Week 2 Assignment 1: Benihana of Tokyo

The Benihana of Tokyo’s concept was developed many years before its existence in America. The name and concept was adopted from the family business back in Japan, which was a small coffee shop named Benihana, which means “red flower” in Japan. This red flower was “found in the neighborhood streets, which gave Aoki the inspiration for the restaurant’s name.” (1) When Aoki’s eldest son Hiroaki (Rocky) first came to America, he envisioned introducing a different type of food and theme for a restaurant.
Rocky came to the States to work to his dream of starting this restaurant, during the day he would work at selling ice cream and at night he would study restaurant management. By the time Rocky could save enough money and borrow the rest to start his first four table restaurant in New York City. This restaurant was named Benihana, and quickly became a steakhouse distinguished from other, by only having a menu of three items (shrimp, chicken, and beef) and actually cooking the food right at the table (hibachi-style) with dazzling effects by highly trained chefs. This concept Rocky came to understand of the American culture to be very intimate with their foods and that they could cut down on wastage as storage and wastage typically contributes significantly to overheads in a restaurant.
The actual layouts of the restaurants were different from the normal restaurants that Americans were familiar with. With the hibachi-style tables, Rocky eliminated an actual kitchen and space, which allowed for a more intimate relationship/service with the customers. By adopting the hibachi table arrangement and doing away with the conventional kitchen they were able to increase the productive dining space and be able to keep their labor costs down to 10-12% of the gross sales. “The walls, ceilings, beams, artifacts, and decorative lights of a