Rockin’ Ramen

TALKING TO STEVEN PURSLEY about ramen can be like discussing brain surgery with a medical professor: The conversation can easily drift into esoteric areas and terms that are unknown to the common person. Suffice it to say, Pursley, who “studied” ramen in Japan, knows the subject well. After a series of successful ramen pop-ups, he’ll open Menya Rui (“Menya” is a noodle house; “Rui” is Pursley’s given name), a 25-seat ramen shop that will soothe the soul.

What was the impetus to After considering law school and briefly engineering school, I decided to move to Japan. I had been working in kitchens since high school, and cooking still interested me. I was half Japanese and grew up in Union, so this was partly an identity search, too.