Kin Kin Urban Thai closes; ramen restaurant to move in
Kin Kin Urban Thai, the upscale West 7th Thai restaurant opened last year by Dallas-based chef Eddy Thretipthuangsin, has closed.
It will be replaced by a ramen restaurant led by former Little Lilly Sushi chef Jesus Garcia.
The new restaurant will be called Oni Ramen and will open in two to three months, Garcia says. The 3,500-square-foot space will undergo a remodel, with additional patio seating and, Garcia hopes, an open kitchen.
"The biggest change will be to the patio," he says. "We want to make it more attractive, more inviting."
The menu will consist of at least seven types of ramen, along with a handful of appetizers.
Garcia says it will be modeled after Austin's popular Ramen Tatsu-Ya, where patrons order at a counter, then wait for food to be delivered to their tables. "It's a fast-casual concept, but it's how most ramen restaurants operate," Garcia says.
The new spot will mark Garcia's return to Fort Worth. The Houston-born chef was executive chef at critically acclaimed Little Lilly Sushi, on Camp Bowie Blvd., when it opened in 2012.
Garcia, 28, left Little Lilly Sushi in 2014 and headed to Seattle, where he began training as a ramen chef, working for restaurants that included Hokkaido Ramen Santouka and Kukai Ramen & Izakaya.
Garcia's spot won't be far from Hanabi Ramen & Izakaya, Fort Worth's first ramen restaurant, opened last year in the museum district, just a few blocks from the West 7th area.
"It'll definitely be different," he says. "I'll be doing at least one pork broth but a lot of people don't like pork or can't eat pork, so I'll be doing other types of broths that'll incorporate chicken, duck and turkey."
Kin Kin Urban Thai was the second of chef "Eddy T's" restaurants to open and close in Fort Worth. Last year, Bite City Grill, in the Montgomery Plaza, closed after a year in business. Kin Kin closed on Sunday, a little over a year after opening.
This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Kin Kin Urban Thai closes; ramen restaurant to move in."