The restaurateurs who’ve brought high-end tacos, pizza and sushi to downtown Colorado Springs now are doing the same with ramen.

Night Ramen, a gourmet ramen restaurant that will feature a half-dozen ramen dishes and a dozen small plates, opens at 5 p.m. Friday at 324 E. Pikes Peak Ave. on downtown’s east edge.

It’s the latest culinary venture in downtown Colorado Springs by husband-and-wife Jason Wallenta and Riley O’Brien and Jason’s brother, Kris.

The brothers launched Dos Santos Tacos in Denver in 2015 and expanded the concept to South Tejon Street three years later.

Since then, they’ve opened White Pie Pizzeria on South Nevada Avenue and Dos Dos, a Dos Santos spinoff, on North Tejon. Last year Jason and Riley separately launched Sushi Row, also on North Tejon.

“We’re an upscale, modern, Asian cuisine, ramen bar,” Kris Wallenta said of Night Ramen. “It’s about stuff that’s, I think, recognizable. … We’re not selling these wild ideas of traditional Japanese cuisine. We’re recreating and being inspired by classics that we love, classics that we’ve enjoyed and that we eat when we go out to places.”

Kris Wallenta leads the creation of food and menu concepts for the brothers’ restaurants. In the case of Night Ramen, he said he and Jason were inspired by a visit to a tiny Japanese food counter in San Francisco 10 to 15 years ago, where they were wowed by the eatery’s flavorful mix of broth, noodles, protein toppings, herbs, basil and cilantro.

“I had never tasted anything like that before,” Kris said. “That was kind of like a mind-opening experience in terms of Asian cuisine and in terms of broth and noodles.

“Ever since then, it’s been in our heads, it’s kind of been in the back of our heads, it’s been something we’ve talked about, something we search out when we do go on trips and travel, is trying to find those kind of experiences,” Kris said. “Maybe that was a starting point back in 2010, having that meal. Maybe that was the genesis of that. Whether we knew it or not at the time, it was something that piqued our interest.”

Jason Wallenta said he, Riley and Kris personally enjoy ramen, but also love the idea of sharing bowls and plates that comes with a ramen restaurant.

“The concept is bringing our style of service and food to the Springs, but in the ramen, Japanese-inspired food culture,” Jason said.

In addition to ramen bowls such as chicken shoyu, spicy pork miso and beef short rib shoyu, and small plates that include deviled eggs, pork dumplings, mushroom fries and sticky ribs, Night Ramen serves beer, wine, cocktails and sake.

Night Ramen’s name comes from the fact that the restaurant will operate in the early evening and at night — from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The restaurant is closed Monday.

Being open for limited hours will be something different for the Wallentas’ restaurants, and will allow Night Ramen’s staff to concentrate on providing top-flight food and service for a dinner audience, Jason said.

“We like lunch, we like dinner, but we wanted a place that would have a smaller staff, a more focused direction,” Jason said. “If you have everyone working one specific shift, six nights of the week, they’re going to be on their game.”

The restaurant has been designed with a mix of new and old features.

It makes use of original red- and blue-painted cinder block walls and existing floors, while it also has an open kitchen for diners to see food being prepared.

Riley, who designed the restaurant, said it has some eye-catching touches, such as walls adorned with dozens of battery operated “lucky cat” figurines that wave at guests and custom-made, overhead silken bamboo lanterns. There’s seating for about 65 people inside the restaurant, and a garage door opens up to patio seating.

“We just kind of wanted to have something completely different here, design driven,” Riley said. “When you’re coming in, you completely feel transported. You don’t feel like you’re in Colorado Springs; you feel like you’re in a different environment altogether. We just love kind of keeping people guessing. … We just wanted it to feel kind of funky, and kind of, ‘what am I looking at, what is this?’”

The owners signed a lease two years ago for space at the 324 E. Pikes Peak building, Jason said.

The 1940s-era structure, which originally was home to an auto dealership and in recent years housed a thrift shop and antique store, has been made over by owner and developer Dan Robertson for mixed uses. CLAY Venues, a wedding and event center space that’s been open since early 2021, operates next door to Night Ramen.

Though Night Ramen’s location is two blocks from downtown’s Tejon Street restaurant and retail corridor, it’s also a short walk from hundreds of residences that have been built and opened on downtown’s east edge in recent years.

Those projects include the 321-unit Fiona apartments and several for-sale condominiums in the Pueblo Bank & Trust building across the street; the 171-unit 333 ECO apartments a block south at Colorado and Wahsatch avenues; and the 217-unit Pikes Peak Plaza apartments a little farther east at Pikes Peak Avenue and Prospect Street.

“Everything’s been downtown, but we feel like there’s a push more to this east side of downtown,” Jason said. “When we found out about these other new apartments going in, we’re excited. We saw the future.

“Now we have this neighborhood that’s growing,” he said. “There’s tons of walkability. It’s on the up and up. I think it’s going to be a new fun area. At night, there’s ton of people walking around. There’s a new bakery down the street. It’s a young, vibrant crowd moving over here, and we’re really excited. It’s going to be a great little neighborhood joint.”