It’s 9:30pm on Tuesday. Mr Foodie and I are sitting at The Louis bar, enjoying the company of new friends. One of the best things about this projects has been to see the relationships that have formed between different stalls. They share ideas, resources, and of course food.
The food hall was abuzz tonight with word that Ichicoro might be doing some taste testing. The aroma of the broth wafted through the air, confirming our suspicions. About 45 minutes ago, we got word that they would be making a handful of tonkatsu bowls for folks to taste. Here are the preparations:
And then all of a sudden, this comes out of the kitchen:
Imagine the excitement:
Here are some closer shots:
It didn’t take long for us to dig in. Those are wavy sun noodles right there:
The pork belly is so tender and fatty. Amazing. And that broth-double pork broth, so rich and cloudy. Perfect.
Here are the poke guys. They had been waiting, cheering the chefs on, ready to pounce on the long-awaited bowls. They loved them. There’s nothing more fun or more gratifying than to see these stalls rooting for and supporting each other like this.
We caught Tropicaleo owner Gabriel’s reaction to his ramen bowl. He ran from his stall into the ramen stall making a scene. He was clearly having a life changing moment:
Joan Watkins
My husband and I enjoyed a bowl of Ramen Saturday night. Superb! We will dine around the hall and start over again. We love our city and are so proud to have such a great venue downtown.
rachel f
So is the Louis bar fully open now? On Friday they were just serving canned beer.
deepsouthfoodie
It’s semi-open. Beer, wine, some cocktails, amazing bartenders!
AMJ11
So awesome!!