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The Bandit Queen: Grand Rapids' First Ramen Noodle Bar

The Bandit Queen is a small, downtown tavern, serving Ramen and other traditional trade-route Asian fare, that utilizes local ingredients and stays up late.

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The Bandit Queen: Grand Rapids' First Ramen Noodle Bar

The Bandit Queen: Grand Rapids' First Ramen Noodle Bar

The Bandit Queen: Grand Rapids' First Ramen Noodle Bar

The Bandit Queen: Grand Rapids' First Ramen Noodle Bar

The Bandit Queen: Grand Rapids' First Ramen Noodle Bar

The Bandit Queen is a small, downtown tavern, serving Ramen and other traditional trade-route Asian fare, that utilizes local ingredients and stays up late.

The Bandit Queen is a small, downtown tavern, serving Ramen and other traditional trade-route Asian fare, that utilizes local ingredients and stays up late.

The Bandit Queen is a small, downtown tavern, serving Ramen and other traditional trade-route Asian fare, that utilizes local ingredients and stays up late.

The Bandit Queen is a small, downtown tavern, serving Ramen and other traditional trade-route Asian fare, that utilizes local ingredients and stays up late.

Torrence O'Haire
Torrence O'Haire
Torrence O'Haire
Torrence O'Haire
1 Campaign |
Grand Rapids, United States
$15,290 USD 104 backers
101% of $15,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

Short Summary

The Bandit Queen:
Ramen Bar, Public House, Purveyor of Fine Teas, and Respite for the Modern-Day Adventurer
The Bandit Queen will serve Grand Rapids' downtown late night and lunchtime populace as a fun, welcoming, turn-of-the-century bar, serving not whiskey, but Ramen noodles and other East-Asian street-food specialties not currently represented in West Michigan.
We'll be focusing on quick, healthy, cheap meals, based on local and seasonal ingredients and traditional techniques. A perfect last-stop after a night at the bar, a great escape from work on your lunch break, and a much-needed service for those people who work late downtown and often are at a loss for a decent meal late at night.

Our style is based on old Trade Route culture, sharing the mysteries of our travels and the bounty of our spice trade with our favorite Port of Call, downtown Grand Rapids.

Most of all, we want a place that you love to go; not because it's "fancy" or "trendy", but rather because you can get a good meal, tell some good stories, and feel well-cared for. 

What We Need & What You Get

We've done the preliminary work, building out the space for our other business, Propaganda Doughnuts, with the intention of expanding into the Bandit Queen when the time was right. Therefore, the large-scale build-out and construction is already finished. 

Now that we've "built the house", we need your help to "fill it with furniture". Our shopping list that you're helping us complete consists of:

  • bowls & serviceware (as eating soup out of one's hand is ill-advised)

  • teacups & teapots

  • commercial steam kettle

  • bar top

  • bar stools

  • shelving/storage behind bar

  • minor kitchen buildout (extra plumbing/sinks, additional electrical)

  • bar coolers

  • refrigerator

  • new sink in guest restroom (current sink is garage-quality)

  • new tile in entryway (current tiles horribly damaged)

  • signage for the storefront (so you can find us!)


As we've never been comfortable asking for money with nothing in return, we've worked very hard at coming up with the most exciting and fun perks as we can manage, to best show our gratitude for your support of our project.

We're most excited about our "Bowl Club", the ramen-shop version of a brewery's Mug Club, where we're having a skilled local ceramics artist make customized ramen bowls available only to our Bowl Club members, that will be on display for the members' use, and earn them discounts and passage to members' events. 

We've got all sorts of other "thank you"s, from our great t-shirts, to Chef dinners, to a full-scale backyard barbeque for 30 of your friends, cooked by our bandit troupe. We hope to show you just how much your support means to us. 


The Impact

With the early success of our first project, Propaganda Doughnuts, we're really demonstrating the value in interesting, small-scale, quality food, and its contribution to a vibrant downtown life. We're working hard to support and develop an area of downtown that used to be a powerful commercial strip, but has over the years fallen into disenfranchisement. With your support of our projects, you're not only securing yourself a good place to eat, but you're securing another facet of culture to our downtown life, and you're helping to improve an area of your city that is long-overdue for some hard work and love.


Other Ways You Can Help

Our projects rely on you and the value you place in your community.

We recognize that not everyone can donate huge amounts of money to a project, but we want to remind you that every donation is sincerely valuable, and even if you can't make a monetary contribution, you can help immensely by sharing, posting, tagging, talking about, and spreading the word with as much vim and vigor as you can muster, and that's worth gold to us.

Show your support to The Bandit Queen, and she'll have your back for always.

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Choose your Perk

Message in a Bottle

$10 USD
For contributing $10, we’ll send you a handwritten postcard of gratitude, on The Bandit Queen’s own stationery. Thank you for your support!
9 claimed

Traveller's Documents

$25 USD
For contributing $25, you’ll receive an official passport which will earn you five discount stamps for five purchases at The Bandit Queen’s bar. Explore on!
29 claimed

A Friend of My Friend...

$50 USD
Mr. X likes when you take care of his colleagues. For $50, you’ll receive BOTH the Bandit Queen’s Traveller’s Documents, AND a complimentary dozen doughnuts from Propaganda Doughnuts.
26 claimed

A Member of the Circle

$100 USD
For a $100 contribution, you’ll earn Traveller’s Documents, PLUS a dozen Propaganda Doughnuts, PLUS a Bandit Queen T-Shirt, to wear with pride.
12 claimed

THE BANDIT QUEEN BOWL CLUB

$250 USD
For $250, you are invited to the first-ever “Bowl Club”. Our local ceramics artist will hand-make your ramen bowl, which will be on display for your use alone, AND you’ll earn a discount on whatever you choose to fill your bowl with, PLUS it will earn you an invite to future private “Bowl Club” Members Events. You also get to take your bowl home, if you'd like. Your brewery’s Mug Club ain’t got nothin’ on this.
15 claimed

The Hall of Famed Explorers

$500 USD
For a generous $500, you’ll earn a Bowl Club membership, PLUS we’ll work with a local photographer to create a canvas-print of a vintage-era Explorer’s Portrait of you, that will get framed and used to decorate our Explorer’s Wall, in classic turn-of-the-century style. Go down in history, with noodles.
1 claimed

Claim Your Seat

$750 USD
For a glorious $750, you’ll earn a Bowl Club membership, PLUS you’ll get to sponsor one of our barstools, complete with an antique plaque of sponsorship, affixed to the stool, permanently. As an added bonus, you’ll work with our chef to design a your own special menu item that will be offered for an entire weekend, that you’ll be able to enjoy from your personal throne, with your bowl on us. You’re obviously in the “inner circle”.
0 out of 16 of claimed

The Secret Knock

$1,000 USD
For any much-loved sponsor who pledges $1000 to our cause, you’ll earn a Bowl Club membership, PLUS we’re giving you The Bandit Queen herself for a night. Before our doors are open to the public, we’ll invite you and a dozen of your associates in for a private party, cook you up some good food, turn the music up loud, and let you have your own clubhouse for an evening or afternoon.
1 out of 10 of claimed

A Well-Earned Favor

$1,500 USD
For any dear sponsor who pledges a gracious $1500, you’ll earn a Bowl Club membership, PLUS our chef pledges himself to your service, and will come to your home (or other location of your request) to summon all of his skills and cook you a Modernist 6-course chef dinner for 8 people. He does not take his pledges of service lightly-- be prepared for a wonderful meal as a well-deserved thank you for your contribution.
1 out of 10 of claimed

A Stop on the Trade Route

$2,500 USD
For any sponsor who ascends to historical status with a pledge of $2500, you’ll earn a Bowl Club membership, PLUS we at The Bandit Queen will mark our maps with your backyard and steer our ship your way. We’ll bring a team of bandits and a full street-food setup and provide a backyard East-Asian barbeque for you and up to 30 guests. Light a bonfire, mow the grass, and party with us all night long. We’ll even bring musical instruments, like any good gypsy caravan.
1 claimed
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