Daily Inspiration: Meet Tim Ratcliff

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Ratcliff.

Hi Tim, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I lived in Japan for 4 years when I was younger and fell in love with the culture and food. Always had a dream of owning a Ramen Restaurant. Not many people know the story of how I got the restaurant, but I was a customer before and being a Magician I made friends with the original owner of Ikemen. The name means Handsome guy and the original owners though it would be funny to have all the Japanese Vendors have to say Handsome guy when calling. After years of being friends when them, one of the partners who loved Sky Diving, jumped out of an airplane and his shoot opened, but it was a windy day and when about to land a gust of wind knocked him into a bridge and then the ground where he was hurt very badly and was in a Coma for almost 5 months. During that time, his other business partner could not be in the US and was in Japan, he called me and asked to borrow some money, and I said yes not knowing what was going on. I then looked into everything and talked to the owner Takashi, and we decided it would be best for me to take over. We renamed the Restaurant to Shin Ramen in October of 2014.

I was a fantastic start to a new restaurant, keeping all the same flavors that everyone had known and that I loved. The restaurant was feature in the Shin Yokohama Ramen Museum and is the only restaurant in the USA to be featured in the Museum. We are also the only one to feature Dip Ramen out of all 52 restaurants that are featured there so there was no reason to change anything about the ramen. But it was missing some of my favorite things from Japan.. So over the years we added Sushi as well as a few other things like Soba, deserts, and alcohol. We also expanded. When I took over it was only 700 sq feet and now we have over 2100 sq feet and can seat around 100 people rather than the 16 when I took over.

Right when covid started there was a sushi chef that was let go from another high profile restaurant chain, and I took a chance and I hired him and we re-did our entire sushi menu and flavors and knocked it out of the part to say the least. We became well known not only for our Ramen but our Sushi was talked about by everyone. We were even featured in Travel Regrets and named the #1 Japanese Restaurant in LA in 2022 and 2023.

I also went viral in 2022 when a homeless man walked up to a customer and a neighboring business and sucker punched him to steal his wallet and cell phone. Sadly the man cracked 2 ribs when he was knocked over, but I watched it happen and I jumped up from my seat, ran after him and Tackled him on Hollywood blvd holding him for 12 min until the police arrived and took him into custody. I left on a vacation shortly after, and when I returned there were new vans and cameras waiting for me and I was shocked to say the least. The videos have gone around the world and have been featured on more TV shows than I can remember, as well as news stations like Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, the BBC as well as I was on the Today Show. I have had multiple interviews as well and the videos have accumulated over 1/2 a billion views last time I looked.

In 2023, on Halloween night an Actor named Allen Ruck unfortunately ran his vehicle into the building ending up in the Bathroom. I pulled him out of the vehicle, and checked on everyone that was involved and lucky no one was seriously injured. It was a miracle that no one was hurt other than the building. My neighboring restaurant was closed with a red tag and we were allowed to stay open, but the complex looked closed because of the accident and lack of light lighting. Business dropped significantly, and we were also forced to close.

Fast forward a year later, I was able to partner with someone to reopen. So in April 2025, we reopened Shin exactly the way it was with a little bit of remodel inside. There was an outlaw of happiness from our community as they were also happy that we reopened.

So now we are continuing the same tradition of hot warm towels when you sit down to dine in, great food all made from scratch and I hope that we can open a few more restaurants in the LA area to expand a wonderful business and share the great flavors of Japan that we have been doing for 15 years.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been smooth. When we were to get our alcohol license two weeks before we were supposed to have it issued Covid hit and it was delayed by almost 7 months. It was a struggle that we were able to come through it, especially because we also got to remodel the inside and expand the square footage.

We also had to close for a year as I explained earlier because of a vehicle running through the building and that was an epic situation that no one ever expected to happen

It’s been difficult to build up our clientele since the accident and closing for one year, but we’re at about half the business that we used to before closing.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
my adult career was started in manufacturing and I’m an expert in catalytic converters. I was the executive vice president of a manufacturing company named DEC 417 years before resigning to run the restaurant.

I’ve also been a magician my entire life and being able to perform Magic at the restaurant is so wonderful. It brings a smile to so many people‘s face along with the food. It is a match made in heaven. I might not make the money I used to, but I’ve never been happier and I would not change a thing

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I am glad to say that I had a wonderful childhood growing up going back and forth between my mom and dad as they were divorced.. my mother raised me Mormon, which I had a few questions about in my team years and left the religion. I decided when I was 14 to move in with my biological dad. My dad is gay and has been with the same partner and now married for over 40 years. I say it was the most normal upbringing I’ve ever had being raised by two gay men, but they taught me so much about life and my favorite childhood memory would have to be growing up with such wonderful parents all around..

There was one time when my dad decided he would try to rollerblade with me and needless to say he did not know how to stop. He kept rolling down a hill until he hit a fire hydrant and I still cried thinking about it in laughter, of course, but my father still crying because it hit him in a spot that every man would cry.

My mother worked for a company called 3 by 4 and they converted three wheelers to four wheelers at the time because the popularity was growing so much and when I was younger, I got to go to the desert quite often and ride ATVs and motorcycles. It was an absolute blast to be able to run all over the desert with family and friends.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Hollywoodshin.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollywoodshin/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HollywoodShin/.
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/shin-los-angeles-5