Conveyor belt restaurants were invented by Yoshiaki Shiraishi, a Japanese sushi chef, in 1958. They were treated as a local novelty until 1970, when a restaurant at the Osaka World Expo gave thousands of visitors the opportunity to try the odd delivery system. In a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, the chef creates fresh food and puts it in small plates onto the belt. The belt carries the food around the restaurant, where anyone interested may take the item as it travels past. Patrons pay based on the dishes they have taken.
The primary food style used with belt delivery is sushi, but it occasionally has been used for non-sushi and sometimes even non-Japanese edibles.
The latest addition to conveyor belt restaurants is unique throughout the world. It’s Pick & Cheese, a cheese and wine bar in London. The eatery is the only conveyor-belt cheese restaurant, anywhere.
The concept is very simple, and very British: at least two dozen different varieties of cheese, all sourced from the UK, are presented throughout the day. Each cheese is paired with another food which complements it, whether fruit, crackers or something else entirely.
For those who wish to bypass the oddity of the belt, the restaurant does serve some other cheese-based foods such as specialty grilled cheese sandwiches. They match the cheeses with selected wines, all of which are also available for purchase at their more traditional cheese restaurant, The Cheese Bar.
Congratulations to the owners for providing a setting where the phrase “more traditional cheese restaurant” becomes valid.
Question of the night: Crackers, apples, ham, grapes, bread, chocolate, salami, other… what’s your favorite food to be paired with cheese?
