Spokane’s culinary scene will warm up just in time for winter with the addition of a new ramen restaurant in the Washington Cracker Co. building at 304 W. Pacific, in downtown Spokane.

Nekojita Ramen is tentatively expected to open in November, says chef Joseph O’Neal.

“Just imagine your mother’s chicken noodle soup, but with some extra love to it,” says O’Neal.

The restaurant will share a 2,000-square-foot space with Inland Pacific Kitchen, located above Hogwash Whiskey Den, he says.

O’Neal, a Spokane culinary veteran who currently serves as executive chef at Hogwash Whiskey Den, but will soon “pass the baton" to someone else, says the menu is inspired by his love for ramen and Japanese food. He says he recently spent the month of May in Japan and fell in love with the cuisine.

“I’m still processing the trip now,” O’Neal says. “It was for self-development, a little bit of self-growth, and reflection on myself. I had my 'Eat, Pray, Love' moment.”

He says he returned to Spokane with a deeper appreciation for ramen and other Japanese cuisine.

“I just fell in love with it even more,” he says. “It really opened my eyes to how versatile the dish is. The definition of ramen is alkaline noodles and broth and that there you can do anything you want, any kind of broth.”

O’Neal says menu items will consist of Japanese-inspired street food, including "PNW mushroom shoyu," a ramen dish made with regionally-sourced mushrooms; vegetable dashi, a Japanese soup stock; white truffle oil; plum jam; spring onion; and other ingredients. Also on the menu is lamb tantanmen, a ramen dish that includes 100% lamb meatballs, clear bone broth, Sichuan chili oil, toasted sesame, and charred broccolini. All dishes will be served with house-made alkaline noodles.

While inspired by Japanese culture, O’Neal says the restaurant concept is driven by his passion for ramen.

“I want to make it very clear that this is inspiration,” O’Neal says. “I’m not claiming to be authentic. This is just a passion project. This is love for the culture, and overall, just in noodles themselves.”

Although ramen will be the initial focal point of the menu, other items will eventually be added as the restaurant grows, including other street foods and noodle varieties, he says. 

O’Neal says his passion for ramen began a few years ago, when he added the dish — now a popular item — to the Hogwash Whiskey Den menu. 

“I nerded out on it so hard. I’ve had ramen in Los Angeles in Little Tokyo, and I’ve had it in Seattle. The best bowl I had was in the Tokyo airport — it blew my mind how simple it is and how delicious it can be,” he recalls. “So I got a taste of it, I did my research, I bought my books, and I used Reddit, and I just studied.”

Hogwash Whiskey Den will oversee Nekojita's bar menu, O’Neal says.

“They have a milk punch that they made called the Nekojita milk punch, and they have a Nekojita old-fashioned,” he says. 

Inland Pacific Kitchen currently operates brunch in the space Friday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., O’Neal says. Nekojita will open after Inland Pacific Kitchen closes, although hours are still tentative. O'Neal aims to open Nekojita four days a week.

“The end goal is to open late fall if everything goes as planned,” he says. “Hours are up for debate because we’re going to be limited on how much broth I can make. The goal is to be open four days a week.” 

Nekojita is co-owned by Darby and Jovanka McKee, who also own Hogwash Whiskey Den and Inland Pacific Kitchen under the name PAC304 LLC. The three restaurants share a kitchen, with Hogwash Whiskey Den in charge of the bar programs. O’Neal says this kind of shared model is common in metropolitan areas.

“It’s a great way to share products,” he says. “And it’s a great way to have different diverse foods under one roof … and a great way to share a kitchen.”

Darby McKee agrees that the restaurants work better under a multiconcept model.

“We tend to see better success when the teams are passionate and are a part of building the concept,” Darby McKee says. “That is what we have had with Hogwash and (Inland Pacific Kitchen), and that is what we are pursuing with the team on this new concept.”

The 42,000-square-foot Washington Cracker Co. building is co-owned by Darby McKee through Cracker Box LLC. Among the tenants in the three-story building are Overbluff Cellars LLC and Anvil Coffee LLC, both of which are co-owned by the McKees.

Currently, Nekojita is hosting monthly pop-up events featuring the tentative restaurant menu. Its first pop-up, held in early September, sold out within the first hour, O’Neal says. A second pop-up is scheduled for Oct. 7.

The restaurant's name, Nekojita, is inspired by a phrase used in Japan, O'Neal says.

"It's a very common phrase, or word, used in Japan for people that are a bit slower at eating hot food that burns their tongue, hence a cat's tongue," he says. "So I thought it would be a delicious irony, as it stuck with me, how clever it would be to name a noodle shop after that. You know, when you're anxiously waiting for this piping hot bowl of ramen to cool down, hence you have cat's tongue."

Small Bites: 

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