Work is beginning on the site of the new Kokuu Ramen and Sushi Bar going into the Orchard Town Center near Dick’s Sporting Goods.
The new restaurant, which will be located at 2431 Troy Road, will be the first Illinois location for the restaurant.
Erika Heil, the Glen Carbon director of community development, said the village has had a pre-construction meeting with the restaurant.
“They should be starting to look at that soon,” Heil said during the July 22 Building and Development Committee meeting. “And that should be open, I would say, probably 90 to 100 days.”
The restaurant is owned by Johnny Chen and the general manager of the Glen Carbon site is Zilin Zhang.
“We decided to open one right there because there’s no ramen place around there that is traditional, so we want to spread our traditional ramen everywhere,” Zhang said during a May interview with The Intelligencer.
Kokuu currently has a site in Kirkwood, Missouri, where it offers homemade Ramen and a variety of sushi. Owner Johnny Chen also owns Sushi AI, which has multiple locations in the St. Louis area.
“It’s closer so more people can have less distance to enjoy ramen so they can travel less,” Zhang said.
Karla Vasquez Mejia contributed to this story.
AloJapan.com