The news reports filled the city with gloom. From out of a big Manhattan real estate firm had come a change that few locals expected or wanted. Reactions were apocalyptic. There was a shared fear that we were moving in the wrong direction, that the values of our community were being trampled by dark, hostile forces.

I speak, of course, of Union Square Cafe’s losing its lease after 30 years, when the landlord decided in 2014 to drastically raise the rent for the space on East 16th Street. Danny Meyer’s first restaurant, for many years one of the most beloved in New York, moved out. Writers and internet commenters saw it as another step toward a Manhattan in which independent and worthwhile restaurants can’t make it. It seemed likely that the proposed $650,000-a-year rent would scare off any business that wasn’t part of a chain.

That part was true. But the chain that moved in turned out to be more interesting than another franchise selling lattes in paper cups or burgers in paper wrappers.

TsuruTonTan Udon Noodle Brasserie is the first United States location for an operation that owns 13 restaurants in Japan. It’s now easier to find a ramen shop in Manhattan than a mailbox, but udon specialists are rare. As far as I can tell, TsuruTonTan is the only one that mixes, kneads, rolls and cuts the dough for these long, pale wheat noodles on site.