163. The Mysterious Gallery Café
The trip to anther world has been successfully completed, and today I"m visiting the Gallery café [Gold Coin] outside the business hours.
The last time was an inspection during business hours, but it"s still necessary to follow up on management aspect and whether Rudina has some trouble with it.
Leaving the whole store to them and sucking up the money is a little bit problematic. I"m not a sponsor, but the owner of the store after all.
And that"s why I"m here, at the Gallery Café [Gold Coin].
This time, I entered the store 40 minutes before the closing time, that is, at 19:20. I"ll eat some meal and wait for the other guests to return. And, after that, the store management meeting.
I sit on a vacant counter seat, open the menu, and…
I didn"t notice the last time, but the menu doesn"t look [Café]-like at all.
This is [Gallery Café]. A café that doubles as a gallery.
And from what I understand, a café is a place that offers drinks and snacks, and also a place where the guests can enjoy fancy conversation.
…However, the menu of this store is leaning towards a restaurant"s than a café"s.
There are also some names, such as toast or pasta sounds like [Light Meal]. But, if you look at the pictures and ill.u.s.tration on the menu, the portion is a bit too big.
[The toast set] has around 7-8 slices of bread, a bowl of cereal and milk, salad with boiled eggs, and an apple and banana.
[The pasta] has the amount of 300gr of dry pasta, which is considered to be 3 servings for j.a.panese.
[The porridge] seems to be worth two normal bowls.
[The steamed potatoes] consisted of 3 big potatoes.
Café isn"t the place to eat heavy meal.
It"s more like, the place where the smart, cute, and fashionable girls or young OL hangs out…
And looking around the store, there"s no women who enjoy coffee or juice or shortcakes, instead, there are only foul men who eat a large amount of food.
…In other words, this is not a [Café], this is just a normal eatery…
"Ah, fried rice please" (Mitsuha)
As usual, Silua approached me with a gla.s.s of water and take the order without saying anything.
"Owner, coming! One fried rice!" (Silua)
…if you can speak properly like that, it"d be better if you talk to the customers…
I chose fried rice to check the level of the dishes.
No, I know it"s frozen food. I don"t think the amateur-graded Rudina would be able to make authentic fried rice with a large wok and high-heating-power stove. And I don"t think Chinese food would be popular with the people in this country…
So, it has to be a frozen food, but I want to check how well is it finished.
Even frozen foods can be delicious depending on how they are prepared. Right, it depends on the chef"s skill! …when handling frozen foods.
I guess it doesn"t seem to make much sense.
And the fried rice came out in a large serving.
No, I asked an ordinary fried rice. It"s just that it came on a large plate.
Well, let"s grab the spoon and have a taste of it.
"Oh? Oohh!!" (Mitsuha)
It"s delicious! Much better than expected!
The rice grains are coated with eggs to prevent the rice from becoming sticky dumpling and form absorbing too much oil! This can only be done with putting the egg in the pot until it hardens and put the rice within 10 seconds and stir. A technique that cannot be achieved without the skill to mix it evenly!
Th-this is….
I was surprised and asked Rudina if it"s homemade to which she replies [It"s frozen though?].
If anything, it"s not in the realm of home cooking, it"s like it came directly from a Chinese restaurant where they spray lards on the rice grains with a machine. Apparently, many shops use this commercial product, and it seems to be more delicious than making it in their own shop, almost on par with the authentic shops if not more.
So, it seems that most shops that use commercial frozen foods have this menu …
I thought that it"s a little strange that fried rice is on the menu in such a country, so this is why…
The frozen food that is more delicious than homemade cooking.
The progress of science, awesome!!
Then, after finishing the fried rice, I snuck through the employee door while being cautious of the eyes of a few remaining customers and go upstairs to the second floor.
"Let"s start a business meeting of the Gallery Café [Gold Coin]. Feel free to speak if you have anything to say. Otherwise this meeting has no meaning and it"s not good for the store. Even if it"s something difficult to say, please say it clearly, because it"s for this store, for me, and for everyone." (Mitsuha)
The two nodded to my words.
Since they"re really serious, I think they"ll talk about everything properly.
"…First, a question for Rudina. How"s the sales?" (Mitsuha)
"The balance is in the black. Of course, apart from the initial investment for equipment, raw materials, consumables, utilities and other necessary expenses, plus our basic salary. The rest is how should we consider about the depreciation of the equipment… Also, the rent of this store…" (Rudina)
She says so while I look through the book that she presented.
"Ooh, no way, to think it has become this profitable! Ah, this store is not a rental but my own property, so you don"t have to worry about rent." (Mitsuha)
"Eh…" (Rudina)
Oh, I bought this property with a lot of money, so the depreciation is still there, I guess.
Well, it"s not a big deal because I don"t have to pay property tax anyway. Let"s ignore such trivial things!
Besides, the main purpose is to use it as a disguise to send some fund to j.a.pan and as an evacuation site in case of emergency. The café is just a bonus, so it doesn"t matter even if it"s in the red. As long as the surrounding people doesn"t suspicious at how the store can survive with the disastrous state of the business, it"s all fine. If we can make this much profit, then it"s more than enough!
…or rather, this includes the [10% of the net profit] commission, right?
Ah, did they read what I was thinking? Their mouths are twitching.
They"re definitely holding back from smiling…
Ooh, they"re waiting for the commission huh…
Well, I will give them the share, of course.
Hmm? What are these numbers?
When I tilted my head, Rudina looked into the book and explained.
"Ah, that"s the art sales" (Rudina)
"Eeeeeeh!!" (Mitsuha)
…tte, why am I surprised!!
They"re on display for sale, and they"re sold, nothing strange here.
…but it did sell huh…
No matter how good looking the pieces are, those are the works of newcomers, Lortor and Tiras, who couldn"t sell their pieces at all. Moreover, they"re creators from a different world, so their sense might be different from the Earth.
Hmm? What is this W, S, M signs…
"Ah, that is the type of piece that was sold. Wood, Stone, Mystery…" (Rudina)
Ah, Lortor"s wood sculptures, Tiras" stone sculptures, and… Mystery?
"Umm, this mystery is…" (Mitsuha)
"Ah, it"s the group mysterious pieces that I don"t know how it was created. There are stones and wood, but it is obviously different from the one who made the other sculptures, so the same person made those pieces, right?" (Rudina)
…well, if you look at the real thing, even a child can understand, I guess.
But the ones I created were sold quite well too.
Kufu.
Kufufufufu….
Those are the work of me who was always got the lowest score in drawing and art subject.
As an art pieces, they sold at good prices.
Fufu. Fufufufufu…
Tte, I"m not happy at all!
They"re sold simply as unique items whose crafting methods are unknown, aren"t they!!
Well, I created those with that in mind, so I"m not going to complain.
U~n, on one side I"m happy, but on the other side I"m not happy…
(Note: Well, uhh, syosetu is under maintenance, so that"s it for today)