Ichiban, a new Japanese restaurant in Campustown, opened for business enterprise sort of by accident on June 11.
Found at 117 Welch Ave., Ichiban’s opening didn’t exactly go as proprietor Guan Wang had planned. Following an Iowa State college student with a meals website posted some photographs and improperly listed the day for the restaurant’s tender opening, persons started out displaying up.
That day, he had his staff members arrive to the restaurant to run as a result of the menu objects, cooking some of each individual merchandise.
“We opened accidentally,” Wang mentioned. “I was truly heading to deliver the meals that we cooked to close by enterprises and bars and just give it to them.”
All over 5 p.m., men and women started off creeping in.
“We didn’t have the open signal on or nearly anything, but the doorways were unlocked simply because we had been coming in and out a ton,” he reported.
Wang’s mother, Ling Lu, who owns the Wok n Roll Chinese cafe throughout the road, was aiding at Ichiban and started off seating people today.
“It’s not precisely how I needed to open up, but the folks appreciated the food items, so the future day we just kind of ongoing into it,” Wang stated.
The impromptu opening day marked Wang’s formal start off as a restaurateur, a posture he arrived at by way of a job in international hockey.
Menu contains sushi, ramen and a lot more
He’s continue to modifying the menu, which includes a selection of sushi, sashimi, ramen, hibachi bento containers, and appetizers this sort of as Crab Rangoon Mozzarella Sticks, Tempura Shrimp and Renkon Chips, which are fried lotus root.
Wang wants to preserve the menu straightforward at to start with so “we can make the necessities as best as we can.”
“I want to add a spicy miso ramen,” he mentioned. “Our Ichiban ramen was so well-liked that we actually sold out.”
It’s Ichiban’s regular Tonkotsu ramen designed with pork belly.
“We make the pork stomach ourselves. It’s rolled up and we set it on the flat grill for about 30 minutes — every side for like 15 minutes. Then we place it in a massive pot and slow cook dinner it for 4 or 5 several hours,” Wang mentioned.
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He thinks the spicy miso ramen will be manufactured with rooster as the protein.
“Our Godzilla roll is really well-liked as well,” Wang said. “It’s fried sushi. We roll it, then batter it in tempura and fry it.
“My preferred sushi roll is the Fujiyama. It’s salmon and fish eggs and spicy mayo on the top.”
Mr. Luo is the sushi chef, and Mr. Wu is on the grill, Wang explained.
Ichiban’s bento bins supply an entree, like salmon or beef, along with rice, salad and a Cali roll or tempura shrimp.
“We do the shrimp tempura ourselves,” Wang stated. “We peel the shrimp and then use a sushi mat to lengthen it. The sushi mat is identified as a makisu.”
Wang is Chinese Ichiban is Japanese and is Wang’s initially foray into cafe ownership.
Coaching for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing
“This is my 1st cafe,” he stated. “My authentic career is coaching specialist ice hockey.”
He claimed he was coaching in Russia when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“I was living in Beijing since I was meant to coach at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, China,” he mentioned.
At very first he was a hockey participant, becoming a member of the Kontinental Hockey League, or KHL, immediately after he went to faculty at Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Connecticut.
“It’s the Russian Superleague,” Wang claimed. “They ended up hoping to encourage hockey for the Beijing 2022 Wintertime Olympics.
“I’d in fact stop hockey in higher education due to the fact I got into a period where I just did not enjoy it any more. But as quickly as I quit, I was like, ‘I’m missing a little something from my lifetime.’”
Wang’s initial work out of college or university was working for the U.S. govt, performing worldwide trade in Middletown, Connecticut. If companies wished to export or import to or from China, Wang would aid facilitate it.
His father, Anfu Wang, introduced up the plan of global hockey.
Wang was hesitant at first, he mentioned, but then made the decision: Let us do it.
“I give up my position and went to Finland for coaching,” he claimed. “Then immediately after my first period, I obtained harm. My staff was like, ‘You can talk Chinese and you can communicate English and you know hockey. You’re like a unicorn.’”
They encouraged him to turn into a mentor. Wang was hesitant — he’d just stop his job to grow to be a player.
“They instructed me I could mentor in the Olympics for Team China,” Wang mentioned. “I imagined, ‘Wow! Which is a rather exclusive practical experience.’”
He coached with the Chinese National Staff for a 12 months and served choose the crew to the Globe Championships in Tilburg, Netherlands.
“That was a lot of enjoyable. It was a lot of journey, but it was genuinely high level hockey, and that was a blast,” he explained. “I really pass up that. But then Covid transpired.”
Wang may well nevertheless be tempted back to the hockey world to mentor the Chinese women’s staff. “So I’m type of caught in the middle yet again,” he mentioned. “If I do get the position, will I pack my bags and go? Or will I keep right here?”
Thankfully, his loved ones in Ames may perhaps be in a position to assistance if he takes the hockey path once more.
Wang’s mothers and fathers have numerous a long time of restaurant practical experience. “They employed to perform at HyVee,” he reported. “They owned May Dwelling just before it was May perhaps Household. They’ve assisted me a good deal.”
His mother and father did not accurately see his vision for Ichiban when he first started out preparing his restaurant, Wang stated. But they are on board now.
At first he was strictly likely to offer sushi tacos, he said, right after tasting the dish when he was in Korea.
“I thought it was a good idea,” he explained. “They get seaweed and they fry it tempura and then fill it with sushi filling. It is like to-go sushi.”
Whilst he strategies to incorporate sushi tacos to the menu at some issue in the potential, Wang made the decision he was limiting himself if he just had that one menu product in his Japanese cafe.
His concept to consist of ramen on the menu also occurred to him when he was touring in Korea.
“Korea was a substantial inspiration for me for Japanese foods,” he claimed. “I had a great deal of Japanese meals in China, but that time I was in Korea and experienced ramen, I was like: What is this? This is daily life-changing.”
Hockey has had a massive impact in Wang’s lifetime considering that his childhood. Although he’s from Ames, he attended high college in Minnesota to engage in hockey.
“Hockey has introduced me everywhere. And Ichiban brought me back again home,” Wang reported.