丸長荻窪本店 (Marucho in Ogikubo, Tokyo)

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丸長荻窪本店

Marucho is a true legend of a shop. This is the root of Higashi-Ikebukuro Taishoken and Nagoya’s Maruwa. This is the root of the root of tsukemen. This is seriously old school in the heart of Ogikubo, just across the tracks from Harukiya.

There are still a few culturally significant ramen shops I haven’t visited. A few more in Ogikubo, a few more around Tokyo, and quite a lot around Japan. Often these historic shops, well, aren’t that desirable, especially when a new shop just down the road is using some rare breed of pigs raised next to the Seto Inland Sea and fed only imported walnuts. Why eat a normal bowl when you have walnut tonkotsu on your list?

And therein lies the problem. A shop like Marucho may be a bit run down and dingy. If it wasn’t in Tokyo surely the patrons would all be smoking cigarettes. Speaking of the patrons, they were mostly over the age of 65 and filled all of the shop’s 19 seats. There was even a line of around five people outside on a weekday.

Tsukesoba for 750 yen with a side of the shop’s shumai. The tsukemen soup is an intense, peppery double soup. For those old-timers, it’s nostalgia. For the ramen hunter, it’s ノスラー a new buzzword for nostalgic-style ramen.

Marucho opened in 1948 under the knife of Nagano soba craftsman Katsuji Aoki (青木勝治氏). There were four founding members, and each went on to open their own shop. Marushin (also in Ogikubo), Eiraku (closed shop in Nakano), Eiryuken (Ogikubo), and Nakano Taishoken. The Marucho brand itself was continued with a dozen or so shops opening in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. These shops were all over western Tokyo at first, with a handful in Nagano Prefecture as well. Many have closed. Some are still open. If you want to get uber-nerdy about it, many are considered to be directly descended from the Asagaya store, just down the road.

Right along the Chuo Line, so you really have no excuses about convenience.

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