Rumplings. Clearly the place to be on Friday Night

Holy Toledo was Rumplings packed to the rafters last night. I wandered by on my weekly pilgrimage to Bunz and thought I would peek in an check out the menu and maybe pick up a quick sample. No dice. The line was out the door and two deep inside. Happy, hungry diners left no moveable space in the dining area and filled the front window with large, fancy bowls of what looked like amazing food. Two patrons I petitioned as they exited were over the moon about the quality of the food and assured me I was in for a treat. Ah, if only. Alas I was on a time table and waiting on line was not an option. However, the family and I have moved this to the top of the "try once the crowd calms down" list and are very excited about it.

What's the word from those of you who have braved the wait?

Yes, I'm very excited to try it, but "when the crowd dies down" is probably when it will be. And, were I 20 years younger and without kids, hitting the spot at 3am sounds totally cool. However....

I'll be at Vietnam Kitchen enjoying various noodles in the warmth of my cozy seat I can get without a wait.

Besides, if I really have to get "ramen," which I don't, I'll go to Hike-O-Mon.

I wonder if the huge response to Rumblings will be an indication to potential small, neighborhood restaurateurs that maybe people want something besides pizza and Mexican...

Eloquently said Ken.

[Robin Garr]

maybe people want something besides pizza and Mexican...

Taco pizza!

We went on Thursday night around 9:30. No wait, but when we were greeted, we were informed no full orders of dumplings and they were out of chicken dumplings. We could get single dumplings with our bowls however. We got Piggy, Kentucky and Banh Mi bowls. Son and husband got beef dumpling with theirs. I could not get a comment or a taste of son's Piggy, the spurping sounds were all I heard. Richard liked his Kentucky bowl once he realized he should stir the cold beef brisket into the hot broth to warm it up. My Banh Mi was very good, the tofu was firm and took on a lot of flavor. The noodles were very good and made for a flavorful, filling meal. According to Face Book, they are selling out every night. Dustin, you guys better look for a bigger place and hire some more noodle makers, this is good stuff! I hope they get take out containers, I could see this as a great meal at home on a cold (or warm!) night.

From what I heard Friday night, the dumpling shortages/outages are becoming chronic. I've got to get over there soon!

I want to visit so badly, as they are just down the street from us! But I can only eat a small portion at a time, and have to take the rest home for later meals, so it looks like I'm stuck until they get some carry-out containers

[Robin Garr]

I want to visit so badly, as they are just down the street from us! But I can only eat a small portion at a time, and have to take the rest home for later meals, so it looks like I'm stuck until they get some carry-out containers

Silly question, Alanna, but they are nice guys, busy but hospitable. What if you brought your own takeout container? You could even take your bowl to a table and discreetly decant it there.

How about it, Ethan? Dustin? Would you guys yell at Alanna if she did this?

I would so do this! And believe me, if it wasn't for my surgical procedure restricting me, I would down the bowl there and go back up for seconds!

I want to visit so badly, as they are just down the street from us! But I can only eat a small portion at a time, and have to take the rest home for later meals, so it looks like I'm stuck until they get some carry-out containers

To address a few things regarding carry-out at Rumplings:

Currently we are not offering carry-out service.

Though we do have containers for guests to take home leftovers. Please just ask. We''d be more than happy to give you one.


As far as carry-out service goes:
Logistically, we're trying to figure out how to make carryout make sense and be fair to the line of guests waiting for a seat at one of our 18 stools.

On a typical night, all our stools are filled and the line is about 30 people deep - constantly.
Trying to incorporate carry-out service is an option we would like to offer at some point in the near future, but as I said before, trying to make it fair to the guests waiting to order (we only take orders if there are seats available).

The kitchen space is tiny - staffed by two chefs; as is our limited refrigeration space. When we say the product is fresh, this is no exaggeration. We literally get orders in every day and that product is prepped that day. I'll put it like this: bones for broth get delivered and go straight in the pot. Vegetable prep, broths, soft cooked eggs, 75-100 lbs of ramen dough (not joking), etc. - DAILY.


There are definitely some things we're toying around with to make the restaurant work better for our clientele and for the team working. Efficiency was first priority and that has improved by leaps and bounds.

As far as selling out, we are pushing the limits of the space (as I mentioned before), there is simply no more room for us to store product - as much as we'd like to. At one point I was making dumplings to order the other night.

We've tossed around a few creative ideas we think will improve things, but it's all a learning process as we grow.
We're going to continually keep making adjustments to better serve our guests and try to accommodate as much as we can. And believe me, we listen to and read all the feedback and take it as cues on where we can improve.

The demand for ramen far exceeded any of our expectations.

We're all very humbled by the support and feedback we've received, and the overwhelming response we've received in just 6 days of being open for business.


On behalf of the entire team at Rumplings,
Thanks Louisville.



-RUMPLINGS

What ethan said- exactly.

To touch on a few other things. Making enough noodles is absolutely not the problem. If you've been in to see us, you've probably seen me behind the "bar" making them to order. Its not an issue of "we are running out so Griffin is making them", it's very simply that our noodles are not good after sitting for more than 30 minutes. They get dry on the outside, gummy on the inside. Most noodle places ship in noodles which have been either A. Dehydrated in a deep fryer or B. Are frozen. That, or IF they make them in house, they dry them on a rack and reconstitute. We won't compromise. Plus, I like to talk (and we all know Ethan doesn't shut up)

Also, we clearly have a small space. When tickets start flying in, it's everything my guys can do to keep up given the space, equipment and storage. To add carry out right now would likely mean we are out of food at midnight instead of 3am. Our initial goal was to cater to people who want quality dining options but work the hours we have always worked.

Example: the Milkwood crew came out 4 different nights, each time within 15 minutes of us running out of food. Given our space, if we offer carry out right now, the people this restaurant was initially intended to serve are cut out of the equation.

We think we have an idea to fix the issues, but we arent getting ahead of ourselves. We are going to focus on what we do well right now, and expand on it when it won't negatively impact our expectations.

And on the topic of bringing your own to go container- totally fine. We also encourage you to bring your own chop sticks, avoid our standard throw aways. We would buy nice chop sticks, but as we've already noticed with our soup spoons- people like to take things that don't necessarily belong to them

Though we do have containers for guests to take home leftovers. Please just ask. We''d be more than happy to give you one.

-RUMPLINGS

You just made my night, Ethan. Possibly even my week, considering I just had my gallbladder and appendix both removed 4 days ago. I will get over there this weekend