Our starting point was a restaurant that opened in 1947, inviting a chef from Yusen, a luxury cruise liner, at the peak of sailing days. When others were serving 10Yen coffee, we served 1,000Yen course meals.
Because "menus over 75Yen" was banned by City regulation, we were obligated to transform into a Tea Parlor only after half a year of opening. This left us with only a tea parlor and our confectionery department.
"Meikyoku no yuu"(Evening with Classical Music) that we started in 1948 was not just playing of classical records in the parlor. It was a musical program with interpretation, a very innovative undertaking at that time.WEST became to be known as a place where "cultured people"got together, not just a parlor that served expensive coffee.
Then, the sale of cakes at the Ginza store decreased sharply due to the construction of the Nishi Ginza underground parking lot
that started in 1962. Thinking that we must do something, we came up with the business of vending packaged cookies to exclusive Japanese restaurants. Making cookie bigger and adding nuts for flavoring are what we have today as one of our main products, "Dry Cakes".
