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Snackin' & Yakkin'
A good bowl of ramen does something sneaky. You show up hungry, you leave calmer, warmer, and a little more convinced the world isn’t totally on fire. That’s the vibe on Snackin’ & Yakkin’ Ep 37, where host Big Ben Kennedy hangs with Frankie Ferreira (aka the guy behind Frankie Ramen) and gets fully “lost in the broth” over a spicy miso bowl that smells like it should have its own fan club.
Finding Frankie Ramen in Charleston (before the next move)
The Frontier Lounge setup feels like Japan
Frankie Ramen isn’t a traditional sit-down shop with a big permanent dining room. It’s a pop-up with a residency vibe, and at Frontier Lounge, Frankie built the experience to feel a little more like Tokyo: a small kiosk style ordering setup, you place your order yourself, you sit down, and the food shows up like magic.
That “simple, fast, hot” flow matters with ramen. The bowl is supposed to hit the table steaming, so you can go straight from first slurp to that leaning-over-the-bowl posture that makes everyone look like they’re praying.
From Frontier Lounge to Silver Dollar
At the time of filming, Frankie shared that Frontier Lounge would host his last service there on February 10 because they were changing concepts. Next stop: Silver Dollar on King Street. For location updates and episode clips, follow Snackin’ & Yakkin’ on Instagram. For Frankie’s own updates, menus, and ordering, start with the Frankie Ramen official site.
How Frankie got hooked on ramen (and why Charleston needed his bowls)
Missing Jersey ramen was the spark
Frankie’s ramen origin story starts in New Jersey. Back home, ramen was a normal family outing food, the kind of meal you get with your brother and your parents without making it a big “foodie” event. When he couldn’t find the bowl he missed in Charleston, the craving turned into a project.
And the timing matters. Frankie said when he started about two years earlier, Charleston had only a couple options. Now it feels like everybody has ramen on the menu. He’s not salty about it, he eats at the other spots too.
Chef hours, home obsession
At the time, Frankie was working 70-hour weeks as a chef in Shem Creek, then coming home and making ramen anyway. Stock simmering overnight, the whole house smelling like pork and chicken, and a very patient wife wondering when her kitchen turned into a science lab.
That daily repetition became his baseline. Six months of ramen every day, plus Reddit, YouTube, and even watching long service videos just to see how ramen shops move when the tickets start flying.
Tokyo training, ramen “rules,” and the authenticity debate
Frankie eventually hit a wall. You can learn a lot at home, but he wanted the next level, so he went to Tokyo to study at the RAJUKU ramen school in Tokyo. He spent about 10 days learning directly from a ramen master, in a culture where a lot of teaching happens by watching, not by getting a neat little step-by-step lecture.
One of the biggest takeaways was about “authenticity.” Frankie’s teacher told him any ramen is authentic if you’re making ramen, and if you’re putting your own heart into it. That’s a problem-solver mindset. It pushes back on the idea that there’s only one correct bowl, and it gives cooks room to build a signature style without asking permission from internet purists.
What was in the bowl: spicy miso ramen, broken down
The components that made the host stop talking (briefly)
Frankie brought a spicy miso bowl that hit all the comfort notes, without turning into a salt bomb. The core was a 12-hour tonkotsu pork broth, with a blend of three misos. On top: pork shoulder braised for about four hours, plus a soft-boiled egg soaked in soy for around two days.
The soft-boiled egg stole the show. Big Ben had never had one before, and it turned into that rare food moment where your brain goes, “Oh. So this is what I’ve been missing.”
The five-part ramen idea (and why instant ramen feels different)
Frankie explains ramen like a system, not just “noodles in soup.” The bowl is built from five elements:
- Tare (seasoning)
- Broth
- Noodles
- Oil
- Toppings
Instant ramen mimics that with the little flavor packet, but it’s often an MSG and salt overload to fake depth. Frankie’s bowl still uses MSG, he even calls it a hero ingredient, but more like a boost, not a disguise. If you’re curious about how instant ramen grew out of post-war need, this overview on ramen’s post-war rise in Japan adds helpful context.
Spice stories, late-night bowls, and why ramen feels like soul food
There’s plenty of spice talk, including Frankie’s idea for a Carolina Reaper ramen challenge with a bragging-rights shirt. Big Ben swaps in his own war stories, including a “sign the waiver” spicy tuna roll challenge that came with consequences for days. The lesson is simple: spice confidence is easy to have until it’s tested.
But the best ramen moment is quieter. Frankie talks about people showing up carrying heavy stuff from life, then getting a hot bowl and finally unclenching for a minute. That’s where “lost in the broth” came from, a line Frankie credits to a friend named Hannah.
He also runs late. On Fridays and Saturdays, service goes to 1:00 a.m., which means ramen becomes the responsible decision you make when you are one text away from a bad idea. Frankie tells a story about a drunk guest who came in at 12:30 a.m., ate a bowl, then returned it saying, “You saved my life.” Carbs, protein, broth, and salt can feel like a reset button.
What’s next: fewer bowls, more wings, same Frankie energy
At Silver Dollar, Frankie planned a tighter menu: three ramen bowls, a few apps, and wings. The wing flavors he mentioned were the fun part, including buttermilk sweet tea wings, plus sauces like chili crisp hot honey, miso ranch, and a Polynesian-style honey mustard with an Asian twist.
If you want more episodes and behind-the-scenes extras, there’s also the Snackin’ & Yakkin’ Patreon.
Conclusion
Frankie Ferreira’s story is half obsession, half hospitality, and the bowl tastes like both. You get the technique (Tokyo training, long broth cooks, balanced seasoning) and the point of it all, a meal that lets you check out for a bit. If a bowl of ramen can make a stranger hand back the dish and say “you saved my life,” it’s doing more than feeding people.
