Story · Wicker Park since 2016
Loud since day one
Slurp started as twelve stools, one stockpot and a lot of noise. Ten years later the stools are still full and the pot never cools down.
The short version
A twelve-seat room and a borrowed stockpot
Owner Mika Tanaka-Ruiz grew up between Osaka and the South Side, eating ramen at train station counters every summer. Back in Chicago she could never find a bowl that was loud enough.
In 2016 she rented a tiny room on Division, borrowed a stockpot from a friend’s diner and opened with one bowl of tonkotsu. People lined up in the snow, so she kept going.
How it went
Ten years of slurping
Twelve stools, one bowl. The tonkotsu sold out by 8 pm most nights.
We knocked through the wall. Forty seats, a red miso bowl and a lot more noise.
The pickup shelf opened, along with a noodle machine the cooks named Big Bertha.
Eight bowls, a build-your-own board and more than 100,000 noodle refills poured.
What we care about
Three things we never skip
豚
No broth shortcuts
Bones in at dawn, broth out the next morning. No powder, no bases, ever.
麺
Noodles cut daily
Flour, water, kansui and Big Bertha. Fresh every morning at 6 am.
音
Loud is welcome
Slurp, laugh, clink. A quiet ramen bar is a sad ramen bar.
Hungry? Skip the line.
Order ahead and grab your bowl at the pickup shelf by the door. Broth packed hot, noodles packed separate, so nothing goes soggy.