ああ、昭和は遠くなりにけり・・・・ : Kafe Gyarari En

[Visited in late December 2021, archived] On the way back from a quick trip to Tokorozawa. I saw that the national highway was crowded, so I took a shortcut to the supermarket that only locals use, and came out behind Akitsu Station. I was asked to buy some things at a drugstore, so it was past 11:30 when I bought them. So I decided to just park the car and have lunch nearby, and headed to this restaurant. This restaurant was rebuilt 30 years ago when I came to Tokyo, and it was a very lively restaurant that had live jazz performances in the store and appeared on TV. Naturally, the staff were quite condescending, so it was a restaurant that was avoided by locals. I entered the store for the first time in over 20 years and sat in a box seat in the back, but there was no sign of anyone. The store also doubled as a gallery, so various items were on display, but everything was old and reminiscent of a scene from the movie "Future Planet Zardoz". The only sound playing was the sound of a TV broadcast. I thought I'd wait for a while, so I killed time by watching the news on my smartphone, but 10 minutes had passed and no one had arrived. After another 15 minutes of waiting, I finally heard footsteps from the second floor and the landlady arrived. The landlady, who had been so thin, had become voluptuous and aged. She was middle-aged even 30 years ago, so I guess she was around 80 years old. She reminded me of the wife of a fallen millionaire in Pearl Buck's novel "The Good Earth". Even though I had kept her waiting for quite a while, she left my water without saying anything, so I ordered "plum and whitebait pilaf". 10 minutes later, the pilaf was brought out, which was quite watery, about the size of a bowl, and lightly sprinkled with paprika. It came with a salad and cost 1,050 yen. The only thing that hadn't changed was the way it was priced. At the time, coffee at Coffee shops was 250 yen, but coffee at this shop was already 500 yen. But I do remember that the coffee was delicious. I took a bite of the pilaf, which wasn't cold, but wasn't warm either. It didn't have much flavor, and there was no scent of plum or texture of whitebait, so it was somehow mediocre, or even worse. It was a world apart from the incredibly delicious pilaf I had at another long-established Coffee shops last month. Just before I finished eating, the waiter said, "Here's a complimentary coffee," and gave me a small cup. Yes, coffee is delicious after all! Ah, the Showa era is long gone... Thank you for the meal.