took the words out of my mouth! I too believe that the food was a bit over priced for what it was or what it should have been, meaning that maybe Richmond is not ready for only a gourmet noodle bar. I feel certain that a noodle bar offering reasonable prices and good food would have had no problem succeeding and actually may have flourished.
I wish Mr. Howell success and hope he does not throw the baby out with the noodle soup! The idea was and still is a good one, it just seems that in this economy value is crucial to the success of a new restaurant.
Also, they have perfected neither their noodles nor their broth. Just saying.
I also agree with wren. I would also add that other items on the menu such as korean chicken rice bowl also fell short of expectations. It was just a piece of chicken cooked in soy sauce. I will gladly drive anywhere for a great noodle/rice bowl.
For me, next noodle bar has to at least measure up to pho in Horsepen area. There are 3-4 places that consistently deliver good broth & food for $6 to $10. Ramen, pho, not the same. But it at least fills the cravings.
This town is ready for it!!
Chef Bill, the guy forced out, was noodle bar influence. I’d be surprised to see any of that left now that he’s gone.
If it was anything like Friend or Pho, then I understand.
I tried it. I wanted to like it, i wanted there to be a a GOOD noodle bar in Richmond other than the vietnamese pho restaurants out off of horse pen. But it was BAD and overpriced. It was style over substance and it wasn’t anywhere close to being authentic. One other thing, it was bland. If there’s one thing people need to know about vietnamese pho, or korean dishes or japanese dishes is that there’s flavor in it! Ejay Rin’s dishes had NO FLAVOR.
Richmond is not ready for bad noodles that was extremely overpriced. It failed because I could make better ramen from a packet and add my own soup base and meats. Why pay 12 when I could make something better for 2.
And Richmond not ready to drive over 14th st? Say that to Crocker spot. That place is yummy. Don’t blame others for your own failures. Going to end up sounding like boom boom burgers.
I used to live in that area and if there was a grocery store/convenience store there, I would have definitely frequented it often. There is nothing close by, really annoying.
Wanted to like Ejay Rin, but thought the broth was underwhelming…making their signature dish just so-so.
Of course…at least they had veggie options. None available on the interim menu. Surprised they wouldn’t even try to attract that part of the market. Will have to decide how much attention to pay a business that isn’t really paying attention to me.
I liked the food, it was the price/portion I didn’t care for — nothing to do at all with “Richmond not being ready for a noodle bar’! Could tell it would not make it when I first tried it.
I guess I’m in the minority…..I thought the food was alright, just not stupendous. I love the idea of a market there though and am excited about that as I live in the area. Would think like an “Ellwood Thompson South” type place would rock in that spot.
Go Dogtown Market!
i have to echo what most everyone else said; the food, with one or two small exceptions, was very bland. i am within walking distance, but gave up after three tries and started counting down the days to close. “not really ready” my ass.
I think we are all really ready for the Dogtown Market here in Manchester.
Wow, from bad to worse. As a long-time Manchester resident, I was initially very excited about the prospect of Ejay Rin and then bitterly disappointed with the reality.
Mr. Howell can spin this however he likes but I agree with all the commenters before me.
Now for the worse part. As a vegetarian, there’s not a single thing for me on the new menu. C’mon, it’s 2011. There’s not a single restaurant in Richmond, save apparently this new one, that I can’t find something for me on the menu. For chrissakes, I can eat like a king at Appleby’s if I want to. Which I don’t but seriously.
Congratulations to Mr Howell for the matching hole in his other foot.
Ok folks, Ejay Rin is dead…I think we can stop throwing chopsticks into it.
I stopped by the Not Really for lunch today,and had a fantastic burger, homemade chips and the pickles were lovely! True, nothing on the menu for the herbivores, but give it time and pass along your feedback to the staff, I’m sure the menu will evolve.
Marketing and promotion can go a long way…not sure when local restaurants will realize the need to market and make it a place that is always top of mind.