Crafty Ramen See how these Ontario restaurateurs are creating a buzz in grocery with their unique meal kits

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GETTING CRAFTY

These ramen restaurateurs pivoted to selling meal kits during the pandemic. Now, their products can be found in Ontario grocery stores

By Andrea Yu Photography by Tobi Asmoucha

When Miki FerrALL and her husband Jared moved from

Japan (where Miki is from) to Guelph, Ont. (where Jared is from) in 2016, Miki felt a longing for her home country—the food especially. “Ramen is one of those comfort foods that we both really love,” Miki says. But there were no ramen shops in Guelph at the time. Jared has a culinary background (he’s a Red Seal-certified chef who has worked in high-end restaurants in Canada and Japan), so it was a natural fit for the couple to open a ramen restaurant.

Jared would be in charge of the kitchen, while Miki would manage the front-ofhouse operations. Crafty Ramen opened in downtown Guelph in 2017, 10 minutes away from where Khalil Khamis lived. At the time, Khamis had been operating five Harvey’s and Swiss Chalet franchise restaurants with his family in the Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo areas. Aside from being a fan of the restaurant himself, he saw the potential of Crafty Ramen. “I thought they did an incredible job with the restaurant,” Khamis explains. “I was like, ‘Hey, I’m passionate about food and

I know the restaurant world. We should partner.’” By November 2019, the trio opened a second Crafty Ramen location in Kitchener with a longer-term vision to open five restaurants in five years. Then, just a few months later, COVID19 hit. “Survival mode started to kick in,”

Khamis recalls. “We thought about what we could do to generate revenue and bring our

Crafty Ramen experience to customers.” By mid-April 2020, the trio had developed a ramen meal kit that customers could prepare at home. The kit included everything—a protein, broth, noodles and toppings—customers would need to make a bowl of ramen in their own kitchens. It would be the first ramen meal-kit subscription the trio knew of, and within weeks the kits were selling out in minutes. “We started to get people messaging us from all over the country asking us to ship it to them,” Jared recalls. So, in

December 2020, the company launched an e-commerce platform to service more parts of Ontario, including Ottawa,

Kingston, the Muskokas and the Greater

Toronto Area. At the same time, the team also launched its own chili oil called

Szechuan Tears. It was in January 2021 that independent grocery stores began calling. “They were reaching out and saying, ‘Hey, this is cool. Nobody’s doing this. We’d love to sell your product’,” Khamis explains. But selling in grocery stores required the team to reformulate their kit to have a longer shelf life. The solution was to develop a frozen kit instead, which would also allow it to be shipped and sold further afield while still maintaining quality.

Recognizing the potential for their grocery and e-commerce businesses to grow even larger, the trio then raised $3.5 million from a group of investors in Toronto. “It was a pretty incredible feat,” Jared recalls. “We had an idea and we got validation from the investor community to help us grow.”

Growing is what they did. In November 2021, they opened a production facility in Waterloo. Then, in the following summer, Crafty Ramen brought on a sales partner that got their noodles and chili oil on the shelves of six Whole Foods Market locations in Ontario, as well as a handful of independent Loblaws and Foodland stores in the province. By October of this year, the trio appeared in an episode of Dragons’ Den, landing a $600,000-deal with Arlene Dickinson for a 12% stake in the company. In that same month, Crafty Ramen began shipping kits to Vancouver and cities in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.

The company now employs about 30 staff between its two restaurants, plus 25 people at its Waterloo production facility, and five office and operations staff. Crafty Ramen’s kits and products can now be found in more than 100 grocery stores, mostly in Ontario. And the trio shows no signs of slowing down. They’re currently in talks to partner with a national distributor who would bring Crafty Ramen’s products into grocery stores across Canada. They’re also launching a ready-made “heat and eat” option in 2023. “This one is for the super convenience-focused customer who doesn’t necessarily have time for the meal-kit experience, but still wants high-quality, restaurant-style ramen at home,” Khamis explains. Two more restaurant openings are also in the books for 2022, both in Toronto.

Looking back at their journey, Miki says being part of Crafty Ramen has made Canada feel more like home. “One day, I want to see a Crafty Ramen restaurant in the Toronto airport,” she says. “So, when I go to Japan, I go home. And when I arrive back in Canada, I can have ramen and feel like I’m home, too.” CG

30 seconds with… MIKI & JARED FERRALL AND KHALIL KHAMIS

What do you like best about your job?

JARED: I love learning in constant change. MIKI: I like the freebies [laughs]. Like, if a brewery opens up nearby, they offer us some samples. We’ve received a lot of free samples that way. KHAMIS: The people. Continuing to provide different and better opportunities for our team as we grow.

What inspires you and keeps you passionate about what you do?

KHAMIS: The feedback we get from our customers. Over and over, we get amazing feedback on the tastes and flavours that come out of our kitchens. JARED: My answer is going to be boring because it’s the learning and innovation again that drives me. MIKI: For me, it’s the people—our crew and customers. As more people get involved with Crafty Ramen, our identity changes. These ongoing changes keep me interested.

If you weren’t in the food business, what would you be doing?

MIKI: I love fashion. JARED: Construction. I like to work with my hands and make things. KHAMIS: I would be some type of travel blogger. I absolutely love travelling.

What do you like to do when you're not working?

KHAMIS: Philanthropy, golf and travel. JARED: Spending time with my wife and my daughter. MIKI: I like skiing, karate and I enjoy doing crafts, like sewing.

What is your favourite food?

MIKI: Japanese food and sea urchin. KHAMIS: Outside of ramen, it’s Indian food and dim sum. JARED: My last meal would be a bowl of ramen or a full English breakfast.