The craft ramen eatery with an OnlyFans account: Q&A with owner Ross Mackenzie

•  How did you know that it was time to launch Send Noods? 

My business partner Vinny Yu came up with the concept, he showed me his idea and the branding and I told him ‘Okay, I’ll show you some ramen shops around Manchester’. So, we started going out for lunch and started just talking about the concept and which way to go with it. So initially, we were looking around for bricks-and-mortar sites but then we decided it would be more prudent in the current situation to test the water out by opening a pop up and really refine the concept before looking to get leases on the high street. 

•  Why did you decide to open in the Picturedrome Macclesfield?

So I’ve known the people that own the food market for a while and when they told me they had a spare kitchen to rent I said we were going to take it and start from there.

• Are you planning to open a full-on restaurant if the pop-up is successful?

Yes, we’re looking to open more sites in the next year and we hope to expand the brand. As I’ve done with some other brands, the ambition is to turn Send Noods into a chain, and we will start by targeting around Manchester and the North West initially before going national. But before opening a full-on restaurant we’re also planning more pop ups.

• You opened on 1 March, so how did the first month go? 

I think it’s been very well received and the public has been very receptive. Part of it I attribute it to the location as well because the Picturedrome is a great building, it’s like an old art deco cinema in Macclesfield and the advantage of a food market is that it has a captive audience of hungry people all in one space that come there just to eat so that’s an advantage. At the same time for us it’s not as cost intensive as opening your own site from scratch because everything is already there, in terms of equipment.  

• So what would you say were the biggest challenges that you faced before opening? 

I think besides staffing, we tried to focus on marketing a lot to get the word out there. We are very active on social media and of course we have our own website where customers can see the menu but we also sell t-shirts. So we launched with a reach campaign and then the campaign actually took people to an Only Fans page, as a joke obviously. But we really wanted to play on the pun of our name, Send Noods, and we had some models in some seductive poses eating the food that we offer. It was hilarious and it worked. We really want the brand to be fun, so we try to post both on Instagram and TikTok as much as possible. 

• How do you deal with the competition?

In a food hall you’re always competing with the other kitchens, so you have to make your pop up stand out. What we did was identify a gap in the market of the Picturedrome. They didn’t have spicy food, there was only pizza, fish and chips, sandwiches and lots of different offers but there was nothing spicy and nothing Asian so we fitted in nicely. 

•  In your opinion, how difficult is it to open a new restaurant right now considering the current economic situation? 

It’s very tough indeed. And that was part of what drove us to make the decision to test the water out first and open the pop up. It’s a low capital investment so based on how profitable it will be we can decide what to do next.

• What would you say to someone to convince them to try your pop up?

If you like ramen, come try ours. For now, we got four ramen dishes and four side dishes but we’re changing the menu to match the season. So instead of a steaming bowl of ramen, we’re introducing cold vermicelli noodles for the summer and rice salads. And they’re going to be gluten free as well so we can accommodate dietary changes.