How the Egg-Themed Gudetama Cafe Copes With the Egg Scarcity

This egg scarcity has been tough for me as somebody who places a fried egg on each meal and bakes loads. A meal of eggs, rice, and soy sauce carried me by way of instances once I couldn’t afford a lot else, however now that I’ve seen costs in Los Angeles skyrocket to $14 for a dozen, they really feel much less like a part of the battle meal and extra like a luxurious.

Which made me surprise: How is an egg-themed cafe managing by way of all this turmoil? The Gudetama Cafe, in Buena Park, California, is modeled after Sanrio’s lazy egg character (Sanrio can be the creator of Hey Kitty and different Japanese mascots that embrace each animals and meals). Portraits of Gudetama adorn the restaurant’s home windows and he’s featured on all of the merchandise. Naturally, the menu is targeted on eggs (which, given the cafe’s mascot, feels a bit cannibalistic). So I assumed that the egg shortages have to be affecting the enterprise’s backside line.

Kat Thompson

I pulled as much as the Gudetama Cafe on a sunny Friday morning at 10:50 a.m., 10 minutes earlier than it was scheduled to open. There have been stanchions out entrance, which suggests the strains could be lengthy and unwieldy (the Los Angeles Occasions reported that on opening day final Might, individuals waited upwards of 12 hours and a few had been turned away). However once I arrived, there was nobody. There was additionally a paper signal taped to the door, which made me panic: did the egg scarcity imply that I’d simply wasted an hour driving to Orange County? No: “On account of operational points, we’ll open at 11:30,” the signal learn. “Sorry for the inconvenience :(”

The cafe is a part of an out of doors mall, so I wandered round. Whereas I waited, I watched three completely different teams of individuals come to the Gudetama Cafe and drift away after studying the signal. At 11:23 I queued as much as be the primary in line. At 11:25, an worker opened the door.As the primary in line, I obtained to slip open the cafe’s egg-themed “open” signal.

The within of the cafe is, admittedly, fairly magical in the event you love eggs or cute Japanese mascots. The whole lot is yellow and Gudetama is all over the place: his face is on each desk and on large slices of bacon and toast suspended from the ceiling, and a human-sized determine of him stands in entrance of a step-and-repeat.

Kat Thompson

Sandwiches on the Gudetama Cafe vary from $13.50 to $18. Every one has some type of egg on it, whether or not it’s hen eggs or quail eggs. I ordered a katsu egg and cheese sandwich in addition to a bacon egg and cheese, each of which value $16 and include tater tots. Each additionally arrive on a brioche bun with a sunny-side up fried egg (which additionally options Gudetama’s face on the yolk), American cheese, and chile sauce.

I requested the worker taking my order in the event that they needed to shut down in any respect or elevate costs as a result of egg shortages. The worker appeared confused. “We haven’t had any points,” she stated as she handed me my receipt. This shocked me; only a week prior, at a brunch spot in LA, I used to be hit with an egg surcharge as a consequence of greater egg costs. I attempted to observe up with messages to the cafe’s spokespeople, however didn’t get a response.

As a result of the Gudetama Cafe is so kitschy and lovely, I totally anticipated the meals to be common at finest. I used to be not holding out for a gourmand expertise right here, however what I obtained was, surprisingly, greater than sufficient. The brioche bun, stamped with a picture of Gudetama, was heat and plush and buttery. The eggs had been runny and the yolks vibrant and creamy. The hen katsu wasn’t one of the best I’ve ever had, nevertheless it wasn’t dry both, whereas the BEC was topped generously with three thick slices of bacon. In fact, these had been two actually nice breakfast sandwiches whose costs really feel on par with these of different cafes in Los Angeles.

I additionally bought the cafe’s collaboration cream puff with Beard Papa’s; it was dipped in white chocolate and topped with a dollop of orange-hued peach jam to resemble an egg. The cream puff had a conventional vanilla bean filling and one other sheet of Gudetama’s face on the “yolk” of the puff. You may say what you need concerning the Gudetama Cafe, however they don’t skip any alternative for branding. The cream puff was nice, however the stars had been actually the sandwiches.

Kat Thompson

By the point I completed my meal, round 11:50, the cafe was about half full. There have been a number of households with youngsters working round, taking photographs with each Gudetama statue obtainable, in addition to teams of mates photographing their meals. It wasn’t crowded, however I think about the weekends throughout peak lunch time is perhaps busier.

General, the Gudetama Cafe exceeded my expectations in additional methods than one. The eggs, each edible and ornamental, had been plentiful. There wasn’t a single hiccup with service and the meals, regardless of the fixation with its aesthetics, genuinely tasted good. Even throughout an egg scarcity, Gudetama delivered. Worries about costs and hen flu had been for the surface world. Inside, enterprise was all sunny facet up.