On pop-up restaurants, chicken buckets, Japanese pancakes and a crazy way to cook a hot dog

Kyle Itani will open his second restaurant in November, a ramen noodle shop, not far from his award-winning Hopscotch diner in Oakland. The format at Itani Ramen will be fast casual and feature five different kinds of ramen dishes, as well as pot stickers and salads.  A fourth-generation Japanese American, Itani worked at Yoshi’s in San Francisco and the Meatball Shop in New York before opening Hopscotch three years ago. The San Francisco Chronicle named him a Rising Star Chef