Sunday, October 27, 2013

T(O)K(Y)O restaurant Beirut.


Only the Y was missing from the Tokyo restaurant in the photo above - dated Nov. 2010 - and the one below taken on Oct. 25th 2013 already the first O has gone to the neon graveyard in the sky. Such as the sign now read TKO. Maybe soon the T will fall off and the whole memory will KO.

4 comments:

Patrick Chemali said...

TKO is a boxing term meaning Technical Knock Out. Which is basically what you delivered them now

Tarek Chemaly said...

Yes, hence the last sentence of the post and the KO in the end. Feels sad though.

Anonymous said...

I've always tried to tell my friends in Beirut that they should buy the TOKYO sign and keep it.

TOKYO was the first and the best Sushi restaurant in Beirut. Walid Jumblatt's favorite restaurant at the time and a weekly customer.

Unfortunately, Mama San was getting old and apparently also got into debt. Too bad her son wasn't able to maintain it.

Who remembers Mohamed, the young waiter in the Karate outfit and the only server at the place ?

Tarek Chemaly said...

All of this was before my time but also I was one of the "isolationists" (meaning one of those living in East Beirut at the time). I thank you for sharing these tidbits about our collective memory. If you wish to contact me direct for such stories I am on tarekchemaly@gmail.com .