What is Sai?
祭り (Ma-tsu-ri)
In Japanese, this character means Festival. It is an alteration of the word 祭る (Ma-tsu-ru), a festival to honor the ancestors, which derives from the character 祀る (Ma-tsu-ru) which is a festival to honor the many Gods in ancient Japanese folklore and mythologies. During these festivals, various feasts were prepared for the Gods, but were ultimately consumed by the people attending the festivals. The tradition has since been passed down and no festival is complete without an assortment of various food vendors.
When used in conjunction with the name of the specific festival, the character changes its pronounciation to Sai. I chose this name, so that every day, I could remind myself what my vision of this restaurant is; not Matsuri, a general festival, but a Sai,a very specific festival.
Personally, I think the pandemic had a huge impact on my life and my mindset. Reflecting back, going out to eat with my friends and family was of course a very fun and exciting time, but not a really special one. After years of not being able to do that, honestly at first, I was nervous. Like the first day of school. Since then, going out to eat felt a lot more special than before. I have been a chef all my life, and of course I’ve never cut corners, but that special feeling I can’t forget. Since then, every new encounter is much more special to me, the same feeling as an annual festival.
Every day, ever meal, every encounter; a festival. Every 祭り; a Sai 祭.
In the coming weeks, I will be adding more options for people of various food choices, so that I can accommodate many more people that have limitations to various foods. Currently, I am working on creating a menu that accommodates gluten sensitive people, vegetarians / vegans, and pescatorians, and of course not to mention adding many more delicious options. As much as I wanted to do all of this right from the beginning, as many people have pointed out, our menu is very large and has many options, and I did not want to bog down my teammates to the point where we would not be able to provide the level of service that would be necessary for everyone to enjoy their meals. During our opening stages, I thank everyone who offered their valuable time and chose to give us a try, and I continue to ask for your patience and understanding as we work through the kinks of any new small business startup, and for your continued support. Please do not hesitate to let me know about your experience, whether it was positive or negative, so that I can understand more about our new home location, Scripps Ranch.
Recent fixes include at@t phone line issues, internet issues, website information correction, google page information correction, paper take out menus, and yelp addition. Please note that due to our limited seating and other start-up issues and hardships, if dine-in orders are overwhelming, we may not be able to accept phone orders and take out orders. I apologize in advance and thank you very much for your understanding.