Hi guys! Thank you so much for your encouraging reviews and patience! It's April 18th, aka tax day, and in honor of no longer working CRAZY hours I finally got a chapter put together! Hooray! No DxS in this one, but I do hope you enjoy!
As always, please let me know if you see edits / areas of improvement and I will go back and fix them.
Thank you!
MU :3
Serena was sitting inside Starbucks, tapping away on her laptop keys, utilizing her memory as she worked on her current review of a bed and breakfast. It was an unusual request, but at the pleading of her editor, she accepted to write the paper in her colleague's absence. The regular writer, Anna, was out on maternity leave, which meant there was a three-month period of rotating the writer's at inTokyo. Serena did not mind too much; it was refreshing to write about something different. The only thing she did not like was that she had to be confined explicitly to what the B&B offered rather than act as if she was truly on vacation. However, having the excuse to sleep in a large, comfortable bed as long as she wanted was worth sitting through bird watching.
"Um, excuse me," a polite voice interrupted Serena's train of thought. She looked up from her screen and was greeted with a familiar face she recognized from her internet search weeks earlier. "I do not mean to intrude," she politely added with a friendly smile.
"No, that's okay," Serena replied. "You're Ami Mizuno-Shields, if I recall correctly," she insinuated. Now in-person, Serena quickly profiled her, noting that her hair was much closer to a shade of navy blue rather than the black that the images projected. It was a unique color, one she had never seen before, but was enhanced and complemented Ami's fair skin tone. She was no taller than Serena and smaller built, but she complemented her figure with a lovely black cardigan that was filled with magenta and cerulean floral prints atop a fresh cream-colored dress.
"Yes, and you are Serena Thompson," she said knowingly. "I was hoping that if you had a few moments I could buy you a cup of fresh coffee?"
Serena paused for a moment, but no sooner nodded her head in acceptance. "That would be wonderful. An Americano with two pumps of white mocha would be awesome," she added.
"White mocha," she repeated back, nodding in confirmation. "I will be right back." As Ami walked away, Serena quickly added her last fleeting thought to her review before clicking on the save icon and exiting out of her article. Taking a quick look at her email one last time, she noted nothing new before closing the laptop. Another moment later, Ami returned with the coffee cups, placing the delicious drink in front of Serena.
"Thank you so much, this is one of my favorites!" Serena said as she clasped her hands around the cup, its warmth seeping into her aching finger muscles. She sighed contently, welcoming the break from her work.
"Thank you for taking the time to sit down with me; I truly do appreciate your time. I also want to add in my apologies for the way that my brother treated you when you visited my restaurant. I was supposed to be the one to meet with you, but my husband's father passed away and we had to travel overseas for the arrangements. I would have met with you sooner had I known what happened, but I only got back yesterday," she added with a solemn tone. Serena softened at the woman's grievance.
"I understand, and I'm sorry for your loss," she said sincerely.
"Thank you," Ami replied. "But it still does not excuse my brother's behavior. When I returned, I asked him what had happened. He did not give a very clear answer, so when I checked with some of my staff; they told me how quickly he had dismissed you. I know that we want to implement a dress code, but nowhere near the standards my brother made it seem to be."
"Really?" Serena asked, propping her elbow on the table resting her chin in her hand. "In my experience, many of the restaurants in that area tend to err on the side of jackets only."
"Exactly," Ami said matter-of-factly, "and I am trying to break that mold. I do not want to be another hip and trendy restaurant that is shut down after 3 months. I want to diversify. I want to see the stay-at-home Moms having lunch with their girlfriends alongside the stockbroker's on their lunch break. I want to see a group of girls come in to celebrate their friend's 21st birthday while a couple is celebrating their 25-year anniversary. The only places you find that cater to that lifestyle, though, are chains or smaller Mom-and-Pop places. I wanted to bring in an alternative option that allowed for a little more luxury without the judgment."
Serena nodded as Ami spoke, taking in the information. "Say I showed up wearing a maroon jersey dress and strappy sandals, would that be grounds for not being allowed in?"
Ami's eyes widened slightly. "Of course not. Is that what you were wearing when my brother kicked you out?" Serena nodded in confirmation. "That is absolutely preposterous. The only thing I would advise against is baggy pants where you can see the boy's drawers, outfits that are made of hardly any material, and the traditional 'no shoes no shirt' mantra. Wearing a dress and sandals hardly disqualifies any patron in my opinion," she said. "I am horrified beyond belief," she added, covering her mouth as she finished.
"That explains why there was no dress code notice on your website," Serena mused aloud. "But if that's the case, why was your brother so uptight about it?"
Ami shook her head. "My brother has a different vision. He has been all over the world for corporate meetings and he feels that we need to cater to that world. I have been to my fair share of those places and I absolutely hate it. You often find that the food and the attitude of the staff take away from what beauty and uniqueness a place of that caliber has to offer."
Serena continued to nod and listen. "I agree with you, I feel like some of those places spend so much on the rent and the décor that it takes away from what matters most."
"Exactly. I do not want to be that place. I want to offer quality food in a chic setting that anyone can come in and enjoy. So long as you can pay your bill, I could hardly care what attire you're wearing as long as you are dressed in an appropriate manner."
"You have no idea how refreshing that is to hear," Serena replied. "Every place I have been to that has that modern, industrial feel is normally so overpriced and underqualified. It's nice to hear that you want to diversity this restaurant to the everyday person."
Ami smiled before taking a sip of her coffee. "Thank you. It has been a dream of mine to own a restaurant. I never could have done such a project without my brother's help, which I am eternally thankful for, but I do wish he would let me make my own choices without his input," she said a little sadly. Serena felt a pang of guilt for not returning to her restaurant. Clearly, Ami was just a girl with big dreams and a corporate brother who felt he knew more than she did.
"Say, what are you doing in the next hour or so?" Serena asked as she looked at her watch, noting it was 11:00.
"I'm about to head over to the restaurant, why do you ask?" Ami replied.
"Because I would absolutely love to come back with you and have another go at your restaurant," Serena offered with a smile.
Ami's eyes shimmered with happiness as she clasped her hands together. "Really? That would be wonderful! Of course! Thank you so much!" she said gleefully. "I won't keep you from your article any longer," she said hurriedly as she slipped out of her chair. "I will see you soon. Thank you again, Serena, sincerely. Thank you!" She waved goodbye as she left the coffee shop, leaving Serena smiling. The simple fact that she was willing to apologize to her for nothing that she did wrong already won Serena over, but what made Serena genuinely want to go back was hearing Ami's passion and unique opportunity she provided the restaurant and its future patrons. So long as the food was good, Serena would made sure to give Ami's dream a glowing review.
"Welcome!" Ami exclaimed as Serena walked out of the elevator. Serena smiled, feeling a little bad that she showed up this time extremely underdressed, taking note that her laptop bag was nosily brushing up against her yoga leggings, but Ami never even noticed. In fact, she quickly appeared by Serena's side, guiding her to a table in a brightly lit window that displayed the lovely cityscape, Tokyo Tower glistening in the distance. The sun warmed the area, allowing Serena's bare arms to feel relaxed. A waiter soon came over with a glass of cool water in a frosted water glass, a lovely touch to a simple gesture, as well as a breadbasket, which Serena noted was filled with a variety of pumpernickel, rye, and Italian slices.
"This is our house dipping sauce, which consists of olive oil, parmesan cheese, and crushed red peppers," the waiter said as he placed a saucer of the concoction in front of Serena. Serena happily reached for a slice of Italian bread and ripped off a sizeable chunk, dipping it slightly into the saucer. She popped the bread into her mouth and was instantly greeted with a flavor explosion. The parmesan cheese had a lovely aged flavor to it, while the crushed red peppers allowed a zest of heat to mingle with the saltiness of the parmesan. The olive oil had to been aged as well, as it had a silky, bold flavor. This was easily one of the best dipping sauces she had ever tasted. Simple, three ingredients, but flavorful. Serena politely thanked the waiter as he made his departure, not allowing a complement to slip. It was one of her rules; never complement the food. Complement the service by being polite and thankful, but never let them know the status of your thoughts. That was the point of a review.
Ami returned holding two menus - a wine list and a meal menu - and passed it over to Serena. "Would you like to select from the menu, or would you like us to prepare you a course of our finest house dishes?" Ami offered. While Serena was itching to see what the 'finest house dishes' may have been, she wanted to judge her opinions on what an everyday person would order, especially if Ami is trying to cater to the everyday individual.
"I think I will pick off of the menu, but thank you for the option," Serena said kindly. She quickly scanned the drink list, but decided against a glass of wine, despite that the wine list was rather impressive. Looking through the bound menu, she noted her original choices from a few weeks ago were still available and sounded as good as it did prior. Sticking to her original intuition, she advised the waiter, who had returned with a pitcher of more water, of her choices."
"Would you care for a drink off of our wine list?" the waiter asked as he took the menus from Serena's hand.
"No, thank you though, I think I will stick with the water," she replied.
"Yes, ma'am," he said as he excused himself to put her order in. Serena smiled as Ami catered to the lunch patrons, noticing her very friendly demeanor as she assisted the hostess in seating the different varieties of individuals coming in, from corporate suits to a lively elderly bunch. She continued to watch the crowd, noticing their reactions as they opened up their menus, or how they laughed when talking with their colleagues, and especially how they responded when they tried some of the food. Serena's attention was soon returned to her own table as a bowl of lemon-artichoke soup was placed in front of her, the scent invading her nostrils with a pleasant aromatic. She looked at the bowl of the soup, noting it had a smooth pureed consistency, before dipping her spoon into the appetizer. Bringing the soup to her lips, she sipped in the broth, its sweet and sour taste bringing life to Serena's taste buds. She was able to notice the freshness of the artichoke and the fresh squeezed lemon juice; to the untrained palette one may not notice such things, but she knew that she would have been able to tell the presence of fake lemon juice and canned artichoke. Ami stopped over as Serena was savoring her soup, inquiring about its flavor.
"Can you tell me what goes into the soup?" Serena baited, testing to see if her assumptions were correct.
"Of course. Firstly, each soup is made fresh every morning. Anything we have left over at night that has not been out past a certain time is donated to the soup kitchen down the road. For this particular soup, we start with a finely diced mirepoix and minced garlic. This is gently sautéed in olive oil until translucent, to which we add chicken broth, freshly chopped artichoke hearts, salt and pepper and simmer it. One the artichokes have softened, we take batches and puree it in a blender until smoothed, then return the mixture into the saucepan. We add hand-squeezed lemon juice and lemon halves, bring it a boil, and then let it simmer for a bit before removing the lemons. Finally we add some half and half, let it simmer again, and we have our end result."
"Wow," Serena said, extremely impressed at the first-hand knowledge Ami had going into the soup. "Let me guess: chef before owner?"
Ami smiled. "Yes; I love to cook. Many of these recipes were my creation, and if not, I had involvement on all the items. This soup is a personal favorite of mine. I found adding the lemon halves and simmering the soup with them really enhances the lemony taste we were trying to achieve. Lemon zest helps, of course, but the lemons took the flavor to another level."
"I can tell," Serena said knowingly. Ami quietly excused herself, allowing Serena to dig into the automatic soup, lost in its fresh flavors. It was easily one of the finest soups she ever enjoyed. One she finished her soup, the waiter cleared her bowl and no sooner replaced it with her truffle risotto. She admired its presentation, a beautiful brown tint to the risotto with the cooked mushrooms and leeks weaved throughout sprinkled with freshly chopped leafy parsley. She took a decent amount of the risotto on her fork and popped it in her mouth, savoring the early flavors of the dish. The leeks and shiitake mushrooms were a nice texture, softened and caramelized within the risotto. The flavor of the risotto, though, was another level. She could taste the decedent black truffle, its pungent, musky flavor adhering into the Arborio rice and present in each chew. Its creamy decadence was very rich, allowing only savory bites, but it was worth every delicious bite. The portion was a generous size, to which Serena could only eat half of, but it was worth every calorie. Ami came by mid-way through her meal, to which Serena asked again if she could describe what went into the meal.
"Firstly, I do not use only truffle oil. I use shaved black truffles in my risotto to truly let it live up to its name. This recipe is actually a three-part process. We simmer the leeks in cream and season in salt and pepper and then let it chill. Next, we roast the shiitake mushrooms with truffle oil, salt, and pepper until they are tender and light brown around the edges. Thirdly, we make the risotto, which is made using a dry white wine and vegetable broth, and once all the liquid is absorbed, we add in the leek mixture, mushroom mixture, butter, parmesan, and shaved truffle. Finally we garnish with chopped fresh parsley."
"Black truffles?" Serena inquired, confirming her retained information. Black truffles were quite pricey, but from experience worth the money. However, most places substituted a truffle sauce, or overused the truffle oil to avoid having to pay the cost for the real thing.
"Absolutely. They are divine, and you do not need a lot to allow its flavor to be present. I believe 2 teaspoons can easily cover six to eight dishes," Ami replied.
"I couldn't agree more. I love anything with truffles in it," Serena agreed, extremely impressed. Ami cleared her dish for her, offering Serena the chance to take the leftovers to which she whole heartedly agreed to, excited to indulge in it some more with a glass of wine in the evening. Finally, the sorbet arrived, nestled in a beautiful glass dish with a mint leaf and raspberry perched atop the scoop. She dipped her spoon into it, the cool, fresh flavors coating her tongue. Serena closed her eyes, savoring the delicious fruit as she finished the entire dish.
Ami came by again, expressing her gratitude once more. "I truly do appreciate you returning; thank you so much!" Extending her hand, she offered Serena a smile that gleamed in true happiness.
Serena smiled back, shaking her hand in return. "No, thank you for stopping to see me. I am really looking forward to writing up this review."
"Oh, thank you!" Ami exclaimed, letting go of Serena's hand shortly after. "I cannot wait to read it!"
The girls bid their goodbyes and Serena soon left the building, walking out into the beautiful late-spring weather, taking in the rays from the sun. Making her way down the walkway, she grinned once more, promising herself that she would give Ami the review that her restaurant truly deserved.