Owned and managed
by a couple from Taiwan, Osami had long been one of my favorite
Japanese restaurants in the city where I live. It went out of
business. I didn't know that until last night when I planned to go
there to have dinner with a friend of mine. The restaurant is about
8 miles away from my home. When I got there, the OPEN neon sign was
off. A FOR RENT sign was there on Osami's window. The parking lot
reserved exclusively for the restaurant's customers was empty. I
knew immediately that Osami may be gone, because recently there were
a lot of stores, restaurants, and many other shops at malls going out
of business because of the bad economy. To make sure it's closed, I
parked my car and walked into an ice cream restaurant beside Osami to
realize what happened. A waitress told me Osami was closed down for
good about two months ago. She also told me that in the past several
months, there were not many people to eat there, judging from the
fact that the restaurant's parking lot usually left a lot of parking
spaces available during lunch and dinner hours.
I like both
Japanese food and Chinese food. But if eating out, I personally
prefer dining in a Japanese restaurant to dining in a Chinese
restaurant, because most Japanese restaurants, in my opinion, seem to
be looking better and cleaner and would make you feel more sanitary
than most Chinese restaurants, although the price most Japanese
restaurants charged may be slightly higher than that of most Chinese
restaurants. But you get what you pay for...
Now Osami is gone.
I know it's not the only Japanese restaurant in town. Without
Osami, I still can find some nice Japanese food to eat. But I still
feel sad to see this gorgeous restaurant out of business. I had
been there plenty of times before it's closed. The food was great
and the service impeccable. Spending $12.99 for lunch and $15.99
for dinner, you could eat anything you want. There is no doubt that
a well-decorated, well-maintained and moderately-priced restaurant
like Osami offered the best bang for the buck for the Japanese food
lovers, when compared with many of its competitors. I have to say that I miss that
restaurant a lot.
Osami certainly was
not the only restaurant that has recently been forced out of business
because of the horrible economy. As I mentioned earlier, a plenty
of shops in my town from big retail stores such as Best Buy, Circuit
City, Comp USA, Office Depot, Kohl... to a lot of restaurants, car
dealers and many other shops in the malls were closed. As the
recession/depression continues to spread from coast to coast, a lot of businesses
would be in deep trouble. They are more likely to end up either
biting the dust or laying off their employees massively in order to
survive. With more and more people losing their jobs, more and more
Americans cannot afford to eat out as frequently as they used to. Right now
budget-conscious consumers are carefully watching how they spend
their money. One of the easiest ways to save money is to cut back
dining expenses. More and more restaurants will be badly
affected as a result. I believe a lot of restaurants will not be
able to survive from this unprecedented economic downturn. The
picture looks very ugly. The situation will be very, very grim.
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