Pastissimo is leaving; Ichiddo Ramen is coming to La Crosse

La Crosse’s restaurant scene is changing, with LAX Grille opening downtown, the Pastissimo pasta restaurant about to leave for Texas and Ichiddo Ramen opening in a few months in the former Fayze’s Restaurant. Pa Houa Vang opened LAX Grille on July 6 in the former Bronze Dragon space at 200 Main St. in the Powell Place mini-mall. It serves Asian cuisine, such as Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and Hmong fare. The restaurant is starting with a menu that includes such things as crab Rangoon, ramen, pho, boat noodle pho and pad Thai, and uses fresh locally produced ingredients. It also has a full bar serving beer, wine and mixed drinks.

Besides the first-floor bar and dining area, LAX Grille has a lounge on its mezzanine level. Hours to start with are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Vang was co-owner of the Taste of Thai restaurant in Holmen when that business opened in 2017, and helped some of her relatives by sharing some recipes with them while they were opening Mimi’s Kitchen restaurant in Three Rivers Plaza in February 2023. She was born in Thailand and moved from Thailand to California in 1994 and to the La Crosse area in 1995.

“I had been looking to open my own place in the last two years,” Vang said. She had planned to be one of the restaurants in the proposed LAX Food Hall in downtown La Crosse, but the entire food hall project fell through. Vang said she later decided to open her restaurant in Powell Place “because of its location and the opportunity to grow. It has a large kitchen.” For more information, visit the restaurant’s Facebook page.

 Look for a franchised Ichiddo Ramen restaurant to open in the former Fayze’s Restaurant & Bakery location at 135 4th St. S. in downtown La Crosse. A city building permit has been issued for remodeling the restaurant, which is expected to cost about $100,000. One of the new ramen restaurant’s owners told me Wednesday that it is expected to open in a few months. Ichiddo Ramen is a Minnesota-based chain and says its restaurants serve ramen with more than 15 different toppings. Its online menu includes a variety of appetizers, ramen, donburi, stir fry ramen and boba tea. “Ichiddo Ramen is not only a popular place to taste Japanese-style ramen, it is also a cute place to experience the unique Japanese food culture,” it says on its website. For more information about the chain, visit www.ichiddo.com.

. The People’s Food Co-op in La Crosse announced in November that it had

and would be making them…