Jinya Ramen is headed to Duluth with a planned location in the Sugarloaf Walk mixed-use development, at 2200 Duluth Hwy. This will be the fourth Jinya Franchisee William Chen will open, with locations in Buckhead, Sandy Springs, and Alpharetta.
Slated for a debut in early 2021, the restaurant will operate out of a 3,241-square-foot corner space in the newly opened development. “We feel like we need a presence up in the Duluth area,” Chen told What Now Atlanta. “We feel like some of our competitors have done well up in the Duluth area, so we felt like having a Jinya up there would put our name out there even more.”
Chen plans on serving the same ramen—noodles, broth, chashu, the whole package—that he serves at his other locations. For him, what makes this Duluth location stand out is the actual location.
“The uniqueness of this one is we’re going to have a big patio where we’re going to install a fire pit table outside where people could eat and enjoy a fire during more brisk weather,” Chen said. “So that’s what’s going to stand out from this location compared to the other locations.”
As this is the first space that Chen is building after the coronavirus outbreak, this location was designed with social distancing in mind. “When we design the space with the architects, we’re taking the approach of making sure if the social distancing requirements are in place by the time we open, we do have the capacity to do that,” Chen said.
Chen also has a Jinya planned for the Poncey-Highland neighborhood but expects that location to open later in 2021.
[Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Jinya’s planned Poncey-Highland location would not open until late-2022. The correct timeline is mid-2021.]
