It has been three months since the soup curry and sweets shop "Tawagoto" opened in Shinmachi, Aomori City.

The restaurant, which mainly serves soup curry made with five to six kinds of vegetables and sweets, was opened by Kouki Nakajima, who runs the bar "BAR" in Passage Square, in April last year in the former location of the wine bar "Hanauta," which moved from a back alley in the square to Shinmachi Street.

Nakajima is from Hakodate and got a job as a nurse in Aomori. After about six years of work, she started working at a bar as a side job and started doing things with people she met at the bar. She even had the experience of homestaying with an Australian couple she met at the bar.

He opened "BAR" in December 2018. In October 2020, he took over management rights and started a bakery called "LA PANADERIA aomori" (Shinmachi 1). Nakajima-san recalls, "I've met good people at bars and they've inspired me to start new businesses. I met the landlord at a bar and that's how I started "Tawagoto."

The shop area is about 12 tsubo (40.2 m2). There are 12 seats. Nakajima repainted the interior of the shop every night after the bar closed, repainting the walls from white to black. The building is 80 years old and is in a city planning area, so it will be demolished in September 2025. "For now, we will continue to operate until then. We can operate without any worries," says Nakajima.

The menu consists of only soup curry (1,280 yen) and a set of sweets and a drink (1,980 yen). The soup curry is based on the idea and recipe of a soup curry restaurant in Hakodate. They focused on making it easy to eat so that people of all ages and genders can come.

The topping menu includes boiled eggs (120 yen), braised pork (150 yen), and crab cream croquette (250 yen). They also offer a variety of sweets (480 yen) and assorted sweets (1,280 yen), coffee (500 yen), soft drinks (from 400 yen), and alcoholic beverages such as beer (800 yen).

Three months after opening, Nakajima-san reflected, "The reason I decided to open this place was because I felt there were not many places in the evening where you don't need to drink alcohol. The name of the place came from the fact that people around me said it was nonsense when I asked them about opening a place." He added, "You can just come for sweets or a cup of coffee, so I hope people will feel free to drop by."

Business hours are from 11:00 to 23:00.