Crystal Wise
In what can only be described as pure serendipity, local chef Jesus Garcia will soon open his new ramen restaurant — in the exact same place where he opened his first ramen restaurant.
“A friend of mine said, ‘If a spot is meant for you, it’s meant for you,’” Garcia says, laughing.
In February, the Houston-born chef will open his new ramen spot, Kintaro Ramen, at 2801 W. Seventh St. Those who have followed Garcia’s career know this is the exact same address where, four years ago, he opened another ramen concept, Oni Ramen.
Garcia sold off his share of Oni’s business last year before the restaurant closed in July due to the pandemic. As luck would have it, he and a business partner held on to the lease, which is good for another four years.
“I started looking for a place around the same time Oni closed,” he says. “It just made perfect sense. I already know the building, the kitchen, the landlords. It’s one of those things that was meant to be.”
During the pandemic last year, Garcia launched two Kintaro concepts — a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Arlington and its Fort Worth sibling, a ghost kitchen in Ridglea Hills. Last year, Fort Worth Magazine named both locations as two of the area’s best new restaurants.
The ghost kitchen will close as soon as the West Seventh store opens, Garcia says. It was always his intent, he says, to move the Fort Worth store, which only served food to-go or through delivery, into bigger digs.
“I wanted to test the waters first,” he says. “A ghost kitchen is a great option if you want to keep your overhead low and focus solely on the food. It was also a good way to see if this is a style of food people were still wanting.”
The new location will be modeled after the Arlington store, Garcia says, noting customers will order via kiosks, then grab a seat for table service. There will be at least four to six types of ramen, including a curried oyster ramen, a birria ramen, and a veggie option, plus small plates.
It wasn’t far from West Seventh where Garcia built his name and following, first as a chef at Sushi Yoko on Camp Bowie Boulevard, then across the street, as the executive chef at Little Lilly Sushi. At the latter, he won accolades for his imaginative takes on sushi and Japanese cuisine.
Garcia left Little Lilly in 2014 and headed to Seattle, where he learned the ropes of ramen, training at restaurants such as the acclaimed Hokkaido Ramen Santouka.
When he returned to Fort Worth, two years later, he opened Oni Ramen in the West Seventh area, garnering praise from critics and mortals alike for his cutting-edge varieties of ramen.
A second store opened in Dallas to similar acclaim.
Although no longer affiliated with the Oni location in Dallas, he does want to keep his foot in Dallas’ door. Later this year, he’s planning on launching a food truck that’ll service the north Dallas area.
But for now, he’s focusing on Fort Worth and bringing his former haunt back to life.
“I have a major advantage this time — I know what worked the first time I was here, and I know what didn’t,” he says. “I’ve learned a lot since then as both a restaurant owner and a chef, and I’m anxious to put that knowledge to work.”
2801 West Seventh St., kintaroramen.com
