Decades ago, a sushi chef named Toshio Sekikawa helped open Hapa Grill in Park City and started making ramen as a special. Diners called it "Tosh's Ramen." Enough of them asked for it that he left to open his own shop off State Street in Salt Lake City. That shop opened in 2014 as one of Utah's first ramen restaurants. A second location followed in Holladay.
This fall the recipe comes back to the Basin. Tosh's Ramen is finishing its buildout at Junction Commons. Elsewhere in Kimball Junction, Koyoté, the Salt Lake ramen and izakaya restaurant the Michelin Guide recommended in its first Utah edition, is moving into the space Hana Ramen Bar left this spring.
Two ramen shops opening in the same season looks like a coincidence. The owners' own accounts say otherwise. Both kitchens had customers making the drive down from Park City. Both waited years for the right space. Both landed in Kimball Junction once a space came up that let them make the move without changing who they are.
The demand was already driving down the canyon
Maxwell and Annie Peck, who now own Tosh's, told the Park Record they kept seeing Park City customers make the trip to Holladay. They also kept getting phone calls asking for a Park City location. Annie knew the town well before that. She had worked at the now-closed Thai So Good, where she was manager, cook, food runner, server and dishwasher.
Koyoté's Hiro Tagai heard the same thing from the other end. He told the Park Record that Park City was on his radar partly because of chef friends like Briar Handly of Handle and John Courtney of Chop Shop Park City. It was also on his radar because of diners already coming to Koyoté's Marmalade location. The seasonal pattern helped settle it. "The amount of people that especially come visit us during the colder months really signaled that we should open another one in a colder destination," Tagai said.
The demand was proven before either lease was signed. What kept both restaurants away was the cost of the space.
Why it took this long, and why it happened here
Tagai said it plainly:
"We always were looking at Park City, in a way, but were always kind of hesitant because property and all that is ultra expensive in that area. To make it work we'd have to raise prices and we didn't want to stray away from our DNA too much."
The former Hana Ramen Bar space opened up in late spring at the right price and with fewer renovation demands. That is why Koyoté signed. Tagai expects his Kimball Junction prices to be "pretty much the same" as in Salt Lake. The room itself will be a little fancier, to suit Summit County.
Hana's exit made room for this. Salt Lake Magazine reported the closure announcement in late April 2026. Owner Mike Harrison's farewell message pointed fans to his sister restaurant, Ramen Ichizu. The Junction had a ramen counter before. Its replacement is a Salt Lake kitchen that had been waiting for the right space.
The Pecks went through a similar search. Maxwell said he had kept real estate alerts running for years, and nothing fit until Junction Commons began allowing food into what he still calls "the lower outlets." That opening was deliberate. Junction Commons marketing manager Alix Suter said Singerman Real Estate, which bought the former Outlets Park City in 2018, wanted to add food options and more local brands. The goal, she said, is a place "where locals want to spend time." Tosh's joins Shake Shack, Chipotle, Jersey Mike's and The Border Foodtruck there.
Finding the space did not make it cheap to open. Turning a former J. Crew store into a ramen kitchen meant installing two noodle cookers that keep water at a constant boil, plus a cast-iron gyoza grill imported from Japan. Maxwell said Park City has been much stricter than Salt Lake, where the couple opened a second stall inside Woodbine Food Hall. Moving into the space required a $60,000 water impact study, and their landlord covered part of it. Both owners are 33 and have built the business themselves. Maxwell came to restaurants just out of the military, and Annie had been a server.
Two schools of ramen, side by side
Since both kitchens are coming up from Salt Lake, it would be easy to assume they serve the same thing. They come from opposite ends of the ramen world. Tagai has said Utah's Japanese food long leaned on sushi and American-style ramen built on thick, pork-based tonkotsu. Koyoté exists partly to show other styles. Tosh's built its following on tonkotsu.
| Tosh's Ramen | Koyoté | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Junction Commons, unit H145, former J. Crew store | Former Hana Ramen Bar space, Kimball Junction |
| Broth | Tonkotsu, a cloudy pork broth | Tokyo-style clear broth |
| Beyond the signature bowl | Curry ramen, spicier karai ramen, a Thai-spiced special in June, July and August | Chashu-don, shioyaki saba, gyoza, whipped tofu with scallion pancakes |
| The room | Simple and modern, lower lighting, meant for family meals and date nights | QR-code ordering at each table, no servers |
| Park City extras | Bento box lunch special planned | Space slightly fancier than the Marmalade original |
| Expected opening | Fall 2026, pending final inspections | October 2026, depending on buildout |
The Tosh's recipes came straight from Sekikawa. He took the Pecks on as apprentices before selling them the Holladay shop in 2022. They kept his name and his formula, and expanded hours to add lunch and Sundays. Tonkotsu is what most first-timers order, Maxwell said, though Annie is proudest of the curry and karai bowls. She also says about 90% of what the kitchen uses comes directly from Japan.
Koyoté goes back to 2016 or 2017, when Tagai moved to Japan to study ramen and fell for the clear-stock Tokyo style. It opened in Salt Lake at the end of 2023. The no-server model is a nod to ramen shops in Japan. Tagai said it also lets the cooks earn the most and takes tipping pressure off diners. The Kimball Junction menu will start out identical to Salt Lake's and change as the kitchen learns what Park City diners order.
Tosh's plans to stay open from 10 or 10:30 a.m. until 10 p.m., as long as demand holds. The Park Record noted that's late by Kimball Junction standards.
How to know when the doors actually open
As of September 30, neither restaurant has announced an opening day. The Pecks were waiting on final inspections when the Park Record visited, and the Junction Commons directory still lists Tosh's as "Coming Fall 2026." Tagai said Koyoté's October target depends on how the buildout goes.
- Tosh's Ramen: the owners say the best place to hear the confirmed date is Instagram at @toshsramen.pc. Their menu is at toshsramen.com.
- Koyoté: check koyoteslc.com, which so far lists only the Salt Lake address.
- Getting there: High Valley Transit and UDOT crews have been working on the east side of SR-224 at Silver Springs Drive and Old Ranch Road. KPCW reported paving set for late September, curb-and-gutter tie-ins after that, and the corridor back to normal by the end of October.
The bigger plan these two bowls are part of
The Pecks are betting on a much longer stay than one ski season. Maxwell said they want to be in Park City for the next 20 years. Annie said "forever." Part of the reason sits right outside their door. In September, the Summit County Council approved redeveloping Junction Commons into a mixed-use neighborhood with 370 housing units, 220 of them affordable. The agreement still needs refining before any construction starts. "That's literally like having your customers next door," Maxwell said.
Anyone curious how the restaurants fit into the larger picture can get a look this Saturday. Summit County's free "Taco-bout Kimball Junction" open house runs October 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the PEAK Center. It covers Altus Station, the planned SR-224 pedestrian bridge, the new library and other area projects. October is also Park City Dine About month, with restaurant specials and new menus around town. Main Street restaurants recently earned Park City's first Michelin recognition. Koyoté's arrival brings a Michelin-Recommended kitchen to the Junction itself. The new restaurants also build on the summer of plaza concerts and redevelopment that has been reshaping the neighborhood.
For homeowners near Landmark Drive, these two restaurants are an early look at what the Junction Commons redevelopment could add to daily life before any housing goes up. If you'd like to talk through what that means for a home in Kimball Junction, Timeless Properties can help. Schedule a free consultation with Jake Doilney.
