11 December 2009

New mountain destination awaiting PE approval ?


Maid Cafe Popping Up In Yamanashi Mountains

KOFU, Yamanashi Pref. (Nikkei)--In the mountains to the west of Tokyo, one restaurant operator is looking to turn around falling sales by opening an establishment where customers are greeted by young waitresses dressed up as French maids.

Ristorante Syokora -- a local Italian restaurant operator -- expects its first "maid cafe," to open in Showa Town on Dec. 15, to attract gaggles of male patrons. At maid cafes, customers are customarily greeted at the entrance by a curtsy and a soothing phrase: "Welcome home, Master!" The phenomenon took root in Tokyo's Akihabara district, and is now spreading far and wide.

Ristorante Syokora plans to open one maid cafe per year, targeting annual sales of 100 million yen during the first three years.

The Kofu-based company will offer about 10 dishes at the cafe, with these to be taken from the menu of the Italian restaurants. While this total is only one-fourth of what is listed on the Italian menus, the cafe will also boast an original rice omelet creation, on which the maids will cheerfully write the "master's" name in ketchup.

(Source: The Nikkei Marketing Journal Dec. 9 edition)

1 comment:

Manfred von Holstein said...

Interesting, though "in the mountains to the west of Tokyo" is misleading. Showa is just a suburb of Kofu, not at all in the mountains and probably one of the warmest places in Japan, at least in summer.

I think we will have to wait for a while until we get served on top of our favourite passes.