Japanese Mystery Cafe: You Never Know What You're Going to Get
In Kashiwa, Japan, the mysterious Ogori Cafe had a unique way of filling your order. According to Cabel Maxfield Sasser:
At this cafe, you get what the person before you ordered. The next person gets what you ordered.
Sounds like a fun social experiment, and, indeed, the point of the cafe seems to have been to introduce surprise into an ordinary day and to encourage strangers to interact with one another. And I love what Sasser's friend ordered for the customer after him:
Mike went up to the cafe, slapped down a couple thousand yen (~$25), and ordered a little bit of everything: some ice cream, some snacks, some candy, some drinks, a Japanese horn-of-mysterious-plenty intentionally set up as a shocking surprise for the next lucky customer. (After his order, Mike received single iced coffee.)
Unfortunately, the Ogori Cafe seems to have been a pop-up thing. Sasser reports that it's now gone.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
12 Comments:
I know that this is going to sound overly cynical and overly suspicious, but what is to prevent this little place from simply pocketing the money from a large order, and then claiming to the next patron that the customer before them simply ordered a soda? Theoretically, this place could be making money hand-over-fist and hardly give away product whatsoever. This just seems odd to me.
juliebugsmama at 10:49AM on 10/01/09
wait i'm confused. so you get what you ordered PLUS what the person before you ordered?
otherwise the first person ever orders one thing and everyone else just ends up getting that no matter what they ordered?
foodinmouth at 11:08AM on 10/01/09
@foodinmouth
I think
1) you order and pay for whatever you ordered (for the next person)
2) you get what the previous person ordered and payed
I can see why this didn't last.
hmw0029 at 11:23AM on 10/01/09
@foodinmouth: The primary source explains it a little better ... Someone ahead of you orders a cookie (and gets whatever the person in front of them ordered). You step up, order a stick of beef jerky. YOU get the cookie (but not the beef jerky). The person after you gets the beef jerky.
Person A: orders cookie, gets orange juice
Person B: orders beef jerky, gets cookie
Person C: orders coffee, gets beef jerky
Person D: orders a biscuit, gets coffee
Etc.
I'd only wonder how it works with the first and last person of the day. Maybe those items pulled from/rolled over from the day before and the day after.
Adam Kuban at 11:26AM on 10/01/09
How does this work with certain foods that could cause an allergic reaction, like shrimp?
kevster at 11:36AM on 10/01/09
@hmw0029: Somehow, I get from the original post on this cafe, is that it was temporary, anyway—more like a sort of performance art/happening than a viable business. The blogger who wrote about it conjectured that the cafe itself was located in what seemed to be a temporary collection of architecturally interesting buildings. Sort of like pop-up stores and pop-up restaurants. Probably not something I'd want to order from every day, but it seems like it introduced an added note of wonder to what was probably already a cool trip to Japan. And the bit where his friend ordered a smorgasbord of stuff for the next person was brilliant.
Adam Kuban at 11:38AM on 10/01/09
While this sounds novel, this is a pretty good description of how the local KFC/Taco Bell appears to run their drive-in. I always get a bag of stuff that has absolutely no resemblance to my order. When I went with a friend so we had two vehicles, I got random crap again. My friend behind me got my order...
kaszeta at 11:39AM on 10/01/09
@kevster: I'm sure you'd see that it was shrimp and politely tell them that you were allergic. Maybe they'd make an exception for potential medical emergencies.
Adam Kuban at 11:40AM on 10/01/09
@kaszeta: LOL. Little did you know your Taco Bell was participating in some sort of random conceptual art piece. You're lucky they didn't charge you a $20 admission fee for the experience.
Adam Kuban at 11:41AM on 10/01/09
@Adam
ohh. I see. that's kinda cool then :-)
I recall seeing a news article somewhere that people were paying for the next person's coffee (in the US)? This is similar to that, with more excitement...
hmw0029 at 11:49AM on 10/01/09
@Adam,
ahhh, it makes more sense now. thanks!
foodinmouth at 2:26PM on 10/01/09
Ahhh, I wish I'd known about it sooner. I totally would've gone :) It sounds like a cool place.
elpnny at 11:01PM on 10/01/09