As I didn't have anything to eat at home for breakfast, I went out in the morning to fill my stomach. I don't know much about the situations in foreign countries, but we Japanese rarely have breakfast at a restaurant. But due to this recession, the family restaurants in Japan started to offer breakfast very cheaply. By doing so, they think they might be able to have the same customers for lunch or dinner.
Jonathan's set up its first outlet in '80 as a coffee shop that sold hamburgers, waffles, and coffee. But later it changed its business to restaurant for families that offers mainly Italian dishes.
It is reported in the Net news that family restaurants nowadays don't attract many families, but couples. In the '80s, a father was a dominant figure in the family and he maintained his dignity by letting his children have whatever they want at a family restaurant. But now most of the fathers in Japan are almost equal to their spouses.
As it is still in February, I was tempted to have a hot coffee, but I rarely have it hot when there is iced coffee. You can also choose tea of course. And you can have unlimited refills by taking advantage of this self-service machine.
Some of the Japanese family restaurants offer not-so-good iced coffee, but Jonathan's iced coffee was brewed fresh and I like it personally. The other three drinks are iced tea, vegetable juice, and grapefruit juice. You can also have as many refills of these drinks as you want.
And yeah, I chose iced coffee of course. I usually bring an iced coffee before the waitress serves my dish because I want to have some before, after, and in the middle of a meal.
This is called "hot sandwiches morning". They have slices of ham and cheese that are hot and are served with fried potatoes. I usually don't have much for breakfast, so this was enough for me. You can have this set with the coffee and juice for only 5.3 us dollars.
There are many more family restaurants in Japan, so I like to introduce them one by one later. I like most of those family restaurants, but I patronize Jonathan's partly because it serves good coffee. =)
