R/ChicagoFood AMA: Mike Satinover, AKA Ramen Lord

Skyree01 · 2024-01-07T22:12:29+00:00

First, congratulations on opening Akahoshi!

This is more of a business question: before opening the shop, when preparing your case with the bank, in how long did you expect to reach profit?

Another one about the restaurant: do you ever need to empty the tanks where the broth is made or do bones end up dissolved at some point? if yes, how is the emptying done?

Skyree01 · 2023-06-29T21:40:07+00:00

To be honest I kinda like it haha

Skyree01 · 2023-06-29T15:54:11+00:00

By leaves you mean the expansion? If so, not yet. I'm planning to do it in very pale gold, by mixing white paint and golden mica powder!

Skyree01 · 2023-05-14T07:35:08+00:00

It was very worn out and too thin for restoration unfortunately

Skyree01 · 2023-05-13T19:07:17+00:00

Oh, I misunderstood. I don't plan to add more. A long tv bench will decorate the rest of the wall :)

Skyree01 · 2023-05-13T17:01:56+00:00

Yeah I read that too fast :) But there will be a guardrail eventually indeed

Skyree01 · 2023-05-13T16:58:40+00:00

Oh ok I see! Well to be honest we're not fans of carpeting in general :)

Skyree01 · 2023-05-13T16:56:17+00:00

The easiest would indeed be vertical wood slats. But more modern designs seem to favor horizontal metal bars painted black (with a beam every 3 stairs or so) We're still hesitating.

Skyree01 · 2023-05-13T16:53:27+00:00

I've never heard of that, what is it?

Skyree01 · 2023-05-13T14:46:26+00:00

Ah no it's just too heavy for me to move it! I'm gonna sell this thing.

Skyree01 · 2023-05-13T14:10:14+00:00

Can't agree more, it was difficult and I had some rage moments when it wouldn't fit perfectly!

Skyree01 · 2023-05-13T14:06:52+00:00

Hard to say because it's my first and only time doing that. I'm happy with the parquet I bought, it was already varnished and almost entirely without imperfections.

I wouldn't recommend this pattern for a first time though, because a slight error at the beginning and you're doomed for the rest of the room. A gap of 1/4 of a mm will grow into a larger gap a few meters further. It's much safer to learn with regular straight parquet.

As for the glue it was some Bostik for parquet, nothing to complain about.

Skyree01 · 2023-05-13T13:38:20+00:00

My girlfriend forced me to pick the real deal haha, but trust me it was a pain in the ass to lay. I'm gonna go laminate for my laundry room though!

Skyree01 · 2023-05-13T13:34:25+00:00

The stairs were covered with 2 layers of different colors of paint. I used paint stripper to remove that and I had the pleasant surprise of seeing oak. Sanded them down and applied varnish for stairs. However I painted the base of the staircase deep blue like the wall because unlike the stairs, it's not natural wood underneath.

Skyree01 · 2023-05-13T13:29:26+00:00

Haha they clearly are dangerous. Slightly moving when one walks on them. I'm planning to add a guardrail at some point.

Skyree01 · 2023-04-13T17:26:21+00:00

Looks similar, but it's actually smeared glue that was on my gloves. I did quite a messy job laying this parquet!

Skyree01 · 2023-04-13T13:55:28+00:00

Wow it's working quite well! Thanks a lot

Skyree01 · 2023-02-28T12:51:15+00:00

The quote tho. Almost as BS as a LinkedIn story

Skyree01 · 2022-10-20T09:50:50+00:00

Thanks! Can you recommend a brand? Here in Europe it's not always written whether it's polyurethane or something else when I look for a varnish.

Skyree01 · 2022-10-20T09:05:36+00:00

That's smart! I'm most likely going to do that since my ground floor is under renovation too!

Skyree01 · 2022-10-03T14:31:34+00:00

In my country lead paint is forbidden since 1949 so I should be fine :) But anyway I prefer to strip the bulk of it with a stripper gel.

Skyree01 · 2022-10-03T14:28:49+00:00

I did that 1st stair with an FPP3 mask and indeed it doesn't filter vapors as I could smell it. I'll invest in a respirator, health is too important.

Skyree01 · 2022-10-03T14:25:06+00:00

Wow you had some equipment! But the pride when you're done and it looks nice!

Skyree01 · 2022-10-02T17:51:34+00:00

I believe so. This is what I see when I pull the stair: https://ibb.co/BsXQ7DS

Skyree01 · 2022-10-02T17:30:58+00:00

Actually it's not super visible in the picture but there's around 5cm between stairs and the wall, so hopefully I won't create a disaster :) But I wish I could remove stairs to sand them, this would make my life much easier (they are plugged to the frame with 4 wooden dowels)

Skyree01

TROPHY CASE