Is it profitable? The Deep World of “Junko Lunch,” Where the “Service of the High Growth Era” Still Lives on Today

Service that has not changed over the years despite high prices

The “pure coffee shop,” which has become a booming business, is distinctly different from the trendy cafes of the day. Remnants of the Showa era (1926-1989) can be seen inside the store. The casual conversation with the owner, the aromatic coffee, and the time-honored furniture fill my heart with a little happiness.

It is an indispensable place for me. I listen to the conversations going on around me without listening to them, or I idly gaze at the lights, sugar pots, and other furnishings. I also enjoy the food, such as Neapolitan, omelette rice, curry, and other dishes that invigorate me with every bite, and I enjoy the restaurant with all of my senses.

Rina Namba, the author of “Junshocha Lunch” (Kawade Shobo Shinsha) and the second director of the Tokyo Café Research Institute, says, “If I go out, I can enjoy three to four Junshocha lunches a day. When she goes out, she visits three to four coffee shops a day. She has visited more than 2,000 coffee shops and published this book focusing on lunch on April 24.

A “junshocha lunch” has a charm that cannot be found in a restaurant or a home meal. It is a special time to spend with a cup of after-meal coffee in a unique atmosphere. This book introduces 39 such restaurants, including their histories, with “lunch” at the core.

The food at junshocha itself is also very deep. While tomato, broccoli, and pumpkin on top of salad is understandable, there are places where bananas and chikuwa are served side by side. Even if the vegetables soar in price due to bad weather, the quantity served remains the same. The amount of vegetables served is the same even when the weather is bad and the price of vegetables rises.　I am so anxious to serve them. Coffee beans, rice, and utilities have all gone up in price, yet it is not uncommon to receive service that seems to ignore the break-even point.

The first generation of stores that opened in the Showa period are now in their 70s and 80s, and those still active and those that have strongly inherited their will cherish the service spirit of the high-growth period. At locally owned stores where regular customers have been coming for decades, the owners even have a sense of mission to ‘please the customers who come’ and ‘make them glad they came,’ even when prices are high.

Some owners laughingly say, “The reason I run the store is so I don’t become senile,” and this is because the coffee shop business is their reason for living, and many stores value their customers’ consideration, saying, “I have made it to this age, so I will continue to do it for my customers” and “It’s good if I can feed myself. It’s because there are not a few shops that value their customers’ consideration, saying, “I’ve done what I’ve done, so I will continue to do it for my customers.

The reporter of this magazine also visited there.

The “today’s set meal” at “Lily” near Shakujii Park (Nerima Ward, Tokyo), which is mentioned in this book, features grilled fish, simmered squid and taro, grated yam with quail eggs, boiled spinach with shirasu, pickles, and a variety of small dishes. This sumptuous lunch costs less than 1,000 yen.

I heard that until the junsha boom came along, the restaurant was full of regulars, and as they thought of “healthy food for the body” for the female patrons who worked nearby, the number of small bowls of cooked food increased rapidly. It seems that the increase in orders for the set menus was causing a deficit (laugh), so now they don’t get many press interviews, and they don’t put up a sign outside anymore. It seems that they are trying to make it difficult for first-time visitors to enter the restaurant (laughs).

The restaurants introduced in this book value the distance between them and their customers and do not go into their private lives more than necessary. They leave customers who don’t want to talk to them alone, and when they do want to talk to them, they ask them, “Would you like to try this? Many of the waitstaff are warm-hearted. There is a warm human touch, and since you can fill up on food for less than 1,000 yen, you often see young people here as well.

This reporter also experienced a “pure coffee shop lunch” at “Coffee Aroom” in Koenji (Suginami Ward). The moment I opened the door, the owner, Mayo Masuda, greeted me gently with a soft smile and said, “Good morning. A Kenji Sawada record was playing and time was flowing slowly.

An unexpected dish popular with inbound customers.

The chicken curry contains three chicken wings and plenty of block chicken, and the rice and roux are perfect. The salad, noted at the beginning of this article, is from this restaurant and is quite hearty. I also smiled at the chikuwa and banana on the side. Coffee is also included in the price, which is 1,200 yen. When I left off the boiled egg, Mayo gently handed me a plastic bag saying, “Please take it as a souvenir. It was raining on the day I visited, and on my way home, she asked me, “Do you have an umbrella? She even asked me if I had an umbrella on the way home.

The restaurant opens at 7:00 a.m. and is sometimes full as soon as it opens. And more than half of the customers are young. I thought they were regulars, but it turned out they were first-time customers (laughs). I was comforted by Mayo’s warmth, as if to say, “Thank you for coming, you are all my sons and daughters. When I see her kindness toward others, it makes me wonder if I am usually as kind to others as I would like to be.

It seems that the coziness of junshocha is not only felt by young people. Inbound customers are also visiting. Unexpected foods are popular among foreign tourists, and many inbound customers, who make up the majority of customers at junsha in Asakusa, order “a certain dish,” according to one customer.

I heard that omelettes are selling like hotcakes at a pure coffee shop in an area frequented by inbound tourists. They are used to seeing omelettes, but they are surprised to see rice in the egg instead of vegetables or meat.

The Neapolitan dish flavored with ketchup, which is a favorite among foreign customers, is also popular, but many order omelette rice because it is a rarity. There are many surprising episodes, such as the elderly owner of Asakusa taking orders in English, saying, “I learned it naturally because we get so many inbound customers every day.

It seems that there is a deep world spreading in the junsha that survived the Showa, Heisei, and Reiwa eras. On your next holiday, I would like to open the door of a coffee shop with this book in hand.

Junshocha Lunch” (Rina Namba/Kawade Shobo Shinsha)