We Never Planned to Be the One Piece Bar

One Piece was never part of some grand branding plan for Juraku. It started because one of our regulars wanted to have a Super Bowl watch party.

We put up a projector for the game, and after the party was over, I figured we might as well keep using it. I wanted something that could play in the background without taking over the room. It had to be interesting enough to look at, but not offensive or distracting if someone happened to glance up during dinner.

The Staff Had Other Ideas

Whitney was doing judo at the time, so she suggested showing judo, sumo and other Japanese sports. Other people suggested old Japanese movies. I was not especially excited about either idea, and eventually we landed on anime.

That created a different problem.

Shows would end halfway through service, and someone would have to stop what they were doing to find something else. If I left the staff to choose, I would sometimes walk in and find JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or Food Wars playing. I like anime, but those were not always what I wanted showing behind the bar while people were eating.

What I Was Actually Looking For

Three things, and they are less obvious than they sound.

Long-running, so nobody has to go hunting for a replacement in the middle of a Friday. Easy to leave on, meaning it does not demand that you follow it to enjoy looking at it. And appropriate enough to work as background, because a projector behind a bar is on whether or not the table under it wants a plot.

Dragon Ball and Pokémon fit, but I had already watched most of them. Then I came across One Piece. It met all the requirements, I had never seen it, and I ended up getting hooked.

It turns out to be almost purpose-built for the job. It has been running since 1999 and is past eleven hundred episodes, so it does not end during service, and it does not end next month either. Earlier this year the schedule dropped from weekly to a maximum of twenty-six episodes a year, which sounds like less until you do the arithmetic on the back catalogue. We are in no danger of running out.

Then the Customers Took Over

Apparently I was not the only one.

Customers started recognizing it, talking about it and eventually donating One Piece figures to the restaurant. The collection kept growing, people began calling Juraku the One Piece bar, and the whole thing became part of the restaurant without us ever planning it.

Which, looking back, is how most of the good things here happened. Somebody wanted a Super Bowl party. Somebody suggested judo. Somebody brought in a figure and then somebody else brought in another one.

That is also the honest answer to what makes an izakaya worth going to. It was never the projector, and it was never really about the anime either. It is what happens in a room when the people in it are comfortable enough to start bringing you things.

We have been streaming One Piece ever since.