What would you want in an anisong club / japanese hangout?

[jigenbakuda]

I'm thinking about starting a business with a japanese theme. The japanese businesses in my city consist of nothing but japanese steak houses and sushi bars, which I feel DO NOT in the slightest represent the typical japanese person / contemporary japan. So I wish to be the voice of change. It might not be possible for me to realise my dreams, but I want to give it a shot.

To do this I need to see what types of things would people spend their money on. I wanted to do a japanese street food / geek lounge by day and at night throw anisong parties. I'm simplifying, but these are my general thoughts.

What types of things would you like to see in a place like this? What types of food, what kind of songs, or would you just avoid it all together?
(in the next post I'll detail my thoughts on what should be in there)

edit:

Well I'd love to throw anisong parties in the building after regular business hours are over on a saturday or friday. (A couple latin restaurants do this to turn their restaurant into a salsa club on the weekends) I'd play anime music and video game music, but I'd want it to have a lounge feeling, where the music is not super loud, but the music is all good and there are places to sit and talk, or if you are not into that, things to do by yourself as you just chill in the environment. Perhaps magazines to read magazines or manga or photobooks if you are into that sort of thing and watch anime playing on screens and stuff.

When I went to a maid cafe in japan I was surprised at how little of it is actually about the food and more about the decor and the chill factor. You know chilling with the cosplayers chatting them up and just relaxing was what you were really paying the extremely high prices for

I want to have that feel in my place. Just a place you can come and relax in, while surrounded by japanese stuff. I don't want to back myself into an otaku-only corner, I really want to introduce non-japanophiles to a more realistic japan... you know japan is not zen gardens and samurais anymore, so lets see a more modern japan. So it won't be K-on and miku hatsune posters everwhere in the day, but they will be everywhere at the anisong party. Thats my direction. A lot of specifics are up in the air, but thats the general idea.


So as far as food goes I'd like to offer standard junk food you could buy at lawsons or some place like that, mixed with japanese street vendor food. You know honenashi chicken, yakisoba pan, regular yakisoba, oden, various teas (chilled) regular green tea, simple bentou options (rice a meat and a veggie mix), maybe okonomiyaki(if I learn how to make it decently), taiyaki, random stuff on a stick lol(from weiners to spam), etc... nothing gourmet just common stuff regular japanese people eat. I have not thought about all the things I can cook but this is a general idea.

If there is anything that you would like to see in a place like this please mention it. If you think something would be non-sense mention it, just general thoughts and ideas are good.

[wontaek]

Research if restaurant with some seating capacity that specializes in delivery of cheap Japanese ( and perhaps add Korean and Vietnamese ) food might work. Chinese food delivery works in USA so why not other Asian food? One of the things I really miss in USA is that I cannot order delivery of cheap Makizushi rolls. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi#Makizushi , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimbap , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onigiri)

[jigenbakuda]

Originally Posted by wontaek

Research if restaurant with some seating capacity that specializes in delivery of cheap Japanese ( and perhaps add Korean and Vietnamese ) food might work. Chinese food delivery works in USA so why not other Asian food? One of the things I really miss in USA is that I cannot order delivery of cheap Makizushi rolls. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi#Makizushi , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimbap , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onigiri)

Oh wow great response! I didn't even think about onigiri. But yea you can't get delivery sushi here can you... I don't know how to make sushi, but I can experiment and if I get good enough delivery sushi would be awesome! Thanks for the ideas.

[Vexx]

Do you want the over-21 or under-21 crowd? That drives whether you serve saki/beer or not. Personally I'd stick to grill bar food items (yakitori, tonkatsu, okonomiyaki, etc) unless you can actually get a sushi chef. You don't want to kill your customers. Onigiri, makizushi .... only if you can really present it well. Half-assed presentation is worse than not having it at all.

As for atmosphere.... to expand your audience, I'd go for the "after work grill bar ala carte" type place that permeates Tokyo. Sure, have some undertones of anime (displays, etc) but don't overload the place with it. Have employees wear uniforms (subtle cosplay) but not outlandish. You might also think about a couple of karaoke booths (japan-style).

Good luck with the idea... my wife and I have discussed something similar on occasion (though our selection of "authentic" Japanese eatery in the Pacific NW sounds quite a bit better than yours).

[bhl88]

I was thinking of an anime themed hangout (so yeah... kinda the same).

[jigenbakuda]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Do you want the over-21 or under-21 crowd? That drives whether you serve saki/beer or not. Personally I'd stick to grill bar food items (yakitori, tonkatsu, okonomiyaki, etc) unless you can actually get a sushi chef. You don't want to kill your customers. Onigiri, makizushi .... only if you can really present it well. Half-assed presentation is worse than not having it at all.

As for atmosphere.... to expand your audience, I'd go for the "after work grill bar ala carte" type place that permeates Tokyo. Sure, have some undertones of anime (displays, etc) but don't overload the place with it. Have employees wear uniforms (subtle cosplay) but not outlandish. You might also think about a couple of karaoke booths (japan-style).

Good luck with the idea... my wife and I have discussed something similar on occasion (though our selection of "authentic" Japanese eatery in the Pacific NW sounds quite a bit better than yours).

I myself don't drink, so I never thought of serving sake or japanese beers. I am not planning to serve alcohol. But I might in the future.

I really have a strong desire to have a real japanese karaoke parlor. You know I could really incorporate the resturant with the karaoke just like in normal places. Seeing as they serve food and drinks in karaoke places. Although I find karaoke places serve more american-esque finger foods, so that would be very easy to implement. Karaoke was bar none my favourite japanese activity. I would spend all of freetime in those places (I never could afford karaoke at night anyways).

I do not think I would do cosplay at all in my resturant, but for the anisong party I can give a discount for those who come in cosplay. Once again I don't want to back myself into an otaku only hole.

I've only been to okinawa and yamaguichi prefecture, so I've never experienced tokyo bars, but I'm sure they are not that different than places people go in other places in japan. So I think I get the gist of your suggestion.

Where I'm from all japanese places... well most japanese places are run by chinese people. I've never once heard them speak a word of japanese. I don't know chinese, but I'm fairly confident of what it sounds like, so I'm pretty sure they are chinese. Not saying they don't have good food, its just not the type of food I ate in japan.

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I think that I'm getting really great ideas from this thread on what people would expect in a place like this.

[Vexx]

Sometimes in some states I joke it must be some legal requirement that the restaurant cannot be run by the same ethnic of the food it sells (Koreans running Japanese places, Greeks running Italian places, Chinese selling that weird "American chinese and pizza" stuff, and my favorite recent phenomenon - Latinos selling Vietnamese food, O.o ??? etc).

[HasuMasu]

Sometimes in some states I joke it must be some legal requirement that the restaurant cannot be run by the same ethnic of the food it sells (Koreans running Japanese places, Greeks running Italian places, Chinese selling that weird "American chinese and pizza" stuff, and my favorite recent phenomenon - Latinos selling Vietnamese food, O.o ??? etc).

that is very weird, i wonder why they do that...

[RWBladewing]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Sometimes in some states I joke it must be some legal requirement that the restaurant cannot be run by the same ethnic of the food it sells (Koreans running Japanese places, Greeks running Italian places, Chinese selling that weird "American chinese and pizza" stuff, and my favorite recent phenomenon - Latinos selling Vietnamese food, O.o ??? etc).

This sure seems to be the case in western NY. There's a ton of Japanese restaurants around here and not one of them is run by a Japanese. I've known this for a while but it was still somewhat jarring hearing my waitress "Yuki" start speaking Mandarin Chinese to the sushi chef last time I was there, heh.

As far as ideas for a new business go, I think an outdoor ramen stand/bar would be something to consider, maybe as an addition if you're going for something bigger overall. I follow a lot of J-list's tweets and that's something he always laments never being able to find anywhere in the states. Maybe not super contemporary but I think it'd be a very uniquely Japanese experience that you can't find most places.

[bhl88]

Or probably anime styled meals... but then it'll probably be copyright...

[Vexx]

gotta have Omurice....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omurice
http://japanesefood.about.com/od/rice/r/omurice.htm

(dozens of ways to do it but yeah)

[Master_Yoma]

Well if you went to start a Japanese style hangout nothing is more Japanese then a karaoke place hell you can even do it as a anime style

And if you need a cheep place there tons of place here for cheep you can rent out

[Zenemis]

If you don't have previous experience in cooking in a kitchen, you may struggle in that regard, as cooking at home for yourself is completely different from cooking professionally - you don't need to employ an A-List chef, but you will need someone who can handle cooking lots of food.

I think having light cosplay for your staff is probably the way to go, offering discounts for customers cosplaying is something that can cause you some headache down the track, so I don't recommend it.

Your idea though - some Japanese finger food, some booze, something to watch with some mates - sounds great, good luck

EDIT: Local geeks will make better staff than grabbing someone purely because they're Japanese

[jigenbakuda]

Omurice! Vexx you are reminding me of a lot of simple cute stuff that I had totally forgotten about.

I'm definitely wanting to have both japanese and korean karaoke machines, but I can't do that until later. I need to start small and expand as available. So focus on only 1 thing (good food), then widen it to other things you know good manga / light novels to read while eating, then great movies / dramas / lives / whatever to watch while you eat, then having karaoke and you can order food while you sing, then add a mini arcade..., I want to progress kinda like that. One step at a time, not too fast. My business might fail, no need to invest everything into an idea only to have it fail. So succeed in one thing then expand.

Lol I live in jacksonville florida, we have no japanese people to hire... I will not be hiring staff for quite sometime, I will be the only staff and maybe my sister.

The discount for cosplayers was only for the night club anisong thing. Not for the regular food. Like come out tonight to listen to the best of 90's anisong and cover is 5 bucks, 2 bucks if you cosplay. It could be both an outlet for cosplayers and cosplay admirers alike.

I also will not be able to even attempt something like this for another year or so. In that time I will be working on my simple dishes / finger food. I will be the cook. I most definitely am not hiring a chef... Its not as if I'm cooking gourmet french food, japanese street food is very simple. I'm not serving fugu or kobe steak sashimi or shabu shabu, just simple stuff. Although I'm not taking it lightly and want to be able to make my own gomashio and ocha and panko. A bentou is literally rice, hamburg, and shredded cabbage served at room temperature, I think presentation is far more important than being highly skilled (key word highly)

But serious thanks to everyone who contributed, this has given me such great ideas. If you have more ideas, please don't stop!

[Kyuu]

I live in jacksonville florida

Location. Location. Location.

Also, you need a clear-cut and well-thought out business plan. I'm no expert on business, but... if you don't have that, you're likely to sink very fast.

[Master_Yoma]

Originally Posted by jigenbakuda

The discount for cosplayers was only for the night club anisong thing. Not for the regular food. Like come out tonight to listen to the best of 90's anisong and cover is 5 bucks, 2 bucks if you cosplay. It could be both an outlet for cosplayers and cosplay admirers alike.

How is this going to work there so many animes characters that wear plain clothes and I dont think that many people are going to cosplay to get into a bar no one what to do the walk of shame

[bhl88]

The plenty of cosplayers there are... the less ashamed one would be XD

[jigenbakuda]

Originally Posted by Master_Yoma

How is this going to work there so many animes characters that wear plain clothes and I dont think that many people are going to cosplay to get into a bar no one what to do the walk of shame

Well the first anisong party I went to they said if you were cosplaying you got a discount.I was wearing a t-shirt with the castlevania aria of sorrow poster on it, they gave me a discount. Not only was I in normal clothes, but I was not cosplaying a character.

Let me post some pics from that party.


In this pic the dj is cosplaying as the host guys from that Ouran High School Host Club manga thingie, but he was one of the few with a distinct cosplay


This dude is just wearing a touhou t-shirt similar to me



These two girls are full out cosplaying, but they were like the only ones



This dude had on anime clothes, similar to me, but I'm sure he got a discount


In my opinion, its more about creating an atmosphere in which people can be themselves and represent a series they love, without fear of being judged or made fun of. Just like bhl88 said, the more others are cosplaying, the more comfortable you feel coming out of your shell.

And once again they are not cosplaying to get into the club, I'm just offering money off to encourage cosplaying at the venue. I want a pro-cosplaying atmosphere, but it won't be cosplay night, it will be anisong night, it will be about playing good anime music. But I just know people interested in listening to anime music are also open to participating in cosplay and enjoying other's cosplay.

Here is an advertisement for the same guys who threw that party I went to.
8月20日(FRI)

N･E･R･D。[第3期]
2010.08.20 @沖縄熱血社交場
OPEN22:00 \1,500(1drink)

GUEST DJ:ヘントナー大佐
90年代後半から2000年代にかけて主催イベント『elegAnt spAce』の他『Symmetry Land』『黒帯』『強制スクロール』等のイベントにDJとして参加。DJ兼書店員。

DJ
takaSHI'T
DJいはっち
おねにいさま
さみあどん


N･E･R･D。killed the anime star...!?


コスプレの方は\1000(1drink)


But perhaps the real issue is that in america the anime / video game cultures do not allow for these types of displays. But either way I will try, I'll have to be proven wrong by my city, cause I know for a fact no one else is doing stuff like this. So perhaps if I build it they will come.


Edit:
Thank you guys for all your input, everytime someone adds something to the conversation, I question and refine my thoughts. Seriously, thanks guys.