Getting the wrong order in a restaurant is really, really bad for both the waiter and the client, especially when the latter is hungry. Asking for a big, fat, juicy burger but ending up getting the menu of the day for veggies, could trigger a chain reaction with one of the two ending up being unemployed: in 99,99999% of the cases...the waiter.
However, that's not always the case. See, there's a pop-up restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, going by the awesomely cool and original name of The Restaurant of Order Mistakes that hires exclusively older waiters with dementia and other brain diseases. And trust me, the owners of the restaurant do this for a GREAT purpose!
The Menu of the Day
In this restaurant, clients won't get mad when they see a plate of fish-stew sitting on their table instead of a medium rare steak, simply because they know what to expect when they decide to visit The Restaurant of Order Mistakes during a special trial period, which usually lasts up to three days. Apparently, the restaurant doesn't hire waiters who suffer from dementia and Alzheimer's disease all year round, but only for a specific amount of time.
In June 2017, the owners of the restaurant hired experimentally seventeen dementia patients in hope to show their clients that with patience, kindness, acceptance and tolerance towards dementia patients, we can help them to be functioning members of our society and lessen the stigma surrounding this brain disease.
How Did It Go?
Even though many clients ordered a different dish from the one they ended up devouring, the restaurant's surprising project gained a lot of new clients. Mizuho Kudo, a noted local food blogger, was one of the new clients who visited the restaurant during the 3-day trial and as she stated....she had a BLAST. Despite ordering a classic American hamburger, she had dumplings coming instead, "I’m fine dumplings came and had a good laugh. They were delicious by the way," she joyfully tweeted.
The owners of The Restaurant of Order Mistakes organized another big event in honor of World Alzheimer’s Day on September 21, where patients of Alzheimer’s disease served the clients this time. According to various reports there wasn't even a single complaint for the extraordinary job the waiters did that day.
The happy owners of the restaurant promised to keep organizing such "different" events frequently, in order to remind their busy, diligent clients that being "human" is the greatest virtue of all after all. Let's admit it; we need more restaurants like The Restaurant of Order Mistakes worldwide, don't we?
References:
Pop-up restaurant in Japan employs staff with dementia to raise awareness about the brain disease
The Restaurant of Order Mistakes only employs waiters who have dementia