With the St. Louis Blues winning Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals at home, tying the series 2-2 with the Boston Bruins, Qui Tran is on to Coach Berube. He knows exactly how the coach has navigated the team from last in the league to putting up quite a fight for the Cup.
It’s all in his spicy miso ramen, Tran says, which Berube pairs with a pork spring roll when he stops into Nudo House before heading to Enterprise Center on game day.
Photography by Kevin Roberts
"When coach was the assistant, he used to come in maybe twice a month," Tran says. "Then, as head coach, he started coming in more. After the third or fourth time, I was like, well, heck, every time he's been in, we've won. I'm not really a superstitious dude. Then it was like 5 and 0, and then it was 6 and 0."
Tran tweeted out his discovery. (“Holy cow, was there a bunch of retweets.”) The tweet was met with an outcry for Tran to fly with the Blues to Boston for Game 5. “Don't screw this up,” he laughs. “Fly me out. I'll cook for the whole team—ramen for the entire team!”
Tran, who says his second Nudo House (in the East Loop, just down from Delmar Hall) will open mid-July, happily takes credit.
Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
Nudo House's spicy pork ramen
“We’ve told coach, ‘Hey just keep winning, and we will keep feeding you. I don’t care what it is, let’s just keep it moving. We’re not screwing this up, no one touch anything! Keep everything the same!'”
Even if Tran can't make Game 5, he has Sunday's Game 6 in mind, when Nudo House would typically be closed. “Like I said, I am not a superstitious person, but if coach wants to come eat on Sunday, we got him.”
And if that fiery bowl of ramen works enough magic to bring home the cup? Tran has a gift for Berube—"If we win, I am making coach a jersey that says Chief Miso Spicy."
For more on Tran and Nudo House, check out SLM's March feature on how the chef survived polio while leaving Vietnam for the U.S. and started working in his family's restaurant at age 8.
