Japan: Sushi Scandals!

Japan’s national culinary treasure, sushi, was automated in 1958, when Yoshiaki Shiraishi, the Henry Ford of sushi, opened the first kaiten sushi (回転寿司 “revolving-sushi”) restaurant in Osaka. Today, the $5.1 billion business of conveyer belt sushi is dominated by four giant chains: Sushiro, Kura Sushi, Hama Sushi, and Kappa Sushi.

Competition between the big 4 firms is keen as a sashimi bōchō knife, and led to some bluefin-tuna-sized scandals this year. Last month, Tokyo police smelled something fishy, and arrested the president of Kappa Sushi for stealing corporate secrets from rival Hama Sushi. He later resigned. And in June, Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency reprimanded Sushiro for promoting a sea urchin sushi 90 percent of their outlets didn’t actually carry.

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Kavanaugh Asserts Constitutional Right to Steak

US Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh was eating at Morton’s steakhouse in DC on July 6th when womens’ rights activists found out, and protested in front of the pricey eatery. Mr. Kavanaugh had to sneak out the back without dessert. Sad, but there’s always Grubhub.

Morton’s angrily responded that “Politics … should not trample the freedom … of the right to … eat dinner.” Protesters reponded by flooding Morton’s with fake reservations by phone and on Open Table.

There were other reactions. “Sounds like he just wanted some privacy to make his own dining decisions,” Chasten Buttigieg tweeted, alluding to Kavanaugh’s vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the decision that guaranteed abortion access on the basis of Americans’ right to privacy. And after Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked if “These justices … have no right to privacy?”, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted “Pretty sure they overturned that right 2 weeks ago Doocy.”

More:

“Brett Kavanaugh is the latest target of protests at D.C. restaurants,” Emily Heil and Tim Carman, Washington Post

“‘Let him eat cake’: AOC reacts to Kavanaugh being forced out of restaurant by abortion rights protesters,” Axios

“Sorry, but the Constitution contains no right to eat dinner,” Washington Post

“Group offers up to $250 for SCOTUS justices sightings after Kavanaugh protest,” Axios

“Protests of Public Officials in Restaurants Aren’t Going Away,” Jessica Sidman, Washingtonian

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Pots and Pans

“Pots and Pans,” a Van Beuren Studios cartoon featuring Tom & Jerry, 1932. Directed by John Foster and George Rufle. Music Director: Gene Rodemich. To prevent confusion with the better-known MGM cartoon cat and mouse, the main characters’ names were later changed to Dick and Larry.

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Horn & Hardart Automats

Horn & Hardart Automat cafeterias provided meals without waiters in Philadelphia and New York during the 20th century. Playwright Neil Simon called automats “the Maxim’s of the disenfranchised.” The restaurants looked like they were automated because patrons couldn’t see the dozens of sweating workers preparing their dishes and putting them behind the serving doors.

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Zero Waste Restaurant

 Douglas McMaster opened the Silo Restaurant to demonstrate that dining can be environmentally sustainable. Video directed by Matt Hopkins.

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Dining Out: Today’s Special Is COVID-19

Dining out may come with a free side order of COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week.

“Adults who tested positive for the coronavirus were about twice as likely to have dined at a restaurant within a two-week period prior to becoming sick, according to a new study from Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.”

— “Adults With COVID-19 Twice As Likely To Have Eaten At Restaurants, CDC Study Finds,” Jason Slotkin, NPR News

More:

“If you caught COVID-19, you likely ate at a restaurant, CDC report finds,” Susana Guerrero, SF Gate

“Adults with COVID-19 twice as likely to have dined at a restaurant: study,” Amanda Woods, NY Post

Update:

“Fauci: Bars and Restaurants Should Remain Closed to Stop Spread of Coronavirus,” Tori B. Powell, Daily Beast

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The Tipped Wage: Depending on ‘The Kindness of Strangers’

If you’re uncomfortable leaving a tip at a restaurant, there’s a good reason. The nominally-egalitarian United States adopted the custom of tipping during Reconstruction, when African Americans, newly-freed from bondage, filled many low-paying personal-service jobs. Tipping allowed employers to rationalize paying a pittance to servers, and allowed restaurant patrons to feel like the European aristocrats who initiated the custom. Even today, in the Nation’s Capital, while most workers get $13.25 an hour, restaurant owners can pay servers $3.89 an hour.

Americans calculate a restaurant tip as a percentage of the total meal bill, so the more expensive the menu, the greater the gratuities to servers. That’s why Washington DC’s high-end restaurant owners had no trouble finding employees to testify against a District of Columbia law mandating equal hourly wages for servers, despite the fact that DC voters had approved the measure in a referendum. The District Council voted 8 to 5 to overturn the will of the voters.

If DC voters want to ratify their referendum vote and end vulnerable restaurant workers’ dependence on “the kindness of strangers,” they’ll have a chance soon. Four of the council members who voted to repeal the fair wage law are up for re-election on November 6th.

A Restaurant Kitchen of Grandmas

Enoteca Maria, a restaurant and wine bar in Staten Island, features two special dishes each day. One is by an Italian nonna, the other by a grandmother from another part of the world. Video by Jessica Leibowitz.

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José Andrés’ Veggie Eatery: Supersized

José Andrés‘ fast-casual Beefsteak restaurants got a big new helping of $9.25 million, reports Rebecca Cooper of Washington Business Journal. The vegetable-centric restos (beefsteak tomatoes, get it?) are currently in DC at Dupont Circle and George Washington University in Foggy Bottom. The new infusion of cabbage will fund new Beefsteak outposts planned for Tenleytown (near American University) and at the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia.

Bayou Bakery Opens on the Hill

Celebrity chef David Guas has a new DC outpost of his Arlington café on Capitol Hill. The Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar & Eatery has just opened at 901 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, in the carriage house of the historic Old Naval Hospital, built in 1866.

The carriage house has some more recent history. In 1990 the nonprofit Community Action Group began operating out of it. CAG, affiliated with Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian Catholic Church, an African American parish, ran a program helping homeless men and women with drug addictions find treatment, housing, and employment. In 2007, when the city and private donors paid millions to turn the main building into the Hill Center, a nonprofit facility teaching kiddie yoga and French cooking, the program for the homeless was evicted from the carriage house to make space for a profit-making restaurant.

Bon appétit.