Where exactly: The restaurant will be at 6830 West 119th Street in Leawood in a space formerly occupied by Which Wich.

• It will be right across the street from La Paloma Plaza shopping center and also near the redeveloping Overland Crossing retail area.

About the restaurant: KC Craft Ramen’s owners Kenichi Ota and Hiro Kawashima say they are aiming for a February opening.

• They plan to serve handmade ramen dishes, in addition to handmade dumplings, using pork, chicken or vegetable broth.
• The restaurant will also have a noodle machine on hand to make the noodles from scratch.

Backstory: Ota and Kawashima have worked in the food industry for the past decade.

• The duo is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and have had hand in operating a number of ramen restaurants across the country.
• Ota also directed a Ramen festival in California and teaches at a ramen culinary school there.

Bigger picture for ramen in Kansas City

As Japan natives, Ota said he and Kawashima wanted to find the best ramen in the United States.

• They chose Johnson County partly because they found the handmade aspect was missing from local ramen shops in the area and wanted to fill a void in the market.
• Ota and Kawashima plan to open more Kansas City area locations later, on both the Kansas and Missouri sides of the state line.

In their own words: “We’re coming here from California and we want to stay as long as possible” Ota said. “It’s not only a business — we want to connect with the community, that’s our goal.”