Photos by Steven
Strings Ramen has closed at 188 Second Ave. on the SE corner of 12th Street.
Last night was the grand finale for the Chicago-based ramen chainlet.
The sign for patrons states, in part: "Due to COVID, we have experienced extremely tough time for running the business... We are truly sorry and sad to see this happen."
Strings, a regular on the best-of ramen lists in its home turf of Chicago, never had much of a chance here... opening in early February 2020, with about six weeks of business before the pandemic-era PAUSE of March 2020. (And it also doesn't help that the neighborhood has a lot of ramen options.)
As previously noted, the restaurants at 188 Second Ave. haven't fared well in recent years (at least since old-timer Shima got rent-hiked out of here in January 2014). Lumos Kitchen lasted three months in 2018. Others to make quick departures in the past five years were Hot Pot Central, DumplingGuo and Dumpling Go.