Ramen Lab Eatery is an experiment gone right
New Japanese gastropub making big impression
Just south of Mizner Park’s upscale collection of shops and restaurants you can hear the slurping of housemade ramen noodles and bowls of rich broths echoing fromRamen Lab Eatery. Since opening inMarch, this cozy izakaya, or Japanese gastropub, has made a big impression in a short amount of time. Already a cornerstone of the small plaza, it was standing roomonly on a recent Saturday night. Even patio seatswere filled with patrons open to indulging in bowls of hot ramen on a sticky Florida evening under a ceiling fan.
Lunch lines out the door aren’t unusual at here. And from what I witnessed, Ramen Lab Eatery appears to have established a steady takeout business, too. The galley dining roomacco mmodates table seating for a dozen, and10 barstools offer a view of chefs firing food to order as friendly, efficient serverswait. Reclaimedwood accents, dangling Edison bulbs, colorful murals and a chalkboard wall of in-house artistry creates a hip, comfortable vibe.
During our visit, two smiling faces behind the counter greeted diners at the entrance and guided newcomers through the ordering process. Orders are taken at the register and delivered to tables by number. Because the quarters are tight, I couldn’t help but envy a neighbor’s serving ofNanaWings ($10) and ordermy own. I opted for theKFCversion withKorean Gochujan spice over theTFCwith tamarind, micro cilantro, roasted rice and fried shallots. I appreciated the wings’ meaty size, crispy fried skin that brokeway to moist flesh and perfect amount of spice.
Athin circle of dough used for the panseared gyoza ($6) wrapper bolstered the “handcrafted made fresh daily” menu description and allowed the pork filling to shine through the blistered skin. The dumplings are also available stuffed with lobster and shrimp or vegetables.
Bao Bros Buns ($8) get kudos for their soft, airy pillows nestled in a bamboo steamer. I ordered them filled withKorean beef bulgogi and a slice of pickled daikon, balancing flavors while adding crunch. Other choices include chicken karaage, ChaShu pork belly, and Asian mushrooms.
Nanban chicken ($9), with housemade sauce that’s similar to a thin teriyaki, arrived as described. But after savoring the other appetizers thatwere so spot on, itwas underwhelming. Vegetarians might gravitate toward the spiced edamame ($5) with truffle, togarashi and bonito flakes, agedashi tofu ($7) or spicyKorean cauliflower ($7).
Aside fromramen, the menu’s bowls include donburi ($11) and poke bowls made with tuna
The PourMan
Just about all of the words in our native tongue sound deliciouslymysterious and foreign when they are spoken by an inhabitant of that faraway land known as Australia, but some of their winewords have a rhythm all their own, no matter who says them: Barossa, Coonawarra, shiraz and stickies.
Recent statistics list Australia as the sixth-most productive wine country in theworld, though the land DownUnder has been at the game awhile. Wine grapeswere first planted in the 1700s, but the country started truly pushing its exports in the 1980s and ’90s. Within a handful of years, Australianwine bottles, some of them sporting so-called critter labels (featuring wine mascots such as kangaroos), were everywhere.
For the most part, these wineswere recognizable, nonthreatening and cheap. The winewas rarely great, but thatwas never the focus. Eventually Australia said,“Well, thatwas easy— nowlet’s send out better wines,” many of which already existed but had never left home. The push to export those fine wines has been on ever since.
The country iswell known as the home of several giant, dependable, budget-conscious brands— Hardys, Jacob’s Creek— that line grocery store shelves. So, mass-market appeal is still alive andwell, but Australia is also home to thousands of less-visible wineries that make their way here, focusing more on quality than quantity: Henschke, Hewitson, Leeuwin Estate and Tyrrell’s, to name a few. And then you have Penfolds, which is one of the largestwineries the country has ever known, turning out affordable, ubiquitous bottlings, along with one of the finest and most coveted wines in the world: Penfolds Grange.
Aussies love their wine, landing fairly high in the world rankings when it comes to consumption. What a lot of us knowof this place is the cowboy and wildlife-hunter lifestyle of the Outback— the rugged, isolated interior of one of theworld’s largest countries by land mass, though not population. It’s rough in the Outback, which is why most of the country’s people— and wine— are concentrated in a few spots along a sort of fertile ribbon that follows the contours of the southern coast.
Most of the wine regions are clustered in the southeast— in the states ofNew SouthWales, Victoria and South Australia— with a straggler group of regions thriving all theway on the opposite coast, inWestern Australia. Though that ribbon is unconnected— the place is just too huge— it flows generally through thewell-known regions of theHunterValley north of Sydney, down to the Yarra Valley nearMelbourne, and up again andwestward to the city of Adelaide in South Australia, the country’s de factoHQ of wine. The regions Coonawarra, McLaren Vale, AdelaideHills, Eden Valley, the famed Barossa Valley and Clare Valley cluster around that city. On the opposite coast, Margaret River leads the charge for high-quality wine production.
Australia’s most successful and beloved grape variety is shiraz, the Aussie name for the red French grape known as syrah. Besides the country’s sought-after single varietal expression of shiraz, the grape also has a common blending partner in cabernet sauvignon and is a key player in Oz’s famousGSM blends, short for grenache, shiraz and mourvedre, a version of Rhone’s famous blending formula. Cabernet sauvignon makes for another successful Australian varietal, and on the white side, Australia produces lots of great chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, semillon and riesling (which is mostly dry, citrusy and tangy).
I’m not sure howthey feel about Barbies down there, but they love their barbies, the Aussie handle for barbecue grills. Even in a place so large, you could say that there is a sort of national consensus on grilling. Naturally many of the wines they make marry well to the wide variety of open-fire cooking because Australian wines are, for the most part, big and friendly, like the blokeswe imagine traversing the treacherous Outback.
The country also turns out bubbles (including sparkling shiraz) and dessert wines, some in the style of port or sherry, known down there as “stickies” for the reasons you can imagine. It’s a delicious moniker, not only because of its uniqueness but also because of the mirth it injects into the diverse wine style— the kind you drink with sweets at the end of a satisfying feast.
Easy-to-read labels, clearly marked with the varietal or wine style in the bottle, make Australian wine shopping a snap. Just keep in mind that there is much more to Australia than the Outback— both in geography and spirit— and much more to Australian wine than the budgetfriendly global brands. Check back here in coming weeks for more about Australian wines fromspecific parts of the country.