dining
TWISTS AND TURNS ON A JOYOUS CULINARY RIDE
7Doors Down Ramen Co . ishard to categorize , but easy to love
WRITTENBYESTHER DAVIDOWITZ PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNE-MARIECARUSO
It ’ snot fancy .
It ’ s asuper-casual , weirdly shaped restaurant with two small dining rooms . One has an open kitchen with asmall dining counter ; the other has more tables , plus , near the reception area , anarrow counter that faces a black wall .
The menu isprinted on two pieces of stapled paper ; the type is so small , the ink so faint , good luck reading it without your phone ’ s flashlight or amagnifying glass . And the music : Is that Arabic music playing in a … ramen joint ?
Yes , it ’ s Arabic , and it ’ s rock , and it ’ s hip-hop . The unpredictable , atypical , idiosyncratic music playing at newly opened 7Doors Down Ramen Co . in Bloomfield isasquirky and crazy and remarkable asthe food it is serving . Food that is difficult to ignore and impossible to forget if , that is , you like your food full ofbold flavor , packed with brightness and verve , and down-to-earth yet — yes ! — different .
The black-clad chefs , decked with baseball caps worn backwards , aren ’ t using tweezers and decorating brushes to dazzle their diners . What executive chef and co-owner Lawrence Talis , head chef Luis Blasini and sous chef Bill Sanders are doing is taking dishes , mostly common dishes — heard
COLD SESAME NOODLES
7 DOORS DOWN RAMEN CO .
271-273 GLENWOOD AVE ., BLOOMFIELD ( 856 ) 543-9480 , 7DOORSDOWN . COM
of ramen ? salmon burger ? What about sesame noodles ?— and giving them a fresh , ingenious , madcap twist that defies easy categorization . The salmon , the ramen , the sesame noodles might look like all those you may have had before , but don ’ t be fooled . They ’ re not . The chefs are dabbling in Nikkei cuisine , an enchanting melding of the culinary traditions of Peru and Japan .
Not familiar with it ? Not to worry ( though if you ’ ve had ceviche , you ’ ve eaten Nikkei ). The kitchen isn ’ t interested in toeing strict culinary lines . It is more interested in challenging , changing , building on them . Its name alone — 7 Doors Down Ramen Co . — isaclue .
Yes , it ’ s seven doors down from Blue Steel Pizza Co ., the other restaurant Talis and his business partner Brian Costello own . But a ramen restaurant ? “ We never intended to open a ramen restaurant ,” Talis says . Heck , he had never made ramen before . “ None of us had ,” he says .
And while they do now and darn well , too — the duck ramen , a hearty bowl of luxuriously thick broth specked with shreds of silky duck confit and sweet Jersey corn kernels , is a flavor extravaganza — ramen serves as an enticement , albeit a truly delicious one , for the restaurant . “ People come for the ramen ,” Talis
30 FALL 2022 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE