Meet Doom Noodle, New Haven's Ramen Pop-up Restaurant

Doom Noodle, a weekly ramen pop-up restaurant will launch this Sunday, September 27 at Firehouse 12 in New Haven.  

The pop-up's weekly core menu will offer two options for ramen, a weekly bao offering, and shrimp chips, available as eat-in or take-out. Drinks will be available separately from the Firehouse 12 cocktail menu. Dinner starts on Sundays at  6 pm until they sell out.

The duo behind Doom Noodle, Jordan Waters and Molly Kennedy, are recent New Haven transplants who enjoyed participating in a weekly supper club. Jordan, who assumes the cooking responsibilities, and Molly, the creative who will run the front of house, see Doom Noodle as an evolution of their club and a reflection of what they like to eat. 

From left to right: Jordan Waters and Molly Kennedy of Doom Noodle, with Jennifer Milikowsky of Walden Hill Pork

The menu will offer two ramen options: a tonkatsu-style pork ramen utilizing Walden Hill pork, and a Sapporo-style vegetarian option with a buttery miso-based broth. Although the two ramen options are carefully researched bowls of ramen thanks to Jordan and Molly, they are not a strict derivation of any one ramen style. “I would call it ‘hapa ramen,’ it’s asian-american pulling from many styles and a reflection of the comfort food that we both really like to eat,” explained Jordan, when I inquired about Doom Noodle’s own style.

In addition to Sun noodles, pork ramen comes standard with a slow poached egg, fresh corn and scallions, chashu pork belly, and nori. The miso standard includes a slow poached egg, fresh corn, scallions, and nori. Either bowl can add chashu, a fresh shucked blue point oyster, or fish cake (narutomaki).  

Doom Noodle has carefully selected Walden Hill pork for both the broth and the chashu pork. Walden Hill specializes in acorn finished pork raised in New England, and in this case slaughtered in the week leading up to the Sunday dinner. In addition to supplying Doom Noodle with bone-in pork bellies for the pork ramen, Walden Hill is also supplying the trotters, hocks and bones for the broth, as well as tongue and potentially other cuts for the baos. “I’m excited to promote other parts of the pig. The lesser known doesn’t mean less delicious,” explains Jennifer Millikowsky, Walden Hill founder, who may have coined one of my favorite hashtags, #trottersintotreasure.

Doom Noodle, a pop-up ramen shop, will launch at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, Connecticut beginning September 27 at 6 pm and then again on subsequent Sundays thereafter. Cash or credit, eat-in or takeout.