I love it when I come across an interesting new cafe. No recommendation from a friend, no sponsored ads on social. Just literally driving, seeing a place that looks good and stopping to see what's good.
On this day, after a meeting in a town half an hour away from ours, we happened to see this green old fashioned style and shaped café. The name in English is "Jack and the bean stalk". In Japanese "ジャックと豆の木" ( Jaku to ma me no ki ). The name alone makes you wonder what is this all about. We all know the story from our childhood but a café named after that? Looking at the building now, I see why it was painted green.
One of the things you will definitely notice as you enter the café is that the owner is really into cars. So much so he literally had a car parked in the café, tucked to the side. Who does that? A classic car enthusiast. What kind of car is that? If you know, leave it in the comments. No google lens cheating now.
There were three staff members, the chef (a middle age man) and two middle aged ladies. I assume one of the ladies/waitresses were the chef's wife but I can't confirm that. The chef had a very calming and playful personality and welcomed the bantering from my 4 year old.
In my mind, this guy must have some grand kids but it turns out he doesn't even have children. I guess that is why he is so good with kids, he hasn't had to be around while adulting.😄. How did I find out that he did not have any children? My 4 year old somehow indirectly asked him.
Interestingly, the chef had a toy car case built into the counter. Many of the cars were given to him by his father, he even pointed out the first car given to him by his dad. It's amazing to see how far the hobby has come for him.
And that is the unique thing about cafes like this, the owners are right there, you can talk to them and hear their story, you can see where their passion is and you can remember them for who they are.
And there is my son eating ice cream and below his parfait the car toys in the display built into the counter top. One question I wish I asked the owner was " why did you name this place Jack and the Bean stock?". He could have called this place the car cafe. But that would not be as intriguing.
So there is no doubt the owner is passionate about cars, even the event poster on the wall was about a classic car show, which I missed. I figured he has something to do with this event, again, I didn't get around to asking him about that as he was quite occupied cooking while conversing with my youngest son.
We ordered a seafood and mushroom pasta that was more like a ramen pasta as it had so much soup and dried seaweed sprinkled on top. The taste was amazing, the chef managed to get a slightly grilled burnt taste into a pasta dish is the only was I can describe it. That grilled taste was infused into the soup as well as the pasta.
We also ordered a pizza but I forgot to take pics of that. The three of us shared the meals and it was more than enough. The youngest was kinda full from eating ice cream first but that's his fault.😆
We shall definitely go to this café again, I think sooner than later. This visit was from October ( it's December now) but I am finally writing around the draft I made. I have a feeling writing this post will probably see us going there this weekend. We also have another meeting in the town it is located, so it is the perfect alignment. On top of that, tis the season when people feeling like treating themselves.
There is so much more to explore and say about this café, like all the books on the shelf, there is also much more I'd like to know about the owner; the chef and car enthusiast. At some point I'd like to do a vlog on this place. Until next time, stay blessed!
