Today we’d like to introduce you to Weston Lay.
Weston, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I took over Ramen Haus in Ogden in March of 2020, in the height of COVID pandemic. I had a dream to own a successful local business and when I saw this opportunity I jumped on the chance. I had always had a unique passion for Japanese food due to my half-Japanese upbringing. When I officially took the reigns it was March of 2020 and the governor had just decreed all restaurants to shut their doors. This new business venture had no website, no online presence, and no take-out process. I immediately went to work building these things and making sure that the community could also survive this terrible time. Luckily the Ogden community really propped local business up and really came out to support the local establishments. Without the community we would not have survived. I was able to grow this restaurant in the middle of one of the worst times for food service.
In addition to growing our restaurant during this time one of the coolest things we did was offer free food to locals that brought it 10 paper cranes. In Japan, the 1,000 paper crane story is famous and meaningful during difficult times. Using this story we were able to offer guests free appetizers for bringing 10 cranes into the store and that’s why even to this day you can see paper cranes hanging in both of our stores as a symbol of this trying, but unifying time.
Since then we have served the homeless a number of times using our Food Truck and always support local Japanese focused events by serving our amazing Ramen. We have won the Best of State Award for 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
COVID was a huge challenge for us. Like I mentioned above, it really started the journey for me and it was the most stressful and incredible journey of our time. Since then we have opened a new store front and dealing with multiple storefronts has been an incredible challenge but also an amazing journey as well. The Food Truck has also been an incredibly rewarding challenge to tackle as well.
Building a good team is always a rewarding challenge as well. It’s something that I absolutely love about the restaurant business. The best kinds of people work in restaurants and being able to teach leadership and growth to an amazing team has been an awesome experience for us.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I’m the owner of Ramen Haus and we provide Authentic Japanese Ramen to the community. We strive for Quality, Consistency and Experience. I provide the leadership for the team and guide the vision and direction of the business.
How do you define success?
Success is making good food and seeing light in customers eyes as they experience their first bite of something they have never tasted before. It’s providing a new experience to people and changing their perspective or their opinion on something they may have never experienced otherwise.
Pricing:
- Typical Ramen – $15
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ramenhaus.com
- Instagram: @ramen.haus
