Starnet Co., Ltd.

Starnet was founded in Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture in 1998. Starnet has been operating unchanged for 27 years in the same place, running a cafe serving dishes made with locally sourced ingredients, a store selling long-lasting clothing for everyday use and tableware by local ceramic artists, and a gallery that hosts photo exhibitions and concerts, while cherishing the idea of living comfortably within reach, surrounded by the blessings and natural scenery.

With the renewal of the cafe section, we have been asked to cooperate with the Food Hub Project, and Monosus' eatrip team will be joining us as advisors.

Originally, the menu was extensive, with rice as the staple food, original coffee and soy milk, a drink menu using several types of tea leaves, and a menu of homemade cakes that were conscious of your health.

On the other hand, as there were no cooking staff with chef backgrounds on-site, they were so busy with daily preparations and other routine tasks that it was difficult to find time to improve the current menu or work on developing new ones. As a result, the menu remained almost fixed throughout the year, making it difficult to attract repeat customers or new customers.

So we thought, "What kind of menu would make people want to come all the way from far away to try it?", "What kind of menu would attract people to come each season?", and "What kind of menu would strengthen our ties with local producers?", and we decided to work on developing a new menu while cherishing the relationships Starnet already has with producers.

The original cafe menu was very extensive, with rice-based meals, original coffee and soy milk, drinks using several types of tea leaves, and a healthy, handmade cake menu, making it something to enjoy on a variety of occasions.

On the other hand, as there were no cooking staff with chef backgrounds on-site, they were so busy with daily preparations and other routine tasks that it was difficult to find time to improve the current menu or work on developing new ones. As a result, the menu remained almost fixed throughout the year, making it difficult to attract repeat customers or new customers.

In addition, there were voices from the field saying, "Because there are so many menu items, it is difficult to control and understand costs, and the burden of preparation is great," and "For lunch, we would like to consider a menu that can be easily incorporated into operations even though we do not have a chef staff, and that takes into consideration the efficiency of food provision and service." In response to requests such as, "We would like to narrow down the dessert and drink menu to items that are more 'Starnet-like,'" and "We would like to reorganize and rebrand the field," it was decided to fundamentally review the menu.

First, we investigated the sales performance of the current menu, interviewed the staff about the ingredients used and their relationships with producers, and what they thought about the current menu, in order to understand the situation on the ground.

Since its opening, Starnet has valued connections with local producers whom it knows personally, and the Monosus eatrip team also visited nearby producers to talk to them and learn about the backgrounds of the producers. They also visited roadside stations and supermarkets in Mashiko to conduct research on all aspects of food, including grains, vegetables, and processed foods, and realized that Mashiko has an abundance of ingredients compared to other regions. The development team all shared a common desire to develop a menu that would make full use of the potential of this land.

With the menu renewal, there were many discussions about how much of the previous cafe menu to stick to. Mashiko is home to many rice farmers, and Star Net has continued to offer rice dishes since its opening, so the cafe staff have a strong attachment to rice, and rice is one of Star Net's essential ingredients.

However, there are many cafes in the Mashiko area that incorporate rice into their menus, and it was difficult to differentiate from other stores. Also, when we thought about the meaning of reinterpreting Starnet's cafe, as the word "renewal" suggests, we came to the conclusion that there was no need to be bound by rice at all. So, rather than thinking "rice first," we had a fundamental discussion about "what kind of menu would encompass the land of Mashiko," based on eatrip's Nomura Yuri's keyword, "The land of Mashiko in one dish."

After much discussion, the menu of "crepes and galettes" was proposed. In fact, there are many farmers around Mashiko who grow wheat and buckwheat organically, and these ingredients are suited to the land. Also, there were no shops in the area that served crepes and galettes with this concept, so we decided to go with the crepe and galette idea.

At the time, the number of crepe shops was increasing in the Tokyo area, and when people heard the term "crepe galette," they tended to think of a trendy Tokyo cafe. However, the crepe galette that Starnet wanted to offer was by no means "trendy." Rather, we thought it would be a product that could only be found in Mashiko, where an abundance of ingredients is available, as a menu item that takes advantage of the bounty of the Mashiko land and allows customers to eat seasonal ingredients in their entirety.

As they narrowed down their ideas to crepes and galettes and researched ingredients, one particular challenge was deciding which ingredients to purchase and from whom. They needed to carefully explain how much the ingredients they would purchase and the quantities they would need to purchase would change, while still valuing their existing relationships with producers. Based on a recipe developed by Hosoi of the Food Hub Project, they repeatedly tested it with the cafe staff and held careful discussions.

They also researched local ingredients that Star Net had not previously handled. The buckwheat flour used in the galettes is pesticide-free buckwheat flour grown by a buckwheat farmer located about 10 minutes by car from Star Net. They came across this farm by chance while gathering information on Mashiko ingredients, and have now decided to do business with them.

Furthermore, based on the idea of "giving Starnet's unique characteristics to the crepe and galette dough," they proposed a plan to order "sourdough," a self-cultured fermented starter made from Kamiyama wheat, from the Kamapan Store run by the Food Hub Project, and continue the tradition using wheat from farmers around Mashiko. As a result, by incorporating the sourdough's unique acidity and flavor into the dough, the dough's flavor became distinctive, and they succeeded in creating a crepe and galette dough that is unique to Monosus and Starnet.

We've also reviewed our drink and dessert menus and how they're presented. We've added cider from Tochigi to our drinks menu, and our serving method was inspired by the custom of enjoying cider in a galette and ceramic bowl in Brittany, the home of galettes. We asked an artist from Mashiko, with whom Starnet has a relationship, to create a cider bowl, and incorporated this idea into our menu of enjoying galettes and cider. We've also developed kombucha, a fermented beverage, to accommodate non-alcoholic options. We received some scoby from the affiliated team, the Blind Donkey, and are using Starnet's original tea leaves to grow it.

Once the menu direction was solidified, we visited the cafe to verify the cafe's kitchen traffic flow during the Pottery Fair held in the fall of 2024, where we confirmed the actual usability and operational status on-site and identified areas for improvement. We took the points we brought back and held an online meeting with Starnet staff to identify the necessary equipment and demonstrate the traffic flow for the new menu, and decided on the current kitchen layout with as little additional equipment as possible.

Just before the reopening, operational training for cooking and service was conducted, and numerous demonstrations were carried out to simulate actual business operations. After a planning phase of about six months, the restaurant will reopen in February 2025.

Currently, Hosoi is the one in charge of developing seasonal recipes, and they are in daily contact with each other to support the operation.

In this project, we not only proposed menus, but also went to the actual site to give lectures on cooking methods, adjust the flavors, and verify the menu composition, all the way to creating the site.

By working hard together on-site, the staff were able to share their sense of what was "delicious!" and what was "Starnet-like!", and were able to discuss any problems that arose immediately. This gave the staff more opportunities to think for themselves, and they commented that the overall atmosphere among the staff had improved.

I also heard that changing the menu with the seasons has increased communication with producers and strengthened the connections with them more than ever before, so I think the renewal makes good use of Starnet's strengths.

The Monosas team hopes to continue supporting the restaurant so that it can continue to fulfill its menu's fundamental concept of "using ingredients from Mashiko's rich natural environment and incorporating the thoughts and passion of the chefs to create dishes that are born from the irreplaceable bond between nature and people."