It all started with a cup of instant ramen. Stone Mountain native Nehemyah Price was eating the diet staple of college students everywhere when the “goofy idea” came to him to dip spicy chicken wings into the broth.
“It was so good, and I was like, ‘Hey, no one’s doing this. Maybe I should figure out how to do this,” he said. “I was already a ramen enthusiast, and I was a big fan of anime, and the food always looked so good. I was like, ‘Why does the cartoon food look better than what I’m eating’?”
Price experimented with Japanese-inspired dishes, including ramen with chicken wings, and in 2022, started hosting pop-up dinner parties for friends at his house. Once the gatherings ballooned to more than 30 people, many of whom heard about his food through word of mouth, he decided it was time to turn his hobby into a business.
Senpai’s Noodle Supply (instagram.com/senpainoodlesupply) made its public debut as a pop-up in June 2022 at Outrun Brewing Co. in Stone Mountain. Price is reluctant to highlight his cooking. “I’m a hustler, not a chef,” he said. Yet, he’s picked up enough skills that his appearances at local breweries and restaurants draw long lines. “I learn by watching,” he said. “I tell my friends, ‘If you can read, you can cook.’”
Credit: Courtesy of Senpai's Noodle Supply
Credit: Courtesy of Senpai's Noodle Supply
Price pores over cookbooks, putting his twist on recipes he finds interesting. One of his most successful experiments is what he calls the YAKWTFGO, a tonkotsu ramen dish with panko fried chicken, celery, green onion, noodles and a medium-boiled egg in lemon pepper broth.
“When I was creating flavors, I wanted to make a ramen that truly had Atlanta in it,” he said of incorporating a lemon pepper twist to the dish. “There was a lot of trial and error.”
The Senpai menu offers several other variations on tonkotsu, shoyu and seafood ramen, including the crowd favorite Dirty Bird, with grilled chicken, cilantro, green and white onion, shiitake mushrooms, yellow peppers and a medium-boiled egg in a pork and chicken broth. He also offers a vegetarian ramen at some pop-up engagements.
Aside from ramen, Price offers two kinds of wings (the Rengoku’s Flame are covered in Thai chili sauce and lemon pepper sprinkles) and pork and chicken skewers using different preparations. Though Price started out by dipping his own wings in ramen, he said Senpai’s wings and skewers are meant to complement the ramen.
Price sources his noodles locally from Atlanta Noodle in Clarkston. He makes nearly everything else himself, including the broths and sauces.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
He recently started collaborating with other chefs, including Lino Yi of pop-up turned brick-and-mortar TKO, who inspired him to start offering items like skewers for customers who “don’t necessarily want to spend $15 on a meal, and just want a snack.”
Price plans to expand his skewer offerings and hopes to begin offering stir-fry dishes and cold noodles in the summer.
Price has found enough success with Senpai that he was recently able to quit his day job to focus his attention on the pop-up full-time. In addition to popping up at bars, breweries and restaurants around metro Atlanta, Price secured a lunch residency at the Municipal Market from 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Thursdays.
Though he’s enjoying his time as a pop-up chef, he eventually hopes to open a brick-and-mortar.
“For me, it’s not totally about the food,” he said. “It’s about creating a space for people to be themselves and come together, and food just happens to be one of the premises that starts those types of vibes. I had 30 people inside my house who just wanted to hang out and eat food and have a good time. I just want to be able to keep creating that experience.”
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