Noraneko, a Southeast Portland ramen shop with ties to one of the Portland food scenes important early Japanese restaurants, does not plan to reopen after the coronavirus pandemic, co-owner Gabe Rosen wrote in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive.com.

In the best of times (which was usually!), Noraneko was a tough spot to operate, Rosen wrote. We were an entirely (noodles excepted) from-scratch restaurant that paid staff well and tried to do everything that we could to make a great experience for guests, be authentic to ourselves and delicious, and try and stay relatively affordable.

"Every year this got more and more difficult.

Rosen says he has kept busy winding down Noraneko and decompressing after 13 years in the restaurant business.

Noraneko, Japanese for alleycat, opened on Southeast Water Avenue in 2014, forming a mini Portland ramen row with the nearby Boke Bowl. It was the second restaurant from Rosen and partner Kina Voelz, whos earlier izakaya, Biwa, helped teach Portland what good ramen could be. Biwa closed in 2018.

In a 2015 review written just after a week-long ramen eating adventure in Tokyo, I praised the boiled gyoza, fresh-squeezed juices and toppings -- its easy to forget how hard it was to find a properly boiled ramen egg back then -- while guessing it would slot in next to places like Mirakutei as a good every day bowl of ramen.

And thats just what happened. Even as Portland got swept up in a mini wave of real-deal Tokyo ramen imports such as Kizuki (now Kukai), Marukin and Afuri, Noraneko often beckoned to bike riders heading home on the Hawthorne Bridge, its neon and shadowy locale offering the closest thing to a Bladerunner-ish noodle shop in Portland. Ill miss those boiled gyoza.

-- Michael Russell, mrussell@oregonian.com, @tdmrussell

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Noraneko, noted Southeast Portland ramen shop, will not reopen after coronavirus crisis - OregonLive