hamburgers

Teruhisa OikawaBy Joseph Greenberg
Tokyo’s oldest hamburger restaurant is set to capitalize on the gourmet hamburger trend.

The real story of Japan’s first hamburger restaurant is in many ways the story of postwar Japan. It was set up by an American named Johnny Wetzstein in 1950 and throughout the ’50s it was frequented primarily by US soldiers and diplomats who went there to puff on Lucky Strikes and listen to rock‘n’roll. The old menu, under the title ‘No.1 Tokyo Hamburger’ offered a taste of home for the almost 100% foreign crowd, although without access to buns, the meat was cut square so as to fit the sliced bread.