Kashiwa Mystery Cafe

See here if you're interested. It was part of a two day exhibition, so I wouldn't buy a ticket to Chiba with the hope of finding it.

http://www.mitsuifudosan.co.jp/corporate/news/2008/0418/inde...

「EAT&ART TARO（イート・アンド・アート タロー） 1979年神奈川県生まれ。食をテーマにしたワークショップ、美術館のカフェプロデュース・メニュー開発など、食とアートに関わる様々な場面での活動を行う。 当マルシェコロールでは、おごりcafeをプロデュース。」

Brief translation:

(The artist) Eat & Art Taro was born in 1979 in Kanagawa Prefecture. He leads food-themed workshops, produces menus for museum cafes, and is engaged in various activities relating to the intersection of food and art. Ogori Cafe is his creation.

[n.b. Ogori Cafe is the official name of the cafe. Ogori is a form of the word "To treat someone to".]

A delightful mystery for the undecided or the adventurous, but alas not designed for the everyday 'I need a coffee / feel like a ham & cheese sandwich' crowd.

Having worked with restaurants in tourist areas, I know that it's the locals that provide revenue stability - tourists can be the cream on top, but if you can't service the locals you won't survive long.

I would extrapolate from that experience that many cafes, especially those in business-precinct areas, rely on the regulars to provide revenue stability. Most regulars won't the same coffee at 9am, the same time sandwich at noon, and the same coffee at 3pm. Hard to survive long if you're not designed for that group, delightful and mysterious as you may be.

If someone can figure how to implement this concept into some real/virtual gift-game-concept for a startup they would do marvelous.

I like rule 3:

"Please enjoy what you get, even if you hate it."