Ginza (shopping district in Tokyo)Western-style meal
Mikawaya Grocery Store opened in Ginza in 1887. During the turmoil at the end of the war, it was re-established as French Cuisine Mikawaya and became the current “Ginza Mikawaya”. The restaurant offers exquisite Western-style cuisine. Many customers have become regular customers, and the restaurant is bustling with people every day. We interviewed Shinpei Watanaka, the fourth-generation owner of Ginza Mikawaya.
〜first partArticle by ~.
Up until now, business operations had been started and ended somewhat arbitrarily. Instead, we would gather the staff together at a regular time and hold a meeting, where we would say things like, “This is what happened the day before, and this is what we need to do with this item,” or “We have this kind of customer, and we received this kind of request last time, so we will check if we can do this and share it with everyone. We will check if it is possible to do so and share it with all members. We are creating an environment in which information is communicated to everyone.
For example, do you also share things like “customers are not good at this kind of thing”?
Yes, I keep a notebook for that as well. I look at your name and say, “I’m not good at this, so let’s not do it anymore,” or “You said this amount is too much, so I’ll suggest a smaller amount. I put all of these things together. Information that can be shared is always necessary. If we put it in different places, it would be difficult to understand, so we put it all in one centralized place.
Can anyone see those notes?
Anyone can see it and anyone can write in any changes.
Do you imagine writing one customer’s information per notebook?
No, not that many, but I think there are a dozen or so names on each page. If the information changes, I cross it out with a double line and add to it. The notebook is also used to record the so-called “selfishness” of the customers. This is where the so-called “back menu” is born.
It means that they listen to my selfishness and understand me.
Yes, we do. We often receive such comments and we are happy to hear them.
Starting with gratin, popular menu items have changed with the times.
I also heard that there were some big tricks and major menu innovations that were done by the first generation.
Our restaurant was originally in a bit of a difficult situation when our gratin was featured in a newspaper article, and from there it came back to life. My grandfather worked at the Hotel New Grand in Yokohama, the birthplace of doria. He was there at the very birthplace of doria. My grandfather became independent with that technique. At our restaurant, we serve it in the form of gratin with a little butter rice. My grandfather’s generation introduced these new things and established the restaurant.
So your first hit menu item was gratin. I am sure that there have been many changes in the past until now.
At first it was called “gratin mikawaya-san,” but as time has accelerated, so has the time people have, and the reality is that people can no longer eat gratin in a leisurely manner. You have to wait for it to bake, and it’s hot. So now my number one menu item is not gratin, but crab cream croquettes. The same dish that uses cream has changed that way. People’s lifestyles have changed, and the way time passes has changed, so the reality is that people are shifting to a more quick and easy meal.
I don’t think crab cream croquettes were originally available. How was it introduced?
Before Mikawaya became what it is today, during the chaotic postwar period, there were no ingredients available, so croquettes were fried and sold. As an extension of that, they opened a store and began to operate, and it seems that the know-how from that time was put to good use and became what it is today.
I see. So you had the know-how from the days of selling those croquettes. That is wonderful. Now, I would like to ask you about your future plans and the initiatives you are considering.
Technical interest enables quality delivery.
As our stores get older, the people who use them naturally get older. As our restaurant grows older, our customers are naturally getting older, and some of them are no longer able to come to the restaurant due to their weakened health. We are now working on a variety of initiatives to bring the taste of our restaurant to those people at home. Technological innovation is happening every day. In fact, one of my acquaintance’s restaurant installed an instant freezer last month. I heard that it is now in trial operation, and I would like to use that machine. For example, when deep-fried foods are frozen, they inevitably become soggy after a long time, but today’s frozen foods are crispy even when heated in a microwave oven. This is because of the evolution of freezing technology.
So that’s how it is, although I don’t think that was the case in the beginning.
In the past, …… sorry to say, we had to accept that some of the food was not edible and that it was just the way it was, but now we are able to produce very good products. We are now preparing to take advantage of this technology to flash freeze our products and ship them frozen all over the country.
It’s a technological innovation in delivery.
We have never delivered. However, due to recent circumstances, Western-style restaurants in the Ginza district have joined hands to establish such a delivery system, and we use it to deliver what we call “Ginza quality” to our customers. Our restaurant also participates in this system and delivers “delicious Ginza delivery.
That was amazing. It was a great relief to know that Ginza is a town where that kind of movement is possible.
Yes, Ginza is an interesting district. For example, there are several Western-style restaurants in the same Ginza district. From the outside, they might be seen as rivals, but I don’t feel that way at all. Rather than competing with each other, we have come this far by thinking together about what we can do by taking advantage of each other’s characteristics, which I think is a horizontal connection unique to Ginza.
Thank you very much. Finally, do you have any message for us?
Our restaurant is located in Ginza, and to be honest, I think it is quite expensive in terms of price. However, we take pride in the fact that we are a page in the history of Western cuisine and have played a role in it up to this point. If you are interested in learning more about Western cuisine, I hope you will stop by. I myself actually stand in the restaurant and move around, so if you visit us, please feel free to talk to me, and I am sure that new connections will be born from there. You don’t have to eat! You can come just to say hello, and I hope you will continue to love Mikawaya.
Customer information is written down in a handwritten notebook and shared with all staff members. This steady effort has probably made Ginza Mikawaya what it is today. People who gather at this popular Western-style restaurant in Ginza may be looking for not only the taste, but also the hospitality of the staff.
*If you would like to see this dialogue on video.here (place close to the speaker or where the speaker is)
