Late-night cafeteria.

As the name suggests, a canteen that is only open late at night and is only open in the evening.

It may sound like a very ordinary late-night snack stall, but in Japan, it is a unique culture that belongs only to this overseas island nation.

Unlike the usual night-time restaurants and bars, the menu of this type of restaurant is unusually simple, just a piece of paper with several articles printed on it in order:

XX set meal – XX yen.

XX side - XX yen.

XX liquor – XX yen.

Entries are generally limited to single digits, usually five to six. You can also order items that are not on the menu, and sell them as long as the ingredients are available in the store and the owner knows how to make them.

Don't expect to eat any delicacies of the mountains and seas in this kind of place, the area of this restaurant is more than ten square meters, and the large one is only thirty or fifty square meters, and the ingredients in the store are all ordinary goods that can be seen everywhere, which are easy to store and not easy to deteriorate, and some are even cheap to use.

What, do you think there are any customers for such a restaurant? Can it be operated?

In other countries, unless there are no restaurants nearby, it is really difficult to operate such a restaurant. But in Japan, this type of restaurant is quite popular, and the longer it is open, the more business will be booming.

This has a lot to do with Japanese society and culture. The social culture in Japan is not to go home after work, or to find a place to drink and eat with clients or colleagues, and then go home after eight or nine o'clock. If you don't, you'll look useless, your colleagues will ostracize you, your boss will look down on you, your family will dislike you, and your company will even fire you.

This custom arose mainly in the last century during the economic boom in Japan, when evening entertainment became the mainstream of society, and in many companies, entertainment receipts could be used as tax deductions. Although Japan's economy has ceased to be so prosperous, this custom has been passed down as a culture.

On the other hand, due to the fast-paced nature of Japan, there is a lot of pressure in Japan, and after a day of work and life, all kinds of stress and complaints have accumulated, and I need a place to talk to. And the more people who live at the bottom, the more pressure there is, so this kind of cheap eatery that can provide a place to talk is very popular. Perhaps the guests are no longer eating food, but a feeling of home.

Located in Iwate Prefecture, Hokkaido, the "Grumbling Pavilion" is one such ordinary late-night restaurant.

"Grumbling Pavilion" was originally not called "Grumbling Pavilion", but a more ordinary name, the owner is an old man over sixty years old, but recently replaced by a young man, who does not seem to be a local, with a bit of a Kansai accent. I heard that it was a relative of the boss, who had been messing around outside all these years and had achieved nothing, but the boss happened to be older and not as good as before, so he took over this small shop and changed the original nameless to the current "Complaint Pavilion".

At first, regular customers were worried that familiar places would become unfamiliar. But soon, they found that although the name of the store had changed, the decoration of the store had not changed, the acquaintances around them were still there, and the young people were doing the same cooking and work as the previous boss, and their speech and behavior were not as impetuous as the young people of today, but with the old age of the facts.

Opening a store is not an easy task, getting the official, and (black) Jidao, every year in every place there will be business people and Jidao conflicts, causing bloodshed news, of which young people account for the majority. But this young man is different, no matter what the situation is, he is always that kind and cheerful, and he solves things in a few words, and when the swaggering members of the club come to the store, they also become amiable, and sometimes they will sit down to eat something like the guests.

It's still the original recipe, it's still the original taste, and more importantly, the familiar feeling has never disappeared, and the small wave of changing the name of the store and the owner has disappeared in the passage of time. It didn't take long for the old customers to think that the name of the new store was very apt, after all, everyone came here to complain.

The young new owner also brought a lot of surprises to everyone, and compared to the previous owner who only cooked local food, the new owner will cook a lot of things, not only in Kanto, Kanto, Hokkaido, Okinawa, but also a little bit of foreign cuisine.

A curious guest asked the owner, "You're so good, why don't you go to a better place." ”

The young man just smiled and replied, "I just ran a lot of places when I used to mess around, and I learned a little casually, not as exaggerated as you say, and I don't have a chef's certificate." And I'm gone, who's going to cook for everyone?"

Then there were all kinds of ridicule and memories of the regular customers, and the atmosphere of the grumbling pavilion became a little more lively.

However, this is only a small episode that only happens very rarely, and the atmosphere in the Whining Pavilion is a little dreary most of the time.

Guests walk into the shop, silently order a glass of wine, the older ones order sake, the younger ones order beer, and announce the names of the dishes that have been said many times, and then grumble about the wine and food. Probably only when someone is happy or the young owner is bored and develops a new menu will there be a different atmosphere in the store.

Regulars call this a surprise. The last surprise was eight or nine days ago, when the boss got a few small bottles of wine called "Erguotou" from somewhere. It looks no different from sake, but when you enter it, you know that this taste is much stronger than sake, and if you ask carefully, the alcohol content is as high as 52 degrees, which is three to four times the degree of ordinary sake, and it's a shame that he can get this kind of thing, it seems that he said that his road is indeed not an empty word.

Of course, regrets are not unfounded. After all, it's a young person, and some older people know about it, but this new manager is not very good at it. At this time, the manager will sincerely apologize to the customer, and then humbly ask for advice, and if the customer does not, he will take time to visit the local elderly. Soon, the boss's list that wasn't on the menu would have a new name.

It is this serious attitude that makes the small shop more and more famous in the neighborhood, and the business is getting better and better, and some regular customers even think that it is not a bad thing to marry the school-age woman of the family to the boss, and they also start to try the matter around the corner.

But they soon dispelled this idea, because this young man who didn't seem to have any characteristics, like a passerby ABC, actually had a beautiful girlfriend.

Every time late at night, when the customers had left, the girl who liked to wear white would walk into the store and shout in a voice that was out of place with the atmosphere of the store:

"Naa, I'm hungry, Shen-ah, Haruki. ”

Or—

"It's so boring, play with me, Haruki. ”

Whenever such a thing happens, the young boss will throw a knife or a menu or just throw a tomato, apple or something like that.

"Don't make a fuss, how many times have I told you, don't affect others, Kazusa. If you're hungry, wait a while, I'll make you something to eat, and if you're bored, come and help me wash the dishes. ”

As a result, there is another youthful and beautiful figure in the store.

PS: Alas, Fuyuma and Yukina are both good girls, but it's a pity that they are limited by the gaze of the short-born species, or are they better long-born species, what do you say?