You may be thinking, ”What the hell are you talking about?!?!” Well, just yesterday, for Pau Hana (Hawaiin phrase loosely meaning “days for heavy relaxation”) my friends, girlfriend, and I went over to Benihana’s in Maple Grove, MN to have dinner. Now, I havent been to this restaurant since I was a baby, so any memories that I had eating here were non-existant. The only “memories” that I did have of Benihana was whenever I walked around Japantown in San Francisco. I suppose I “remembered” the fancy cooking and signature serving methods that this restaurant offers, but it was nothing like I thought it was.

I thought that this restaurant was going to be like any other place and that I didn’t have anything to be excited about, but whoa was I wrong! Upon entering the restaurant, I felt that I was experiencing Contemporary Asian Art and not a restaurant! In the beginning, there was some trouble, in that my friend had made reservations that were questioned when we got there, but were quickly resolved. And it was off to our tables.

For those of you that have not been to Benihana’s before, the way that seating is handled is that they seat a certain amount of people to , in short, enjoy the show. And a show it is! So as ‘Louis’ seated us, another 3 caucasian women joined us as well. We thought, “it will be fun,” or at least we hoped it to be. And fortunately, it was! Turns out that it was one of the ladies’ birthday, and they decided to head out Benihana’s. Let’s just say that we had the MOST fun I would ever have at a restaurant! The 3 ladies were VERY pleasant, our chef ‘Ramon’ was funny as hell, we ate delicious food, and I took home a shogunate souvenir cup! It was a good night!

I want to also point out that when we were out the atmosphere was great for socializing. We were the loudest table in the restaurant for sure, and our ENERGY permeated throughout. It was great. Which brings me to the point of my blog. My girlfriend is currently a vet student and one of the complaints about that is the steep cost of tuition. My girlfriend and her friend were joking that the only way to pay tuition was for them to become strippers, but since that was out of the question, what should they do? We pondered the question briefly and came up with an idea…STRIPPER HIBACHI!

The whole theme would be similar to that of Hooters. Essentially, attractive women serving food. Now, our thought is to have a Hibachi Style Restaurant whose cooks are women wearing risque clothing, or whatever you can think of. Price points differ, depending on the amount of clothing you want your ‘cook’ to wear. They then will proceed to cook your food in front of you on the sizzling grill and you can thus, enjoy your show. I know, I know. You may be thinking…”Ouch, that oil would probably burn them!”, but believe me when I say that every precaution will be taken to ensure the safety of our cooks.

So what do you think? Is it an idea that can sell? Living in different locations defintely brings out the creativity, and this is one of those bright ideas. It was only fitting, not to mention coincidental, to have come up with such a great fusion of ideas!

Idea: 09.01.2007