Ramen restaurant Hot Noodles, Cold Sake is closing in Scottsdale
3 min read
For more than half a decade, Valley diners could only enjoy a bowl of chef Joshua Hebert’s ramen once a week, when his fine-dining restaurant Posh would transform into a Japanese food speakeasy of sorts. Though Posh was primarily known for its tasting menu dinners, Hebert developed a reputation for serving some of metro Phoenix’s best bowls of noodles and soup, which he offered only during pop-up events.
That is until he opened Hot Noodles, Cold Sake in Scottsdale in 2016 and started serving bowls of goma, shoyu and miso ramen seven days a week. Fans were understandably excited.
But now, time is running out for customers to get their fix. Hebert confirmed to The Arizona Republic on Wednesday that the popular fast-casual restaurant will close before the end of March.
Hebert says he hopes to “be as busy as possible for the next two weeks to sell as much ramen as I can and feed the foodies of the world a great bowl of ramen before it’s gone.”
Here’s why Hot Noodles, Cold Sake is closing
Hot Noodles, Cold Sake is located at 15689 North Hayden Road, just west of Loop 101 and south of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard. The restaurant’s last day in business will be March 27, Hebert told The Republic.
“COVID has been tough, but my lease was up and I couldn’t commit to five more years without knowing what a post-COVID business level looked like,” the chef wrote in an email.
Like all Arizona restaurants, Hot Noodles, Cold Sake was not open for dine-in service for parts of 2020 due to state-mandated restaurant closures implemented to combat the spread of COVID-19.
The good stuff:This mail order ramen is food critic approved
The fast-casual restaurant offers a tight menu of ramen and appetizers such as gyoza, steamed buns and shishito peppers. Hebert is best known for his signature goma ramen, inspired by a bowl he used to eat at a ramen shop in the Gotanda neighborhood of Tokyo. It’s made with char-siu pork fat, minced garlic, shallots, ginger and sesame paste and finished with a slab of char-siu pork.
The menu often featured non-traditional styles of ramen including Filipino-inspired sisig ramen and bowls topped with smoked brisket from award-winning spot Little Miss BBQ.
What’s next for chef Joshua Hebert?
On Wednesday, Hebert did not have any immediate plans for new locations of Hot Noodles, Cold Sake or any other restaurant concepts — though the chef didn’t rule out the possibility of being able to serve his ramen to metro Phoenix diners in the future.
A potential opportunity “may in the intermediate term, allow me to get the whole ramen night thing started again, as a bit of a long shot, but we will see,” the chef wrote.
Hebert has been a leading chef in the Valley culinary scene for more than a decade and early in his career worked for chef Mark Tarbell at his namesake Phoenix restaurant. He went on to open Posh Improvisational Cuisine near Old Town Scottsdale, which was known for offering customized, or “improvisational,” menus tailored to each diner’s stated dining preferences. He closed the restaurant after 8 years in 2017.
Hebert was also part of a cohort of Arizona chefs who traveled to New York City to cook at the famed James Beard House in 2015.
Hot Noodles, Cold Sake
Details: 15689 N. Hayden Road, Scottsdale. 480-432-9898, hotnoodlescoldsake.com.
Reach the reporter at [email protected]. Follow her on Instagram at laurensaria, on Twitter at lhsaria and on Facebook at facebook.com/lsaria.
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