When the staff at Toya Ramen were juggling a full house one day last summer, chef Colin Yoshimoto handed diners two bowls meant to represent both soup and birria beef while behaving like neither. Sure, the noodles were there, with broth in the smaller bowl as might be served tsukemen-style, but Yoshimoto had instructed staff to inform diners that they may “sip it, dip it, or pour it.” Part of a collab dinner with Diego Palacios of the Mexican street food project Machetes, the offering combined braised bone-in short rib with red masa noodles and caldo on the side.
Just a few years ago, birria ramen might have been enough of a hook to fill seats, but the scene has matured, and a more savvy class of ramen heads are looking to see that the fundamentals are in order, first and foremost. To Jeff Extine, a co-owner of Matsunoki Ramen, which has locations downtown and off North Mississippi, this distinction marks a new stage of development, a third wave of Portland ramen. For him, it’s analogous to coffee. Prior to the prevalence of single-origin pour-overs, coffee went through an evolution of mass production, increasing specialization, and subsequent obsession over quality. Ramen’s local
history, however, isn’t quite so linear…