Morris Ramen in downtown Madison to close

MADISON, Wis. (WMDX) – A beloved downtown Madison ramen shop announced on Tuesday that they are closing their doors. Morris Ramen announced on Instagram that their final day of service will be Saturday, February 24. 

Morris Ramen was opened in 2016 by chef Matt Morris, Shinji Muramoto, and now state Representative Francesca Hong. The restaurant felt major strain at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and didn’t fully reopen until the summer of 2021. In 2022, a GoFundMe was held to help the restaurant stay open. 

“We chose to prioritize our employees and ensure that their wages remained consistent during the pandemic,” they said at the time. “We did so at a loss. While we were planning to resolve this debt on our own, inflation and rising overhead has made it impossible to set aside any money beyond our normal operating costs.”

In a statement on Instagram, Morris Ramen thanked all of their staff and everyone who had come through their doors over the past seven years. “The service industry is relentless and restaurant work takes incredible skill, determination, and teamwork,” they said. “It demands perseverance, a strong sense of self, and grace. This work has never been easy, but working alongside all the world’s best staff helped us trust that we could get through for as long as we did.”

“To be real, dreams die,” they wrote. “We have come to terms with this as it has been an extraordinarily taxing couple of years. I think we are broken in ways we can’t really comprehend yet, but we need to give ourselves time to try to feel it.”

Supporters of the ramen shop poured their condolences on social media after the announcement. “Restaurants come and go but this is a gutting loss,” said one post on Twitter. “Such a wonderful place filled with the best food in town. Very sad to see it go. Thank you for all the amazing meals,” said another on Instagram. 

Morris Ramen will serve their final bowl on Saturday, February 24.