Ryan has fond memories of Shakey’s Pizza. I sort of recall a Shakeys in either New Ulm or Mankato, but definitely not St.James. Sunday evening friends and us found ourselves in Harajuku needing to feed our preschoolers after a bomb of a Halloween party that supplied only pretzels. Ryan quickly chimed in “hey, isn’t there a Shakeys near?”. The first time we drove by the restaurant we were surprised and wondered if it was the real deal. Happily, we enjoyed the pizza! Except for the anchovy that came on the pizza titled “Herb and Tomato”. Mysteriously, the anchovy part wasn’t printed in romanji, only katakana. Our friend joked under his breath, “just another example of f***ing with the gaijin”. (Gaijin is “outsider”.) Fish on pizza is the one ingredient I imagine most English speakers would like to know about, much more than say "tomato" or "herb". You can’t help but wonder! Anyways, our visit prompted me to check into the history of Shakeys. It started in the 50’s in California and the expansion in the United States remained mostly west of the Mississippi. In the mid 70’s restaurants opened in Japan and the Philippines. Now, Shakeys is bigger in the Philippines than the United States. There are about 400 stores globally, and only 60 are in the US. At it’s peak there were 300+ in the US. As far as I can tell, there are no Shakeys left in Minnesota. So, we’ll enjoy a bit of nostalgia from childhood while we’re living on the other side of the world!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Shakey's Pizza
Ryan has fond memories of Shakey’s Pizza. I sort of recall a Shakeys in either New Ulm or Mankato, but definitely not St.James. Sunday evening friends and us found ourselves in Harajuku needing to feed our preschoolers after a bomb of a Halloween party that supplied only pretzels. Ryan quickly chimed in “hey, isn’t there a Shakeys near?”. The first time we drove by the restaurant we were surprised and wondered if it was the real deal. Happily, we enjoyed the pizza! Except for the anchovy that came on the pizza titled “Herb and Tomato”. Mysteriously, the anchovy part wasn’t printed in romanji, only katakana. Our friend joked under his breath, “just another example of f***ing with the gaijin”. (Gaijin is “outsider”.) Fish on pizza is the one ingredient I imagine most English speakers would like to know about, much more than say "tomato" or "herb". You can’t help but wonder! Anyways, our visit prompted me to check into the history of Shakeys. It started in the 50’s in California and the expansion in the United States remained mostly west of the Mississippi. In the mid 70’s restaurants opened in Japan and the Philippines. Now, Shakeys is bigger in the Philippines than the United States. There are about 400 stores globally, and only 60 are in the US. At it’s peak there were 300+ in the US. As far as I can tell, there are no Shakeys left in Minnesota. So, we’ll enjoy a bit of nostalgia from childhood while we’re living on the other side of the world!
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2 comments:
Bob and I remember Shakey's pizza in Mankato. He said the rumor was that they closed in MN because they used horse meat on the pizza!
I recall, from my youth, that they were using horse meat in their sausage. Doesn't matter to me, I'll eat anything.
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