The neon sign that hangs above Osaka Ramen will turn off for good later this month after pointing the way to the sub-level restaurant in the River North Art District for nearly a decade.
Chef Jeff Osaka, who opened his eponymous restaurant, at 2611 Walnut St., in the fall of 2015, said in a statement Wednesday that his last day of business will be Sunday, Feb. 23.
“The decision to close comes amid significant challenges facing Denver’s restaurant industry, including rising ingredient costs and an evolving economic landscape,” he said in the statement. Osaka also cited increasing labor costs due to a tip credit for restaurant owners that has failed to keep up with the “high minimum wage” in Denver.
Osaka Ramen is known both for its traditional soups and for the James Beard Award-nominated chef’s unusual takes — including his famous chorizo green chile ramen. Over the years, the restaurant aged into one of the more respected ramen spots in the city, earning the top spot in The Denver Post’s annual food bracket challenge for the best ramen last year.
In his statement, Osaka said the team “extends their deepest gratitude to the foodies who have supported the ramen shop through the years, including during the pandemic, making the journey both possible and extraordinary.”
Osaka closed four of his five Sushi-Rama locations last fall, telling The Denver Post at the time that “the cost of doing business is expensive from food costs to labor costs, on top of playing catch up for the last three years after COVID. We just decided that the effort we were putting into didn’t make sense with our return on investment, which was barely getting us by.”
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