New Business BY ANGELA MATUA noodles IN QUEENS Creator of Ramen Burger to open restaurant in LIC Queens residents will no longer have to travel out of the borough to pick up a Ramen Burger. Created by Chef Keizo Shimamoto in 2013, the burger – a beef patty topped with arugula, shoyu sauce and scallion between two ramen noodle buns – exploded with popularity. Shimamoto opened a ramen restaurant in the Financial District and also sells his burgers in California and New York at places like Brooklyn Flea and Smorgusburg. Last year, the burger made its Queens debut at Queens Smorgasburg in Long Island City but was only offered on Saturdays for a few months. On Aug. 26, Shimamoto announced on Facebook that he would open a permanent popup in Long Island City. A year and a half ago, Shimamoto began leasing a space at 13-13 40th Ave. and used it as his central kitchen to prep all of the food he sold at locations across the city. It is also the headquarters for his company Go Ramen Go Life, Inc., which provides chefs with quality ingredients and stocks to make their own ramen. Last winter, he started selling his food at Lumpia Shack in the West Village on Sundays and Mondays but quickly found that not having his own space to prep and experiment was not ideal. “There wasn’t that much of a foot traffic there,” Shimamoto said. “We couldn’t really grab a hold of the following that we gained in Smorgasburg. If I’m going to pop up at someone else’s kitchen I don’t want to just be sitting around. It wasn’t my kitchen. I wasn’t able to use the ingredients there and create new things.” He decided to turn his central kitchen into a restaurant so that he could conveniently prep food and create new offerings to share with customers in one location.
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