Students start late-night Princess Street ramen shop
By day at 342 Princess St., one might be familiar with the Soup Can, a restaurant specializing in homemade soup, sandwiches, and pretzels. By night, from Thursday to Saturday, 10 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., the store is transformed into a late-night ramen shop.
What started out as a love for anime, and a clothing company started by the two, eventually became a home for Fragil Ramen Shop, run by Queen’s students Ty Ellis (ArtSci ’21) and Caspin Stillwell (ArtSci ’21).
Ellis and Stillwell said their plan to open a late-night ramen shop started when they decided to reinvent their clothing brand, Fragil*. In an interview with The Journal, they explained they wanted to find a way to reach out to more people and to get the brand out to the public.
It was through a lot of work with the Kingston community that people slowly began to learn about their clothing brand, Stillwell said. However, after a trip to the Soup Can and conversation with the owners of the store, the two found themselves setting up the late-night shop.
“We started talking and then the next thing we knew, we were on the same page about opening up the night spot in Kingston,” Ellis said.
Fragil Ramen Shop currently carries three items on their menu, ramen noodles with beef, udon noodles with beef, and a veggie option. Ellis said they like to keep things simple. “The simpler it is, we feel like the more people will enjoy it,” he said.
“We feel like if you put the right work in and the right ingredients into simple things like your soup broth, your food will still be really good,” Stillwell said.
With much of its inspiration from Japanese and Chinese culture, Ellis and Stillwell also told The Journal the store has a projector playing different anime TV shows, including Dragon Ball Z and Naruto.
“The whole point of the shop is to make an environment where it feels welcoming, but also fun,” Ellis said. “We want to make sure that we’re creating an environment that feels good, family or friends, we want everybody to feel like we’re valuing them.”
Stillwell added that Fragil Ramen Shop is an addition for people who want to grab late -night food.
“Everywhere closes except McDonald’s, and it gets really busy,” he said. “Opening up another shop that stays open until 2:30 am, we figured, satisfies the community.”
“We take our time at what we do because we greatly enjoy it,” Ellis said.
According to Ellis and Stillwell, Fragil Ramen Shop had its first opening on Jan. 23.
“It was a super fun day,” Ellis said. “From our opening at 10 p.m. to our closing at 2:30 a.m., we had a full shop with almost no breaks.”
“The best part about our shop is we can get a decent amount of people in there and we can serve them quickly,” he added.
According to Ellis, there are currently four people on staff, with three people working in the shop.
“We’re already in the process of training some new employees, so hopefully Fragil Ramen Shop is here for a long time,” Ellis said.
