<Begin Segment 25>

JS: What was the ethnic mix of your customers that came to the Mandarin?

MN: A lot of Hispanic, some blacks; the minister used to come, the Baptist minister used to come, and has to bring all his coins. [Laughs] But he was one of our regular, uh-huh.

JS: Okay. How about Japanese from the community?

MN: Yes, uh-huh, the Japanese community. Oh, we had a lot of, they're called otoki. After the funeral service or after memorial service, or even the kenjinkai where they had these, these clubs, we have a prefecture, Kumamoto Prefecture, Hiroshima Prefecture, and then they would have a reunion, and then they would come and have a lunch -- or dinner, I mean dinner.

JS: Why did they, besides good food, why did they choose your restaurant?

MN: Probably as so close to the Buddhist Church, and they could walk down.

JS: And did you have the facilities to, to --

MN: Yes, we have a, we had a banquet room in the back.

JS: How big was the banquet room?

MN: It held 120 people.

JS: Oh, very large then.

MN: Yes, uh-huh.

JS: Did you have any other type of restaurant -- excuse me -- related to the restaurant that you did to, as part of your restaurant operation?

MN: No, nothing.

JS: Like no catering? Did you have catering?

MN: Well, we used to cater to the Buddhist Church for a wedding, and that's about all that we did.

JS: Okay. Now --

MN: Oh, yeah. We had a, a long time ago, before, before the church was built, there was a big huge building called Okida Hall. And then that's where the, where the taiko people are right now, and then we used to have big, huge weddings there: 250, 300 people wedding banquets there.

JS: Okay. How much of that was part of your business?

MN: That, just maybe once or twice a year.

JS: Okay, but it was, it was profitable, I imagine.

MN: Yes, uh-huh.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.