Tampopo Ramen

When Josh Frank and Nanae Mameuda-Frank opened Tampopo in December 2015, it was widely called Washington Heights' first ramen shop, and lines wound down 181st Street to prove the neighborhood had been waiting. A decade on it is simply the local — a compact ramen bar and sake spot at the corner of Bennett Avenue where the shio and shoyu bowls are built carefully and the pork buns disappear first.

The size is the charm: a counter, a handful of tables, and a happy hour that makes sake and craft beer an easy weeknight habit. It suits a solo bowl after the A train as well as a low-key date, and it is the warmest room in the Heights on a cold night.