{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/2v2c826c0s/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["LAPL Community Histories -  Natsumi Saeki (Ducks Restaurant)"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/200/original/lapl_logo.png?1628076950","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Natsumi Saeki","Tien Nguyen"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2025-10-02"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["Natsumi Saeki, owner of Ducks, is interviewed by Tien Nguyen, Los Angeles Public Library Creator in Residence. The interview was conducted on October 2, 2025 at Ducks, located at 1381 E Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776."]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["MPEG-4"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["TheirStory"]}}],"summary":{"en":["Natsumi Saeki, owner of Ducks, is interviewed by Tien Nguyen, Los Angeles Public Library Creator in Residence. The interview was conducted on October 2, 2025 at Ducks, located at 1381 E Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776."]},"provider":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Los Angeles Public Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Los Angeles Public Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/200/original/lapl_logo.png?1628076950","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/302/538/small/Natsumi_photo_crop.jpg?1770826376","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - open-uri20260211-1103947-ogxjr4.mp4"]},"duration":3757.22077,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/302/538/small/Natsumi_photo_crop.jpg?1770826376","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-lapl.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/302/538/original/open-uri20260211-1103947-ogxjr4.mp4?1770826089","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mp3","duration":3757.22077,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["TheirStory Transcript (Paragraphs with Speakers) [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e My name is Natsumi Saeki. I'm the owner and general partner, with my parents. We've been open since 1995, and we've been at the same location since for 30 years now.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=0.24,11.92"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e It's been 30 years this year?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=13.24,14.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, 30 years this year. When","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=14.0,15.82"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e your parents opened the restaurant, it was an Indian restaurant beforehand?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=16.64,20.436"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes. So I believe it was an Indian- style restaurant when they purchased it. They had a brick oven in the kitchen. I was 7 at the time, so I vaguely remember. But I remember those bits and pieces of those timelines. But I remember there was a brick oven in the in the kitchen and stuff like that. But yeah, I think it was called Silver Spoons that we purchased. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=20.48,50.56"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e What did what did your parents do before they opened the restaurant?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=51.68,54.48"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e So my dad was — both of my parents traveled a lot, so they like to travel. But when they finally settled down here, my dad was working in the restaurant business. So he was management in big restaurants. He had the knack of operations and figuring out recipes and management and all of that, incorporated. He always dreamt about opening up his own restaurant. So it was kind of like one of those, okay, well, I have all this knowledge and experience now, so he decided to open up here. My mom's a really good cook. She helped a lot with tweaking and changing the recipes to fit our style and our menu. But my dad was mainly management, operations, the whole shebang. My mom was more of the cook and the recipes and all that good stuff.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=54.56,117.32"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Did they know they always want to open a Japanese, Japanese American restaurant? Did they consider any other types of foods? Well,","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=118.23,123.51"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e we're Japanese, so it was kind of came natural to us as far as what kind of food they wanted to open. My dad is an entrepreneur. So his idea was, 'I want to create a business for myself and my family.' Now, was it specifically his dream to open up a Japanese restaurant in SGV? No. But, his idea was, 'Okay, I want to open up a business. What am I good at? What can I do?' And so restaurant business was what he knew, what he had experience in. And so that's where we ended up, I guess.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=123.55,160.47"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. Do you know if he looked at other locations, or was this - ?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=160.67,164.39"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, yes. He is a perfectionist, so he likes to do his research. And he knew that to open up a location you have to scope it out, find locations. He even taught me a long time ago that what he used to do was sit outside of restaurants and see how many people walk by on the different days of the week, different times of the day. And he would mark and log all those notes. Yeah, he did a lot of research. And he says that restaurants would be successful in the flow, even from the parking lot: Is it easy to access? Is there enough parking for people? Is there an in and an out? How does it flow? Even from the parking lot and the people who walk by and the cars that come by. He did all of those researches prior to opening. So you can only imagine how many choices he had to go through to settle here. But I bet — I'm 100% certain that whatever reason why he decided on this one must have been everything that came together: his research, the price, the potential that this place has. All of that, I'm sure, came to the decision of why he wanted to come and open this location.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=164.39,248.54"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e And do you know if he always had the idea to name it Ducks?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=248.9,251.787"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. No, actually, I think that was one of those last things on his mind. So, we live in Alhambra, where we were walking distance from Almansor Park. And Almansor Park has a really, really big—well, I wouldn't say really big. I think it was really big when I was a kid, but, a pond or lake, I'm not exactly sure what they call it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=252.22,273.34"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Body of water.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=273.38,274.14"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. So they had a lot of ducks there. Our thing was that we used to save the crusts of our bread, and we used to go feed the ducks all the time, and it was kind of our thing. And so when he opened, he was, 'Oh, yeah, we gotta name this place,' you know? And then he's like, 'Well, our family goes and feeds the ducks all the time. So let's name it Ducks!' Because it's kind of like our family is feeding the community, and so that kind of fits. And so that's why we chose the name Ducks, or he chose the name Ducks, or him and my mom, I guess. It has nothing to do with our food. [laughs] It has nothing to do with Japanese cuisine. It's just because the Saeki family likes to go feed ducks. And that's what happened.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=274.18,320.42"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e I love that. I love whimsical names for restaurants. And who came up with the graphic design? Do you know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=321.26,328.094"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e I'm pretty sure it was my dad and maybe some of his friends back then. Yeah, I had to actually redo it because it was on a floppy disk. And so when it was time to create merchandise, like t shirts and stuff, they're like, 'Yeah, we can't use this. It's super old.' So I had to clean it up and get it all, you know, to nowadays' standards. But yeah, that was funny. I think I actually still have the little floppy disks of our logo somewhere. My mom's a hoarder, so she keeps everything.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=328.54,363.45"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That's probably the only file that fits on floppy disk, right? Right?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=364.41,366.57"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. One. One image. That's it. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=366.61,370.61"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Do you remember the first day that the restaurant opened, like officially grand opening? Do you remember that first day at all? I","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=371.85,377.65"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e don't remember the actual official grand opening day, but I do remember—memories of us playing the month we opened. So it's funny because I remember we had this little wooden broom, you know the little wooden broom with little bristles? Super tiny. My dad was really strict about cleaning the front of the business, making sure it's presentable. So I would help, broom, the front of the store and stuff like that. And I was playing around with the broom, and I remember thinking, It looks like a witch's broom. And so I remember running around the front of the store, pretending to be a witch. And it's really funny because I was going through albums a few months ago, and I was trying to look for old pictures of Ducks and stuff like that, just to share with our customers. So we were thinking of putting a collage together and stuff like that. Still working on it, but I was going through pictures and I found a picture of me acting like a witch in front of the store. And then on the bottom label, it said, May of 1995. Yeah, May 1995. So I was like, oh my gosh, this is the month that we opened. I remember playing. I didn't realize somebody was taking a picture of me, but there's a picture of me doing that. And I was like, that's so cool. But yeah, those are small things that I remember as a kid of opening month, I guess. For me it wasn't a lot of pressure, obviously, because I was a kid. I'm sure there's tons of pressures, but as far as being in here as a kid, I just remember drawing a lot. As a kid of parents who opened up a new restaurant, you basically live here, you know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=377.65,491.96"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. That was gonna be my next question. How was it to grow up basically in the restaurant?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=492.0,495.48"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, I had a lot of customers help me with homework, which is really funny because they still come by and they're like, 'Oh, do you remember me helping you?' And I was like, 'I totally do, I do remember.' So they still come to the restaurant as customers, too. So it's really cool to reminisce too, because we would talk about, 'Yeah, you were over there, doing your homework.' And I was like, 'Well, technically I was pretending to do my homework. I didn't really do homework.' But yeah, my sister was the one that always did the—really good at doing homework. I would just kind of draw around and stuff. But yeah, I remember our customers basically became our family because they would come every week and hang out with us or play with us and stuff. And I would pretend to help, bus tables and stuff like that. But yeah, it's cool because they're still our customers, and they still come by and their kids bring their kids. It's kind of really like a family, not only just our employees, but our customers, too, because they saw me grow up. And I also saw them grow up. And now they're raising kids and so it's — I think we're at second generation now.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=495.52,568.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. Like 30 years later.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=568.04,569.12"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. So it's really cool. But now like, you see, like grandmas and grandpas that used to help me as a kid be brought by their grandkids and stuff. So it's so cool. It's really cool to see. But yeah, we became all family, customers and employees and all of us combined. It's funny because a lot of our customers are like, 'Oh, wait, is that your sister?' And I'm like, 'No, we're not actually related.' But I can see that people think that we're all related because of the way we act and the way we treat each other and the way we treat our customers and stuff like that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=569.16,601.15"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Right. Oh, that's adorable though.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=602.39,603.51"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, it's kind of funny.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=603.55,605.91"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Was it really popular in the very beginning or did business ramp up?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=606.19,610.19"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e I don't quite remember. As far as numbers go, it was pretty busy in the beginning. But I think that in this area, it was really not—it wasn't really Asian-centric back in the '90s. So a lot of the Asian community came afterwards. There was some Japanese communities in this area, like San Marino, like Arcadia, Pasadena. It was a lot of Chinese customers that would frequent us, Taiwanese, Chinese, so we had a lot of regulars, but it wasn't like social media popular, I guess, as compared to now. So, it was busy enough to keep us in business. But it wasn't the most popular restaurant in San Gabriel, you know what I mean? And neither were they wanting to do that. The idea for them was that they just wanted to have a sustainable restaurant, or business, that they can live off of. And it was it's kind of funny because when I asked my parents—I think when I was in high school, I would ask, 'Why don't you want more customers?' or 'Why don't you ...' you know, and they're like, 'No, we have enough.' And the more customers, the more busy, the more tired they get. And so they didn't want to grow or expand. They were just like, no, we're good, you know? So I think it was just enough to get us by. I think a lot of the local community was like, 'Well, we don't want to go all the way to Little Tokyo to go eat Japanese food.' So they will come here and they would frequent us a lot. I actually don't know when, but a lot of the Asian restaurants started to pop out over here in the 2000s and stuff like that. So as that kind of grew, I think the more—I guess communities that knew Japanese food kind of started to frequent us. And so I guess at some point, we started to grow a little bit, which kind of put a lot of pressure on my parents because they started to get tired.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=610.51,741.3"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=741.34,741.82"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And it was it was a little bit too much to handle. Because if you think about it, it was back then, it was my mom and my dad and maybe one more person in the kitchen.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=741.86,750.06"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e So your mom was prepping everything?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=750.98,752.74"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. And my dad was cooking. And then we had one server in the front, maybe two if it was me helping, you know what I mean? So it was like 3 or 4 people working a restaurant, so you can only imagine, what the capacity is.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=753.38,766.266"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, totally. I mean, what is the capacity or what was it then versus now?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=766.5,769.34"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e So then we only had 6 tables.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=769.34,772.62"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh wow.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=772.98,773.5"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Like six legit tables.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=773.54,774.98"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Two tops, four tops, or...?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=775.18,776.421"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Two two-tops and four four-tops.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=776.7,782.483"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Wow.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=782.58,782.98"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e It's very small.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=783.14,783.82"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e It is very small. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=783.86,784.82"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And so it was, it was limited, but we didn't really have a full house all the time. I don't remember us thinking, It's like there's a line outside. It was never like that. It was just people come in and eat and get out, like 30 minutes, you know? So it was enough. Definitely not enough for now. [laughs] I feel like right now we don't even have enough tables. I kind of want to come up with a way to put more tables in here, but back then, it was enough, like six tables.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=784.98,815.86"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=815.9,816.3"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And families, it was enough for families to kind of—and they were big tables. So we didn't really have a lot of space.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=816.66,823.257"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e And now you have—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=823.97,825.01"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e A lot, eight. Well, we have technically have 13, 14 tables, ish. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=825.41,834.93"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e We could seat about 40 for a full house.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=836.01,839.89"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Did the space expand, or did you kind of reconfigure things to fit more tables?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=841.29,845.01"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e No, this is actually the exact same thing. We just put smaller tables and smaller chairs. Before, it used to be bigger tables, bigger chairs. But now it's— and it's getting smaller. We kind of want to put some smaller tables in here when it gets really busy, because sometimes we have people on the waitlist, and the waitlist is like 20, 30 people deep?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=845.05,865.204"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That's good. It's a good problem to have.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=866.73,867.57"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, it is a good problem to have. But we feel bad because we have customers waiting a long time. We want to get them in and out. So it's one of those, well, I do want more space because the kitchen has the capacity to cook. It's just we don't have enough space. A lot of our regulars now do takeout. So they've converted, which is grateful for us because we can't seat you. But it also does suck, because then we don't get to see them as often, you know, talk to them. So it's kind of a balance. We did want to expand and take over the next unit over. But because of new regulations and stuff like that, the health department won't allow it. They won't allow any more food establishments in this plaza because of the parking spaces. You have to have a certain amount of parking spaces for a certain amount of square feet and stuff like that. I've asked, but they said, no, we cannot. So we're limited to this. But we've come up with different things that can possibly help, maybe tables outside and stuff like that, but City of San Gabriel is a little tricky.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=867.57,932.61"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, yeah, I have noticed that. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=932.93,934.49"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e So they're not as allowed. During COVID, they were—even COVID actually, though, were a little strict on that. They said you still have to go through the permit process, you still have to apply, you still have to pay. You have to have non-movable structures built. And it was a lot.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=934.53,951.48"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That is a lot.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=951.68,951.76"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. So we're like, we're not going to spend that much money for—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=952.08,954.46"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Something that might be taken down later. Yeah. Wow.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=954.52,956.84"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e So that was a little rough for us, but yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=956.88,960.16"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e You made it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=960.2,960.88"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e We made it. Yes, yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=960.92,962.56"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Do you know, has the strip mall—has this plaza changed very much in terms of the businesses here?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=963.52,969.12"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes, it has. In 1995, there used to be a pizza parlor. Oh, that was right there where the CPA is right now. So they were the other restaurant, so it was us and them. They used to have a video rental, like the cassette tapes, the video rental store in the corner. We had a TV repair shop next door.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=969.16,994.64"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Such '90s businesses. Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=994.72,996.52"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And then we had Mercury insurance broker next door. They actually took, I think, three units over there. We used to actually have—shoot, we used to have a deli in the corner over there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=996.56,1015.92"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, a deli as well. Well,","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1015.96,1016.8"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e like a deli, but during 9/11, the owner got shot and he died in that shop. It was a hate crime, obviously. It was 9/11. So the guy came up, shot him, and then they took off. I actually don't remember. I was a kid at that time, too. I don't remember if they actually caught the guy, but he passed away in the shop and it was a big, crazy thing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1016.92,1042.52"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh my goodness.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1042.56,1042.828"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. And he was so nice. So it was kind of crazy. But yeah, history, right? Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1043.04,1047.71"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That's terrifying.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1050.96,1051.72"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. But now it's a nail salon and barbershop. Actually, the barber shop's been there for a while too. So I think it's us and the barbershop are the ones that have been here the longest. And then we have an escape room, which is totally new.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1051.76,1066.76"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e I saw that, yeah! Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1066.8,1067.24"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Like totally new generation.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1067.44,1069.12"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, now it's 2010s-era businesses. That's funny. Did your mom have, like—or does your mom, did she have a specialty that was, you know—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1072.0,1078.394"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Like, other than the restaurant business?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1078.88,1080.28"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, no. I mean in terms of what she cooked. Was there anything that she was that she's super proud of or she really—? I","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1080.32,1086.48"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e don't know she's super proud of any of it, but she's kind of like—the dressings, for sure, the salad dressings. We needed to come up with something that was unique and different, so she definitely was like, 'Ah, I could whip something up.' And it was like, literally whip something up. I don't think she had any idea. She kind of just mixed a bunch of stuff together. And it was like, all right, this works. So, the dressings, our noodles. Because, I mean, essentially they had a—based on the vendors we used and the meats and the broths, all of those are just simple, Japanese food, right? That my parents cook at home. So you have a basis of like, okay, recipe.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1086.48,1135.63"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1135.67,1136.11"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/78","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Now, how do you make it in a bigger batch, and then how do you make it consistent? And then how do you make it simple enough that you can just consistently do every day? Because a lot of places spend a lot of time with making their noodles or making their broths and stuff like that. And it's so complex, which is fantastic.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1136.47,1161.83"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/79","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1161.87,1162.11"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/80","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e But my parents were like, 'All right, that's too much. So let's make it easy enough for us to be able to do it every day and tastes the same and tastes good every day.' And so that was a lot of just back and forth with changing certain things, or how we wrap our meats, or how we cook our meats, or how long we cook our meats. So a lot of that was just tweaking between the both of them to kind of figure out what is good and simple. And the biggest thing for my parents was waste: Do not have so many produce, so many meats, so many things that you use. Because if you don't use it, it goes to waste. So if we use, let's say, pork, how many different things can we make out of this pork meat? How many different things can we make out of this chicken, or how many different things? And then our vegetables. It's very simple. We have bok choy, green onion, onion. That's probably pretty much it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1162.15,1222.23"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/81","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. And cabbage.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1222.67,1223.43"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/82","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, and cabbage. And so our customers would be, 'Oh can we add veggies? And we're like, 'Well, we don't really have that kind of veggie.' And they're like, 'Well why not?' We're like, 'Because maybe you and another person might buy it,' and then we're not gonna buy a whole box or a case of those veggies just for those instances that you may or may not use, and so my parents are really good about what do we have and how many menu items can we make out of those things? Because that is the biggest thing in restaurants, right? Waste.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1223.67,1253.34"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/83","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes. Totally.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1253.38,1254.195"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/84","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e You can't keep bok choy forever. It will wilt and it will go yellow. Green onion, too; you have to tend to it. We wash and clean or veggies and we ice bath it and certain things that you do to keep it good for longer or good for that day or whatever veggies or whatever we're using, we try to do it so it's consistent and it's fresh and it's good. A lot of it like is boiling down to simplicity and not doing too much. And so a lot of our menu items, I think, when people see it, they're like, 'It's so simple.' It's like, yes, that's the point. Simple.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1254.34,1307.34"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/85","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, you don't want, like that thick Cheesecake Factory-type menu. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1307.38,1309.7"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/86","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Actually the menu has grown slightly, because of customer demand and stuff like that. My mom and dad used to have three sets for dinner.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1309.7,1323.42"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/87","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1323.46,1323.86"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/88","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e A, B and C set.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1324.06,1324.94"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/89","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Okay, classic. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1325.62,1326.66"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/90","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e But my customers are like, 'Well, can I do this cold soba and this mini katsu?' My parents are like, 'No, you have to choose out of these three.' Because they didn't want to do too much, but because—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1327.02,1337.335"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/91","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Right, I mean, things like that mess up the kitchen.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1337.62,1338.82"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/92","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And there's only two of them, so they don't want to see, like, okay, there's a mod here, there's a mod there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1339.38,1342.947"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/93","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes. Special orders. And","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1343.54,1343.78"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/94","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e so they were really strict on not going out of the A, B C set and the tempura and noodle set. I'll send you that menu that we have with that. But it was very —that's all that we had for dinner and then our curries. Now it's a little bit different, because I understand that people want cold noodles and the mini katsu-don, or this and that. And so I made a little expansion to our menu, to those modifications, which to me, it made sense. To me it made sense. I get why my parents didn't want to do it, but I also get that I can do it, so I will do it. So, I did some modifications as far as the menu goes to expand and give more options to customers. But as far as the recipe goes, we're sticking to it. And it's funny, because we get health inspectors that come by and they would joke, they were like, 'Yeah, I could see that. You guys are super strict on even where the pots go,' because you can see the rust under where we put our pots, because every pot has a spot. Every towel has a spot, every chopstick has a spot, and if it's not in the spot, we're like, where's the towel?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1343.78,1413.93"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/95","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e You know, just see an outline of where it should be.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1414.61,1416.41"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/96","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes. But that's how my dad was. He was very organized and strict. I feel like I'm going way off tangent.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1416.45,1424.17"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/97","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e No, it's great.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1424.21,1424.43"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/98","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e But it keeps things structured and keeps things simple and it keeps things consistent. And I think the biggest part of this restaurant is consistency. Actually today, we had a customer. He said he used to live around this area 10, 12 years ago, but he moved away and now he's back. And he came to eat today here. And he's like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm so glad that you guys are still here.' And he's like, 'It tastes exactly the same.' And so, it's so cool to have those moments of well yeah, we literally did not change much, other than tables and the floor and stuff like that. We changed that. But as far as the food goes, it's still comes in the same bowls that it used to come in. The only reason why I changed the bowls maybe is because our staff keep breaking them. And it's funny because our bowls — I want to buy more of those bowls.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1424.43,1474.52"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/99","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes, yes, can you?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1474.56,1475.486"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/100","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e I can't! I can't find it. I'm out there at Savers and trying to find antique stuff. But no, they don't have it. So those stuff, I'm telling my staff, please be careful. These bowls are older than you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1475.6,1488.44"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/101","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Like limited quantity now.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1488.84,1490.68"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/102","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Serious. But yeah, that's kind of the cool, fun stuff that you get to experience when you're in a legacy business.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1491.68,1496.64"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/103","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, totally.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1496.68,1497.76"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/104","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e I still get customers that come back and visit from Japan and they're like, 'You guys are still here.' And that's the biggest thing and hardest thing that I have to deal with, is that we have to stay here. Because if we're not here, how do they look us up? They can Google us, yeah, sure. But for them it's, 'Oh, I'm gonna go and visit LA from Japan and, oh, let's go to ducks.' And they see this as super nostalgic to them, you know? So I want to keep everything the same, as if we were in a little time capsule that people come back to.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1498.0,1529.2"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/105","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e I think that can be hard for a lot of some legacy businesses, just straddling time, basically. If you want to keep things the same, but at the same time, times around you have changed. So you do sometimes need to update certain things, modernize certain things. And so I think sometimes that can be hard.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1529.6,1546.2"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/106","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, it's actually fun because a lot of I've seen people say, 'Oh, the curtains are old.' And I'm like, 'Do you understand how hard it is to keep those clean without breaking?' They're so brittle. [laughs]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1549.16,1560.115"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/107","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e They're antiques now.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1561.44,1561.84"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/108","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e They really are. Because we started— we had curtains like those curtains, it's kind of ripping right now. But we have those curtains that my mom makes them.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1562.32,1570.72"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/109","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Of course she does. [laughs]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1571.84,1572.26"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/110","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, she really does. Yeah. She makes those. And we messed up with that one, because we were cleaning it and it ripped and we're like oh no. Because we were gonna to wash it, but no, we wash it, it's gonna fall apart. So now we have to literally dab it and dust it off. I mean, we really are an antique store, but some people appreciate it, but some people are like, 'Oh, it's so old.' And it's yeah, but that's the great part of it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1572.26,1600.796"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/111","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. It has a patina now.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1601.11,1602.75"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/112","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah I'm like that. That noren is probably 30 years old. Like it's crazy. Actually all of these ones right here. They were created from one of our servers.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1602.79,1615.99"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/113","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, they're so cute.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1617.31,1618.31"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/114","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e She did press on—and that bunny right there. I drew—I think, I was in second grade or third grade. And my sister drew the one next to it. So. Yeah, those are super old. So people are like, 'It's so old.' I'm like, yeah,","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1618.55,1632.51"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/115","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That's so cute.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1632.55,1633.43"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/116","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yup. Thirty years old curtains right there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1633.47,1635.39"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/117","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e How about all the ducks lining the window?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1636.43,1637.75"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/118","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Those are new. So we started, I think, this is how many years ago was it? I think it was 1 or 2 years ago. We went to Dave and Buster's, me and my friends. And then there was a duck claw machine, and we got a bunch of ducks, and we're like, Oh, that's so cool. We'll just leave a few here and then people could play with it, kids could play with it or whatever. And it's okay if they take it home, it's just rubber duckies. But then as the weeks progressed, more and more duckies arrived and we're like, 'Wait. Wait a minute. Are we growing?' And so we started to grow and grow and grow. And now we have so many ducks everywhere. And it's so cool because our customers will travel and go on vacations, and they'll buy us a rubber ducky from where they're at. And so every time they do that, we tell them to sign their name and we'll hide it. And then the next time they come, they have to find it. I actually have a customer, it's been almost a year. He still has not found his duck. And every time he comes, he's just like—and his wife is like looking for it too. And she's like, 'I can't find it, I don't know where it is.' But we always do Easter egg things with our customers because it's really cool that they thought of us, and then they brought it back. So it's cool to play little games with them and like. Yeah. So yeah, you'll see them randomly.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1637.79,1713.509"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/119","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e I love it, I love it, all the little stuff.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1713.98,1717.153"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/120","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Almost every single duck in this place has been given to us by our customers.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1718.06,1722.3"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/121","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Wow.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1722.34,1722.74"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/122","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. And these are not even really ducks. But, my dad's friends are—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1722.78,1728.135"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/123","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Gotta get some, I guess, Ducks of Anaheim, hockey team.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1729.78,1733.1"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/124","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, yes, we can do that. But I am a Kings fan. [laughs] So maybe a small one somewhere in the corner.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1733.26,1742.82"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/125","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Maybe it'd just be the movie version. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1743.74,1745.46"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/126","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1747.5,1748.02"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/127","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, that's adorable. Do you have any sense at what point your family realized this was a really cherished community space? Was there any moment when they're like, 'Oh, this is really important to so many people'?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1748.54,1764.895"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/128","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e You know, I don't know. And neither did I ever ask. I think it's really important to me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1765.42,1771.74"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/129","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, was that something you picked up on? I've","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1772.02,1774.14"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/130","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e always thought that, 'Oh, I'm going to take over the restaurant.' I never took it really seriously. I'm always kind of like, oh, go with it, go with the flow type of thing. But I knew in high school, I would work here for gas money or work here for food. And then when I went to college—I went to Cal State Long Beach—I would drive back on the weekends, and I would work weekend shifts for food, gas, playing money and stuff like that. And I always knew eventually at some point I would want to take it over. But I went to college for healthcare administration degree. And then I even got a job, a corporate job, I did all that. But I still was like, I still want to take over. And at that point, my parents were still working. I think, 2015, 2014, '15, they were still working, but they were thinking about retiring, and it was kind of like those talks of, 'Oh, I'm getting tired. Maybe we'll sell it' and stuff like that. And I told them, 'No, I will take over it.' And so we did slowly transition tasks to me, like, 'Well you can do inventory' or 'You can do this' and I started learning all the recipes from my dad. And so I started doing it, but I wasn't really fully committed to it, because I still had my corporate job. I was just kind of doing it to slowly take over and stuff like that. But in 2017, my mom had a stroke that kind of—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1774.14,1862.336"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/131","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Accelerated everything. Yeah,","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1862.97,1863.97"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/132","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e kick in the butt. And so that's when I was, 'Okay, I'm smart. I could do this.' I didn't learn everything, but I'm gonna figure it out.' And her her stroke was—she didn't have any physical damage, but it was more cognitive, like a speech issue. So she would say 'chair,' but she really meant car and those kind of things. So it was really hard to get, 'Well, why did you do this?' It was really hard to kind of connect it all together. But I remember those small tasks and I'm like, okay, well, she did this for a reason, or she did this for a reason. And my dad was more focused on the kitchen and running the kitchen and so at that moment it was, all right, Google, figure this out and ask people and ask questions. And so I kind of had to figure it out on my own. What","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1863.97,1920.545"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/133","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e a crash course.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1920.545,1921.33"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/134","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. And it was it was cool because I had bits and pieces of things I learned, but I didn't put it all together until something happened where it's like, 'Oh, that's why she did it that way,' or 'Oh, that was important.' And I made mistakes. Oh, there was some expensive mistakes I've made with taxes and stuff like that where I owed penalties. And they were really expensive, but they were very necessary for me to get it all together. But I think it was really cool that I was able to do it for myself as well, because I learned it by experience, by applying everybody's inputs, which is my mom's task, my dad's task, all of that. Put it together. And then I was able to take that and then create something where I can hire people to help me. Because back then it was just my mom and my dad, and one server.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1921.37,1978.17"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/135","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1978.21,1978.69"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/136","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e How am I going to get somebody to learn what my dad did in the kitchen, what my mom did in the kitchen? There's no possible way. So for me, I had to split up every single task to the minute. I would time—like my mom and my dad, when they made noodles, they didn't use a timer.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1979.17,1998.76"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/137","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, they just knew, right?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1998.8,1999.6"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/138","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e They just knew. How do you teach somebody, 'Well, you just know'? You can't. So I had to write everything down. Like, once the noodle goes in, and then as soon as they say it's done, I'm gonna time it and see how long it takes and then how often they mix the noodles, or how much is this scoop of soup? How many ounces? I had to do all of that. But because I was able to do it all myself—and it was really painful and gruesome—but I was able to figure it out to a point where, now I can apply it to a very, easy to learn, easy to follow instructions so I can hire people to follow those instructions. And so the biggest fear for me was customers will no longer come because they don't see my mom and my dad cooking anymore. That was my biggest, biggest fear: If they don't see my mom and my dad cooking, even if they see me, they might not trust me, you know what I mean? So that was the biggest fear. But as I took over, it was far opposite from what response I got. A lot of my customers, I mean, like I said, they were like family to me, you know? So they're like, 'We'll support you.' And then they're like, 'We're support you. And we will be honest with you.' And then they're like, 'We would be honest with you, and you're doing a good job.' So they're like, 'It tastes the same. So you're good.' But sometimes, people will be, 'Oh, it tastes different.' And then they're like, 'Oh, but this time it was fine. So maybe something happened in the fryer oil or something like that.' And I'll be like, 'Oh, okay, let me go check.' And so customer feedback was really important to me, too, because they've been eating here for like 20, 30 years.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1999.64,2093.56"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/139","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e They know what it tastes like.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2093.56,2094.199"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/140","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. And they eat here every day or every week. We actually had customers that would come for lunch and dinner, by the way. And they would tell me the truth.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2095.0,2104.967"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/141","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e You want customers like that, looking out for you. They just want you to do better, do your best.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2106.52,2109.56"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/142","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Exactly. And continue.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2109.56,2111.04"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/143","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e And continue, exactly, Because","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2111.08,2111.28"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/144","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e they're like, 'Where am I going to eat if you don't—'","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2111.28,2113.227"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/145","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Exactly! It's in the best interest for everybody.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2114.07,2114.51"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/146","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, so I had a lot of that. I mean, I've been doing it as of 2017. How many years is that? Like eight years?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2114.55,2122.79"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/147","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2122.83,2123.31"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/148","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Without my parents.  And so now all right, I'm good. I did a decent job getting people to follow instructions or having booklets of recipes and how to follow them. And I still make all of our main sauces. I still make all of it. My head chef knows how to make it, but he has so much on his mind. I'm like, 'I'll do the sauces, and you could do everything else,' so it's just kind of a balance. And he's been with us for a long time, too, our head chef. So he knows how my dad is. He knows that the pot needs to go where the pot is, or the towels need to go where the towels go. And because we're so structured like that, everybody we hire, we enforce the same structure. They know we're going to get mad if the towels not back in, but it makes it comfortable, because now they know what to expect. We know what we're expecting of them and there's no question about it. And then if we're consistent, we're going to keep business because it doesn't change. Nothing's changed. You know? The recipe has been the same. So it's comfortable for everybody's job security, understanding what's expected of them every day when they come to work, not having to worry that the boss is mad at them or not mad at them because I'm like, 'Dude, you got this.' And a lot of times—I joke, but they're like, 'Oh, how come you're not cooking?' I'm like, yeah, because most of the times they tell me I'm in their way. They would tell me, 'Go sit over there. You're just getting in the way.' But I like to still be in the mix, right? I still like to talk to customers, serve. But even the servers are like, it's just, 'Go away.' 'Just","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2123.35,2231.206"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/149","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e sit over there. We'll wave to you every once in a while.'","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2231.206,2231.293"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/150","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e 'If we need you, we'll call you.' [laughs] No, it's cool to see that, because I have a lot of confidence in my staff. I just like to help because I'm just nosy. I just like to do things, but my staff's got it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2231.293,2248.22"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/151","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That's great. That's always so great. Were your parents surprised that you wanted to take over the restaurant?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2248.26,2253.26"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/152","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e No. They were skeptical at first if I can do it, because they know how restaurant business is and how rigorous it is, how exhausting it is. And they were just, 'I don't want that for you in your life.' They, of course, wanted me to go and get a corporate job.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2253.62,2271.34"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/153","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Were they happy with your corporate job? Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2272.1,2273.14"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/154","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Which I did have. And I literally—I've been working that corporate job actually, until this year. I was doing both.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2273.14,2280.5"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/155","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Are you kidding? Really?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2280.54,2281.46"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/156","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, but it was fun because over there it was operations as well. I was part of product operations. And so it's kind of the same thing, just different industries.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2281.5,2291.66"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/157","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Sure, sure.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2291.7,2292.42"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/158","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e I think it's a good thing that I was able to experience both.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2294.58,2296.98"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/159","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That's amazing. Because","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2297.02,2298.22"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/160","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e then I can apply all the restaurant craziness into operational manuals that makes sense and structure and all those stuff. But my parents were really like, I don't know, because I was—my sister is really smart, and she does everything by the book and she's really just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. She has a plan for the next 10, 15 years of — She's","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2298.26,2325.448"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/161","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e a Capricorn? September.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2325.448,2326.563"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/162","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Is that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2326.563,2327.109"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/163","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Ah, no. [laughs] But","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2329.54,2329.826"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/164","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e she's really like that. She's very planned out, organized. She's very much like my dad. My dad, before he opened this, he had a whole thing of journals of data and stuff. My mom is a little bit go-with-the-flow type of person, and I'm more like my mom, I think, because I'm just like, 'Oh yeah, I want to.' Or like, 'Theoretically...' And if the opportunity arises, I just go for it. And because I'm that kind of personality, I think both of my parents were like, 'Yeah, you need a little bit more than that to run a restaurant.' So they were kind of skeptical in the beginning. But when my mom had her stroke, it was one of those, okay, we have no choice. We have to do this. I think they're still skeptical.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2331.02,2373.29"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/165","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Eight years later. They're","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2374.29,2375.17"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/166","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e still like, 'Are you sure? Is this still a business?' But it's parents. They're going to worry forever.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2375.17,2384.61"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/167","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Of course. I mean, this is also their child as well, this restaurant. Exactly.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2384.93,2388.37"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/168","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And it's their legacy too. So it's funny, because they're just like, 'I don't know. Are you okay, really?' I'm like, 'Hey, look, I don't know, I think so. We'll see.' [laughs]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2388.41,2399.159"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/169","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e I mean, are they happy with the way you're doing things now?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2399.37,2401.65"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/170","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e They tried to stay away from it, because it's so different as far as technology goes. When they were still here, we wrote the orders by hand and we would give it to the kitchen. And so they would see handwritten orders.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2402.05,2418.73"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/171","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2418.77,2419.17"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/172","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e No POS system, no clocking in, clocking out for employees. Even paying taxes was writing a check to the tax board. It was not at all technology in this restaurant. And so when I took over, we know how to submit taxes online. And now we have a POS system. Now we have payroll system. Now we have clock in and then we have Uber and Grubhub and all this stuff. And so they're just like, 'I don't think I can understand it. So I'm not even going to touch it.' I think that's the disconnect of, they're like, 'I think it's going good, but I don't have any idea because I cannot even check to see.' But when they come here, sometimes my mom will come and steal some eggs [laughs] or get food and go home, she'll see that the restaurant is a full house and she's like, 'Oh, there's a lot of people.' And sometimes she'll be like, 'Oh, say hi to our customers.'","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2419.45,2478.956"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/173","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That's great.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2478.96,2479.4"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/174","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e So they see that it's busy, and they hope that it's being managed well, but they have no way of checking or confirming. But they have now, I guess at this point I'm like, dude, you have to just believe. You have to believe. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2479.44,2494.48"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/175","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e 'What else can we do now?' Yeah. Were there any other changes that you made? I know you added combinations.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2494.6,2501.52"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/176","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. As far as menu item goes, honestly, it's just a different combination of items that we've had in the beginning. We added maybe three new items.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2502.16,2513.927"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/177","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Over time?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2514.44,2514.56"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/178","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Over time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2515.0,2515.52"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/179","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2515.56,2515.8"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/180","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And typically what we do is, our kitchen kind of put stuff together and they eat stuff. And sometimes I'm like, huh? I wonder if that's gonna work. One of our menu items is a beef donburi, which is our stewed beef, which we use for beef curry. And we shred it, and then we make it in with the sweet soy sauce and egg over rice. And that was made by one of our managers. And he was like, 'I want to try this.' And he made it. And he's like, 'It's really good.' And he would eat that all the time. And we're like, 'Let's just put it on the menu and see.' And so when we put it on the menu, what we usually do is, we put it on the menu for a month or two months or whatever, and we see if it sells and if people like it, if people come back for it. And if they do, leave it on the menu. If they don't, we just kind of drop it. So we've had those circular rotations of different food items. Three so far have stuck. The karaage bowl is a new one— newer, maybe like three, four years now, but the newer items. Our kitchen staff used to eat that all the time; they would just make karaage and put it on rice.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2515.84,2583.43"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/181","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That's my jam.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2584.35,2584.95"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/182","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. And put our eel sauce on it. We make all of our sauce here too. So, like a reduced eel sauce. It's different than other places. And I think a lot of people are like, 'Oh, I don't like eel sauce because it's too sweet' or it's too — but we have a different flavor with everything that we make, because like I said, we reuse things. So that eel sauce is made from sauce that we use to make chashu. It's a unique flavor. And so I can see why people are like, 'Oh, I'm gonna put this and that.' And then it works because it's like, yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2585.43,2623.144"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/183","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e It works in those two instances. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2624.83,2626.07"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/184","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And most sauces that people buy at the store and stuff, it won't go together because it was specifically made for just that. But because ours is a collective of things where we're like, oh, well, this and this tastes good, so let's make this sauce, you know? And so a lot of our menu items that are newer are kind of just collective things of our kitchen staff or our servers or our management that are like, 'Oh, I'm going to try this.' And then it kind of works and we're like, let's put it on and see what happens. And our yaki udon is probably our newest one that we have in there, because we needed something that was vegan-friendly, because we have a few people that are vegan. We're like, all right, well, we need to think of something they can eat. And so we kind of created this garlic soy sauce type of sauce that's vegan. And it's really strong in flavor and flavorful. That's why we're like, all right, let's keep that sauce and then, let's mix it with something else. And so we had to come up with —well, karaage is really diverse and universal. So we use that and then cabbage and we kind of just stir fried it and we're like, well, okay, we can stir fry and put it on rice. But it's kind of weird. All right, let's make it with udon. And we made it with udon noodles. And so those are kind of a concoction of things that we kind of collectively come up with, and we throw it on the menu. And if it works and and our customers like it, we'll keep it on there. If not, it gets dropped. But majority of our menu items are exactly the same.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2626.11,2712.02"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/185","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Like the spaghetti, the curry.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2712.06,2713.66"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/186","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e The udon, tempura.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2714.14,2715.329"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/187","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e All the katsu.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2716.02,2716.92"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/188","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Exactly the same. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2718.82,2720.46"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/189","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Wow. I feel that must be so nice to come here after 25 years. You're like, 'Oh, this is exactly the same way. I remember it 25 years ago.' Those places are just—it's so rare.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2721.1,2729.86"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/190","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And I don't know if it's part of my thing of like, 'Well I'm not going to touch it.' They're like, 'Did you change it?' I'm like, 'I'm not gonna touch it. If it works, it works. I'm not gonna change nothing.' I was like, I don't want to get yelled at by my customers.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2732.94,2744.043"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/191","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Or your parents.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2744.34,2745.02"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/192","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, please don't. I'm already traumatized of where the chopsticks go and the towels go. I don't want to change anything.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2745.06,2751.98"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/193","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Can I ask you how you've weathered the last few years with COVID? And earlier this year, the fires. I mean, how were the fires? Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2753.54,2760.54"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/194","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e That was crazy. So COVID was kind of crazy, because obviously everything shut down and all the restaurants shut down.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2760.54,2766.62"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/195","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e And it was like almost overnight, basically, you had like two days' notice. And","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2766.66,2768.42"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/196","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e it was scary because we were watching the news to see, can we open tomorrow? What's going to happen? How are my people are going to pay—how am I going to pay rent? Who's going to have—it was just all those things that come together and for COVID, my number one thing was, I need to make sure everyone can pay their rent. And I was like, how the heck am I going to do that? And so it was a lot of just talking to people, trying to figure out, like, okay, how do you do takeout? And we were able to connect with nonprofit organizations that basically delivered food for hospitals. So that was a huge thing for us, because every week they would order from us, like hundreds of meals, and we would create those meals, and then we would go and deliver them to hospitals or different places, aftercare, acute care, all of those places. And that kept us afloat because I was able to keep my entire staff the whole time. I didn't cut anybody's hours or anybody's thing. Obviously, I pulled from my own stash because I get paid last, I don't care, I will go get a loan from the bank. I would figure it out, I would owe—for me, I want to make sure that the people who work here rely on this income to pay for their families and their bills. That's more scary than me having to get a loan, you know? So I needed to come up with a way. And","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2768.46,2853.49"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/197","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e so the hospital nonprofit organizations saved us a tremendous amount. Us being able to put tables outside—we couldn't even use the parking lot. So all we did was, we put tables along the sidewalk right here, and we basically said, 'You can order to go, eat your food outside. And then there's a trash bin right there. Throw it away.' And so there was no service. There were just people come in, get their food, eat outside and then go on their merry way, you know? And during that time, also, we had a filming company that wanted to rent this place out for a film.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2853.97,2887.89"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/198","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2887.93,2888.604"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/199","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e That saved us. That gave us some revenue on that portion. And then we also got posted on SGV Eats. Very","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2888.73,2896.11"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/200","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e popular.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2896.11,2896.625"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/201","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. So they posted for us, saying that we were open for takeout. So that was a huge savior because a lot of our customers, 'We thought you were closed,' and so because they saw it on SGV Eats, they came and they ordered. So a lot of our community started ordering takeout from us. One, because they were grateful that we were open, but also worried that we were going to close down if they don't. So they totally supported us on that sense. And our food's really good to take home and reheat and stuff like that. So it was really a perfect combination of things of our customers, our food's good to take out. It's still really good when you take it home. It's still even good the next day when you your microwave if you want to. So that plus our community and our customers and then our staff being really careful, not getting sick, and just making sure that, if they are sick, not to come to work. Because if you get everybody else, then we're all shut down. So it was a lot of those scary moments, but we totally made it through it. I didn't have to cut anybody's hours. Staff, I kept everybody, I kept everyone paid. It was good. And of course, the PPP loan helped us a little bit. But it was really a moment of growth, because then at that moment I was like, you know what? Anything can happen, but we'll be okay because we're going to come up with something that's going to be able to push us through it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2898.13,2979.096"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/202","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And so the fires was crazy. The fires, it was full of ash in this area. Like big chunks of ash are this big. Our customers have lost their homes, literally. It was so sad because one of our customers, before the fires, we gave her a little ducky pin, older couple. They're so sweet. But we gave them a little ducky pin. And so the day after the fires, they lost her home. She came, and she's like, 'Everything burned down. I lost the pin that you gave us.' I'm like, 'Forget the pin. Your house is burned down!' You know? But she was just, 'You gave it to us.' And I was like, 'I'll give you all the pins. Like, stop,' you know? But they were obviously grateful for us to be here too, because— it's not their home, but it felt like they were comfortable and they would be eating here. And our other customers are from the Altadena area, they would come and it was so emotional. It was like, 'My neighbors lost their home, we had to evacuate.' Every single person that I spoke to said like it's a slight sense of comfort eating here. Because it was like, 'Well, at least this is a little familiar for us.' And so for that, I was just like, dude, it's worth everything to be able to stay open. I always tell them I don't know how it must have felt to lose your home like that, but I'm so glad that I could be part of something that can give you a little comfort. And so, like that was crazy. And the fact that the fires are getting closer, we had to stay on alert to see if we're going to open or close or what happened. It was just a lot of that and the power outages. it was a lot. But again, I think with what we learned with COVID and how we were able to pivot and stay— we're just like, let's go day by day and figure it out and we will figure it out and don't worry. It was just comforting to know that the staff is committed. Our customers are committed. We'll get through it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2979.77,3117.99"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/203","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. Oh my goodness. That was such a that was. That was such a nuts time. Did the strikes affect you at all?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3119.75,3124.75"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/204","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes. A lot of customers kind of slowed down during that time. Because it was just —","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3126.23,3135.209"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/205","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e There's no work.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3135.79,3136.55"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/206","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e No work. No people out. Yeah. We actually closed one of the weekends, because we're like, this is messed up. This is not right. They were in this area, too, immigration and stuff like that to, and they were just picking people off the street and we're like, this isn't right. So I told everybody, 'You know what? Let's just take this weekend off. Be with your family. Go on strike, whatever you want to do. But this is so messed up. Let's not play into it. But let's just take this weekend and go do what you want to do.' Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3136.59,3172.95"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/207","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And a lot of my staff went to the strikes and went to go and we're like, yeah, let's just do it. But after that we came back. We came straight away and we're like, all right, let's go back to work and let's figure this out. And let's keep everything as safe as possible. It's so surreal because I had to—I made videos of every single one of my staff with their ID, with their papers saying this is a legit document. I'm documenting this because we've heard stories of people getting picked up, getting their IDs taken away, cut up and get sent, you know—and then they're like, 'Where's your papers?' You're like, 'You took it!' You know? And so I had to make those videos. And it was so weird because it was like a proof of life video.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3173.15,3221.43"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/208","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Seriously, yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3221.47,3222.446"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/209","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e But I had to have it. For everybody. And it doesn't matter what race you are, what ethnicity. I made it for everybody, and I was like, I have it. If anything happens, call me, and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to help. But it's so crazy and outrageous, but, again, we're gonna get through it. We're gonna persevere and we're gonna be fine, you know? Hopefully. But we'll see.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3222.67,3251.38"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/210","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. Like you said, day by day.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3251.74,3253.02"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/211","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, it really is. It really is day by day, especially right now. The economy is terrible. Things are not progressing. Our revenue has definitely declined.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3253.26,3261.82"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/212","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Right. And costs have gone up.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3261.86,3263.3"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/213","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Costs have gone up. And even our delivery guys are like, 'We used to deliver a full truck of stuff. Now it's half.' Now people are getting cut as far as delivery drivers, because they don't have any routes or people aren't buying. And it goes back to that same thing about my cabbage. It used to be like $18 a case for cabbage. Now it's like 44. For cabbage! That's crazy. But it's cool and and exciting to know that you're part of something where you have to account for all of that. We can't just complain. Okay now, okay. What do we do?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3263.34,3299.3"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/214","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, because you have to do something about it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3299.34,3300.66"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/215","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e So where where do we pivot? Where do we update? Where do we change? So the consumers aren't feeling all of the impact. You have to go, now, talk to the vendors, talk to the suppliers, figure it out. And I know that they're struggling. So it's just like, it's a lot of these things that you just maneuver and pivot and just figure it out as restaurateurs or entrepreneurs. I mean, it's a part of life, I guess we gotta just figure it out as we go.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3300.7,3330.7"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/216","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e I mean, that's the mantra of the last few years, for sure. I think so.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3331.02,3334.026"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/217","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Because you never know.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3334.58,3335.1"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/218","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e You never know.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3335.3,3335.74"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/219","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e You don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3335.78,3337.18"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/220","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Seriously.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3337.26,3337.883"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/221","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e It could be a rice shortage! You know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3339.98,3342.229"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/222","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That'd be horrible. But it's true.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3343.26,3343.52"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/223","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e It literally, it literally could be anything.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3344.66,3346.89"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/224","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e I know we're doing things, taking things day by day, but do you have a sense of where you want, or where you see the restaurant in the next few years?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3349.69,3355.73"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/225","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Actually, I've always wanted to expand.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3355.77,3357.33"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/226","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, yeah? Always,","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3357.37,3358.05"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/227","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e always, always. One, obviously take over this place. But in my mind subliminally, I think I knew I was going to take over this restaurant. I don't know how my parents thought about it, but I just knew that I was going to run this, you know? But I've always had a dream to expand and get bigger. And because, I'm like, dude, this is so cool. Our food is good, our atmosphere is good, our energy is good. I want to expand. I want more people to see us. I want more people to enjoy us, you know? And so I've always had this dream. I'm a dreamer.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3358.05,3390.41"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/228","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e You need that too, though.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3392.45,3392.65"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/229","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. And I've always like, oh, I want to have a bar tapas place, or I want to have a brewery that's connected to a restaurant, or I want to have a takeout place or I want to have a food truck. A lot of those ideas. And I have business plans for all of them. Trust me, it's kind of fun. I think it's part of my hobby, I guess, to come up with all those things. But right now, we actually are currently in the process of opening up our second location.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3393.01,3419.89"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/230","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Amazing!","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3419.93,3420.445"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/231","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e So we're thinking that, if all things go well, that second location will be opening either end of this year or early next year. Oh","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3420.85,3428.21"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/232","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e my goodness. Congratulations.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3428.21,3429.29"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/233","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Thank you. And this one is the quick service version.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3429.33,3432.25"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/234","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Okay. Yeah, yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3432.29,3433.25"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/235","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e So it's our restaurant. It's the idea of right now everything is so fast paced and that everybody is looking for convenience. And a lot of our customers don't like to come here anymore because—not come here, but dine in, because they have to wait a long time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3433.29,3448.564"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/236","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, COVID really did change people's dining habits in terms of eating out.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3449.49,3452.67"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/237","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e And they're okay with eating at home and taking it to go and a lot of those things. So for me, quick service is perfect because I'm like, yeah, you don't have to wait. You'll have your food and out the door in like 6, 7 minutes. And then you can eat there because there's space if you want to. But if you want to take it to go, go, take it to go. So that's our next one, more focused on quick service and being able to service more people and more customers at a faster rate that matches their lifestyle.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3452.69,3481.183"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/238","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Right. Is it a more pared down menu than here?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3481.64,3483.6"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/239","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes. So basically what we did for over there was that we got all of our top sellers, and then we kind of put it all into a menu. And so they're a little bit on the smaller portion size, because what we noticed was that our dishes are really big. So if you ordered a pork katsu curry, you'll probably be full and have leftovers to take home. And so that's always been the thing here, because it's very a family restaurant. My parents are like, 'Well, you're gonna eat the katsu curry. What else do you want?' So the portions are pretty set to that, okay, you get one meal and that's it, you know? But what we notice is that our customers like to pick out different stuff. So they like the soba and tempura or kaarage and stuff like that. So they like to pick at things, and I think it's just the change and shift of the newer generations that like to pick and choose and different options. So what we kind of decided on is, shrink the portion size, but then have ability to get different things. So you can pair—if you want curry, you can get curry. It's not the big portion that you get at Ducks here, but you get a smaller portion, but then add kaarage or add soba or add soup or salad or whatever you might want to eat. And so that will make your full meal. So that's that's the idea. So yeah, we'll be open soon.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3484.32,3560.88"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/240","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Congratulations. Is it SGV as well?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3561.0,3562.674"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/241","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes. We wanted to keep it in this area because I think people appreciate us a little bit more because they know us. Before we move to somewhere else, imagine if we moved to Irvine or something—we actually have some customers that drive all the way from Irvine to come eat here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3563.04,3580.04"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/242","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Really?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3580.27,3580.731"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/243","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes. I think the furthest one is Palos Verdes. They drive from Palos Verdes to come eat our ramen. But we have people from all over. Oh, San Francisco is another one. We have a family that comes from San Francisco. And every time they come, they eat here every day, and they take home a meal on their journey. So we have all of those. But if you can only imagine, if you try to open in Irvine and everyone's like, who? What are you, who are you, you know? But if we stay in our little SGV community and people, then—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3580.91,3610.584"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/244","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e They know you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3611.31,3611.79"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/245","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, they know us. And then we can slowly start expanding out. That would be great, you know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3611.83,3615.95"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/246","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Wonderful. Yay! Okay, my last question. Are those are those for rent, the DVDs?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3617.07,3622.67"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/247","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, these are mangas.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3622.71,3624.03"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/248","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh. They're mangas! I thought they were DVDs from here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3624.07,3626.67"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/249","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e No, actually, these were all gifted from our customers. So when we first opened, our customers donated full sets of these mangas. And so they're all free for people to read here. People have asked if they can take it home. We tell them no, because if you take it home and you forget to bring it back to us, then we'll be missing— I","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3626.71,3648.55"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/250","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e was gonna say, you're gonna miss book three.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3648.55,3649.83"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/251","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. So we just highly recommend everybody that comes here, they can read it, but just read it here. The bottom portions are all newer, so the Batman ones were a little bit newer and stuff, but our customers just bring us mangas.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3649.87,3665.524"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/252","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because the one on the top looks like DVD covers.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3665.79,3670.43"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/253","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, actually, yeah. No, they're all mangas. Can you imagine if we had DVDs? Like, now you gotta go get a DVD player!","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3671.79,3676.171"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/254","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e That's great.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3678.67,3679.47"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/255","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. So it's pretty cool. I mean, it's open for everybody. Before it used to be a thing—actually, one of the our vendors used to send every single one of their newbie salespeople to come here and eat because we had a whole selection of, I think it's Natsuko no Sake, is a whole series of how sake is made and the history of sake. And it's really good for people who are in the alcohol business to learn it. So they would actually tell their new sales guys to come and read every single one of those series to learn about how sake is made. I know, and then they're like, 'Well, also eat there because it's good, go for lunch,' you know. So yeah, we used to get a lot of those salary guys coming around here and eating. And they used to drive from downtown LA to come eat here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3679.99,3731.42"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/256","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e Wow. Well, I hope you feel proud. This is such a great— Thank","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3732.82,3737.9"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/257","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3737.9,3738.26"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/258","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eTIEN NGUYEN:\u003c/strong\u003e What you created and what your family created. I feel love.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3738.38,3742.22"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/259","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNATSUMI SAEKI:\u003c/strong\u003e Thank you. Yeah, yeah. And I always tell my customers, they're like, 'We're so glad you continued!' I'm like, 'Where am I going to eat if I don't? I don't like to cook. I just eat here.' Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3742.42,3752.86"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/transcript/89730/annotation/260","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cv TI","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3753.46,3754.54"}]},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Auto-generated Index (2025-12-31 20:36:27) [Index]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/261","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Introduction and Restaurant Origins","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=0.0,12.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/262","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi Saiki introduces herself as the owner of General Partners, a restaurant she runs with her parents. She shares that the restaurant has been open since 1995 and has remained at the same location for 30 years. The space was previously an Indian restaurant called Silver Spoons, and she recalls childhood memories of the original kitchen setup.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=0.0,12.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/263","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Training, Staff, and Maintaining Standards","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=12.0,20.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/264","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker describes the process of documenting recipes and procedures to train staff and maintain consistency after her parents retired. She timed tasks, standardized instructions, and relied on customer feedback to ensure quality. The structured approach allowed her to delegate responsibilities and build confidence in her team.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=12.0,20.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/265","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Strikes, Immigration Issues, and Staff Support","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=20.0,50.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/266","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker discusses the effects of strikes and immigration enforcement on business and staff. She closed the restaurant during tense periods to support her employees and documented their legal status for protection. The experience highlighted the importance of solidarity and adaptability in difficult circumstances.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=20.0,50.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/267","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Menu Structure and Adaptation to Customer Demands","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=50.0,54.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/268","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi explains the original dinner menu, which featured three set options, and her parents' reluctance to allow modifications due to kitchen constraints. Over time, she expanded the menu to accommodate customer preferences for combinations and additional choices, balancing tradition with evolving demands.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=50.0,54.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/269","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Parents' Background and Decision to Open a Japanese Restaurant","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=54.0,164.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/270","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker describes her parents' backgrounds, highlighting her father's experience in restaurant management and her mother's cooking skills. Her father always dreamed of opening his own restaurant, and their Japanese heritage naturally influenced their choice of cuisine. The decision to open a Japanese restaurant was based on their expertise and desire to create a family business.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=54.0,164.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/271","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Choosing the Location and Naming the Restaurant","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=164.0,377.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/272","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi explains her father's meticulous approach to selecting the restaurant's location, including observing foot traffic and parking flow. The name 'ducks' was inspired by family outings to feed ducks at a local park, symbolizing the family's role in feeding the community. The restaurant's logo was originally designed by her father and friends, and she later updated it from a floppy disk for modern use.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=164.0,377.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/273","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Early Memories and Childhood in the Restaurant","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=377.0,389.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/274","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi shares her childhood experiences during the restaurant's opening month, including playful moments and helping with chores. She recalls living at the restaurant, drawing, and interacting with customers as a child of restaurant owners. These early memories are captured in old photographs and family albums.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=377.0,389.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/275","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kitchen Organization and Consistency","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=389.0,495.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/276","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker describes the strict organization in the kitchen, with designated spots for every item and a focus on maintaining consistency. Health inspectors notice the structured setup, and customers appreciate the unchanged taste of dishes over the years. The restaurant uses the same bowls and utensils, some of which are irreplaceable antiques, reinforcing the sense of continuity.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=389.0,495.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/277","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Customer Relationships and Community","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=495.0,610.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/278","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker describes how customers became like family, helping her with homework and maintaining long-term relationships. Many regulars have continued to visit over the years, bringing their children and grandchildren, creating a multi-generational community around the restaurant. The close-knit atmosphere extends to staff, who are often mistaken for family members.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=495.0,610.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/279","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Early Business Popularity and Operations","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=610.0,769.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/280","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi discusses the restaurant's initial business levels, noting that it was busy enough to sustain the family but not a social media sensation. The area was less Asian-centric in the 1990s, with a mix of local communities frequenting the restaurant. Her parents prioritized sustainability over expansion, preferring a manageable workload and a steady customer base.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=610.0,769.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/281","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Restaurant Capacity and Space Constraints","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=769.0,969.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/282","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker details the original layout of the restaurant, which had only six tables and a small staff. The limited seating matched the modest business volume, and the space has since been reconfigured to accommodate more tables. Despite increased demand, expansion is restricted by city regulations and parking requirements, leading to creative solutions like outdoor seating.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=769.0,969.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/283","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Changes in the Plaza and Notable Events","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=969.0,1082.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/284","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi describes the evolution of the surrounding plaza, which once housed a pizza parlor, video rental store, TV repair shop, and insurance broker. She recounts a tragic event involving a neighboring deli owner who was killed in a hate crime after 9/11. Over time, the plaza has shifted to include nail salons, barbershops, and an escape room, with her restaurant and the barbershop being the longest-standing businesses.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=969.0,1082.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/285","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Menu Development and Philosophy","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1082.0,1529.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/286","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker discusses her mother's role in developing unique salad dressings and the overall approach to menu creation. The family emphasizes simplicity, consistency, and minimizing waste by using versatile ingredients. Recipes are designed to be easy to replicate daily, and the menu focuses on core Japanese dishes with limited vegetables to avoid spoilage.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1082.0,1529.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/287","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Legacy, Nostalgia, and Maintaining Tradition","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1529.0,1601.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/288","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi reflects on the challenges of preserving the restaurant's legacy while adapting to changing times. She values the nostalgia experienced by returning customers and strives to keep the atmosphere and food consistent, creating a 'time capsule' effect. Balancing tradition with necessary updates is a constant consideration.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1529.0,1601.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/289","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Decor, Artifacts, and Customer Contributions","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1601.0,1765.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/290","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker discusses the restaurant's decor, including handmade curtains, childhood artwork, and a growing collection of rubber ducks contributed by customers. These artifacts add character and sentimental value, with customers participating in games to find their donated ducks. The decor reflects the restaurant's history and community involvement.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1601.0,1765.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/291","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Realization of Community Importance and Transition of Ownership","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1765.0,2253.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/292","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi shares her personal journey of gradually taking over the restaurant, initially working for pocket money and later assuming more responsibilities. Her mother's stroke accelerated the transition, prompting her to learn operations and recipes through experience and trial. She realized the restaurant's importance to the community and committed to continuing the family legacy.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=1765.0,2253.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/293","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Parents' Reactions to Transition and Technology","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2253.0,2502.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/294","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi recounts her parents' skepticism about her ability to run the restaurant, given its demanding nature. She balanced a corporate job with restaurant management, applying operational skills from both fields. Her parents are now distanced from daily operations due to technological changes, but they observe the restaurant's success and trust her management.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2253.0,2502.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/295","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Menu Innovations and New Items","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2502.0,2753.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/296","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker explains how new menu items are developed through experimentation by staff and management. Dishes are tested for popularity and retained if successful, with recent additions like the karaage bowl and yaki udon reflecting customer preferences and dietary needs. The core menu remains largely unchanged, preserving the restaurant's identity.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2502.0,2753.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/297","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"COVID-19, Fires, and Other Crises","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2753.0,3251.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/298","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi describes the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, including shutdowns, adapting to takeout, and partnering with nonprofits to deliver meals. The restaurant survived through community support, media exposure, and creative solutions. She also recounts the impact of local fires, which affected customers and brought a sense of comfort through the restaurant's continued presence.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=2753.0,3251.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/299","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Economic Challenges and Adaptation","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3251.0,3355.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/300","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi addresses ongoing economic challenges, including rising costs and declining revenue. She emphasizes the need to pivot, negotiate with suppliers, and find solutions to minimize the impact on customers. The approach is pragmatic, focusing on daily problem-solving and resilience in the face of uncertainty.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3251.0,3355.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/301","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Future Plans and Expansion","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3355.0,3622.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/302","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker shares her long-standing dream of expanding the restaurant, including ideas for new concepts and business plans. She announces the upcoming opening of a second, quick-service location in the same area, designed to offer smaller portions and more options to suit modern dining habits. The expansion aims to reach more customers while maintaining the restaurant's core values.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3355.0,3622.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/303","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Manga Collection and Vendor Relationships","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3622.0,3732.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/304","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Natsumi explains the manga collection available for customers to read in the restaurant, which was donated by patrons. The collection includes educational series used by vendors and salespeople, further connecting the restaurant to its community and industry. The manga adds to the welcoming atmosphere and cultural richness of the space.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3622.0,3732.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/305","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Closing Reflections","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3732.0,3757.22077"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538/index/90801/annotation/306","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker expresses pride and gratitude for the restaurant and the community it has fostered. She acknowledges the legacy created by her family and the ongoing support from customers, emphasizing her commitment to continue the tradition and provide a place of comfort and connection.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2367/collection_resources/166238/file/302538#t=3732.0,3757.22077"}]}]}]}