- Venue
- Belief
In Taipei, you will find a lot of Japanese restaurants. However, if you think that Japanese cuisine includes just sushi, sashimi, and don, you should come to LiShui St. to find the Okinawa cuisines-Sefa58.
Okinawa and only Okinawa
It’s interesting that the owner, Rei is a native Kyoto person but he has strong emotion to Okinawa. Stepping into Sefa58, you will think that you were in a Okinawa bistro: a lot of Okinawa maps on the wall, different kinds of awamori at the bar, and a lot of Okinawa style decoration. You will find that in Sefa58, there is a lot of Okinawa stuffs and only Okinawa stuffs, which shows Rei’s love to Okinawa. In the interview, Rei explains many interesting things about Okinawa. He said, “I love Okinawa people and sea.” You can tell how crazy his love to Okinawa is from Rei’s bright and piercing eyes.
Story behind the name
You may be curious about the bistro’s name when you see the shining blue brand: why Sefa58? Actually, 58 comes from the main route in Okinawa: national highway 58. And Sefa is a store in Okinawa which Rei has been to mostly. So, you can tell how fascinated Rei is to Okinawa!
Born by chance
All of us are interested in Rei’s reason of opening bistro in Taiwan. Rei told us about his story in Chinese with Japanese accent. Rei came to Taiwan for work. One day, stopping by Sefa58’s original location, Rei saw the house for sale. He decided to buy it and start Sefa58’s business. Rei said “I am very lucky to have Sefa58!” We asked Rei why he decided to open Sefa58 in Yongkang Business district. He said, “The atmosphere here is more casual, not as crowded as other places.” So Rei focuses on Yongkang Business district’s casual tempo, and thus open the business here and perform his music with his band Spoon de Chop in Yongkang Park. He even sang and played his shamisen in his interview!
Bliss Yongkang, bliss 58
We think that Sefa58 brings to people not only bliss, but also great Okinawa dishes. He is especially proud of the dish of ampalaya with salted egg! In addition, Rei hopes to keep Yongkang Business district casual as usual since that is an important factor to bring bliss.
You are happy, and everyone is happy
In terms of Rei’s belief of managing Sefa58, he said seriously, “no matter band, running, or Sefa58, I believe I should be happy and then I will have opportunity to bring happy to others.” When you are enjoying what you love, you then can spread out the bliss to other people. Maybe just because of Rei’s energy and insistence, Sefa58 will be more “Okinawa” than those bistros in Okinawa.