EDIBLE: Trendy eateries boost downtown Monterey.

Within less than 100 steps along downtown Monterey’s Alvarado Street, a striking number of things are happening.

Several of them will make local appetites happier than a otter at a sea urchin-abalone buffet.

They include a fresh fish “poke bowl” concept, a major multi-use building that supplants businesses lost by a 2007 fire and a Constitutional museum with its own restaurant.

But it’s a different noodle in the soup that will have epicures and trendy eaters most excited.

That would be Alvarado Ramen, the area’s first ramen-focused spot in, well, forever.

Jeninni kitchen + wine bar and Carmel Belle have hosted memorable ramen pop-ups, and Arigato Sushi serves ramen in Salinas (with mixed results), but no one has set up a Japanese soup spot with this kind of promise.

Hank Kim is the chef behind Alvarado Ramen. He has an affection for good customers. He had a habit of giving everybody in the spacious Soban Korean Restaurant a sake bomb at 5pm – for free – because he felt like sharing. (He sold that spot, which is now Namu.)

Over on Alvarado next to Golden State Theatre, he names specials after loyal customers, and so many of their faces adorn the walls of his cozy Sushi Moto that you feel a lot like family even before he shows you attention to match.

That connection may inform his decision to give his loyalists and the area something they have long missed.

Don’t get me wrong: Monterey County enjoys a lot of things few places do, including world-class wines, produce and seafood.

But it has yet to find itself a ramen joint, even as the cuisine’s popularity explodes in foodie circles. What Kim has planned for 487 Alvarado looks and sounds well-considered.

“No one does ramen here,” he says. “It’s not easy, but it’s good.”

He plans to make his ramen broths in a traditional Japanese style, with 11 long hours simmering pork bone and chicken and later adding onion, green onion, ginger, seaweed and katsuobushi, or fish flakes.

He’s also plotting his very favorite dish on the planet, a spicy seafood noodle dish with his own secret recipe.

“I really like it,” he says, smiling.

The noodles, for now, will come daily from a San Jose company he’s reluctant to name, in the interest of keeping his competitive edge. But he also hopes to find a local company to replicate his recipes.

Basic veggie ramen will start at $5.50, with lunch specials running $9.50 with a choice between two noodle bowls, three-piece gyoza dumplings or karagi fried chicken and a choice of sides (kimchi or yellow pickled radish), with a bottle of water.

The open kitchen will face 11 seats at the bar and approximately seven two-seat tables.

In the meantime, his sushi deserves attention too. On a recent visit, his lunch special of the moment impressed with three pieces of nigiri – maguro, salmon and sublime torch-seared albacore – plus two four-piece rolls, a fat tobiko piece, miso soup and bigger-than-expected salad, all for $12.

Just two doors down from Alvarado Ramen another appetizing prospect could open as early as mid-January.

The Poke Lab (200-FISH) is the fresh creation of Carmel resident Joey Nguyen, coming to 475 Alvarado next to Bull & Bear Taphouse.

The format parallels what works at Poki Bowl in San Jose, where Nguyen partnered.

Directions to poke (pronounced “po-KEE”) town are simple and appetizing:

1. Pick out a foundation: sushi rice, brown rice or green salad.

2. Select a sashimi-grade seafood: spicy tuna, salmon, tuna, yellow tail, octopus or shrimp. (All are served raw, poke-style, except the shrimp.)

3. Add cucumbers and/or onions.

4. Settle on a sauce: signature, mild or spicy. Throw in a side of spicy mayo if so inspired.

5. Add toppings: avocado, crab meat, green onions, eggs, seaweed, sesame seeds, wasabi, ginger – or all of it.

Prices are slated to be $9-$11 for three “scoops” of seafood or four, respectively; crab or avocado run an additional $1.50.

Nguyen plans to add new recipes like a black bean-based bowl and what he calls “market bowls” built around seasonal farmers market fare. He’s also scheming a signature vegetarian bowl loaded with tofu, edamame and shiitake mushrooms, as well as a strong take-out component.

He plans to source fish with Royal Hawaiian Seafood and, with help from Chef James Anderson (formerly of Bicyclette and Affina), building relationships with local fish purveyors.

Central Coast Juicery is in talks to provide cold-pressed juices, too.

These advances, paired with the popularity of Alvarado Street Brewing Company, which soon adds a beer garden and outdoor bar out back, the addition of Sovino Wine Bar & Merchant on the breezeway by Portola Hotel & Spa, sidewalk seating at landmark Montrio Bistro and the under-construction progress of the MontereyConference Center, the historic heart of Monterey County has never felt so contemporary.

QUICKBITES

• River Road and Santa Lucia Highlands pioneer Rich Smith died Dec. 27, surrounded by family. He was 69. As his son wrote in an open letter to his dad, “You have done an incredible job raising, teaching, loving and giving to your family and to literally hundreds and thousands of people you were able to touch in your lifetime.” More on the blog, www.mcweekly.com/edible.
• The equally old-school and heartfelt Spud Spadaro Hospitality Award voting is in its final stages. Each of the finalists, all longtime restaurant linchpins nominated by his or her peers, more than deserves the honor, which makes the nomination and the ultimate prize that much more meaningful. Check out the finalists on the blog.
• Jump over to the MCGives! website for easy click participation to help Monterey County reach $3 million in compassionate giving before 2016 hits tonight.
• New Year deals at Zeph’s One Stop on NYE bubbly roll from 5-percent off first three bottles to 15-percent off a case. ZOS closes 4pm Dec. 31.
• Chef Evan Lite does a new soup every day for winter – like velvet asparagus – pledging not to repeat a recipe all month long, at Beach House at Lovers Point (375-2345).
• The big new sign is up at River Road Grill in the former Element Wine Bar on the way into River Road Wine Trail outside Salinas. A peek through a hole in the plastic reveals the interior has a redone and repositioned bar area in the works; other details are hard to come by.
• Too many consider Fish Hopper and Old Fisherman’s Grotto purely tourist traps. But like their new sibling Scales Seafood & Steaks, one of Monterey County’s best new restaurants of 2015, they do sturdy three-course locals meals with best chowder in the area (or salad) and a chef’s dessert with stuff like porcini ravioli, maple soy skirt steak and coconut prawns, plus dessert, for $14-$18. Locals get free parking with ID at the nearby lots and garages too.
• Bruno’s Market has earned business of the year from the Carmel Chamber of Commerce, in a well-deserved way.
• Bloody Mary Day comes with Jan. 1. Abalonetti Bar and Grill on Fisherman’s Wharf celebrates with $7.75 chipotle-bacon version. Also at ABG: The locals menu continues to do specials like flame-broiled pork loin and grilled calamari steak for $9.95.
• Leonardo da Vinci: “The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”