## Hello Shochiro. Firstly, tell us a little about your background.

My parents' home was a delicatessen restaurant, so my younger brother and I naturally aspired to a career in cooking. After 5 years of training in Tuscany, Italy, and working at an Italian restaurant in Tokyo, I opened my first independent casual Italian restaurant LIFE at Yoyogi Koen Station in 2003.

My younger brother and I , who i lived with during my training in Italy, are like best friends. The new store, which opened last Autumn, is run by Yoshifumi, my younger brother, and his trusted staff member, Mr. Midorikawa.

## Did you have a clear vision for opening LIFE Sea Southern, your fifth store?

When opening a new place, the concept comes from our community; customers and team members alike. I have a strong desire to create a working environment in which the staff are in charge of the store can thrive, depending on what they are good at. For example, the store manager, Mr. Midorikawa, is good at making sweets, so we also focus on selling desserts and sweets.
The most notable feature is the abundance of natural wine. I wanted to create a restaurant where you can comfortably drink natural wine starting at noon.

## LIFE Sea Southern has been open for 5 months now, how is it going?

Due to the location of Kamakura, it is quite difficult to get the local people to accept it smoothly. Handing out flyers, setting up tables in front of the store for in-store sales, holding cooking classes... In this way, we create opportunities to interact with local people and shorten the distance, thereby encouraging more people to visit the store little by little. Now you can get it and really become part of the community.
Looking back, we did something similar when we opened our first store in Yoyogi Park. Now that we're here, I feel like I'm going to start over again from scratch in this place.

## What are your future plans?

The truth is, it takes a while to get comfortable with one thing. For example, after opening a new store, it may take about 10 years for it to feel right. So now, the first step is to establish this new store.
Over the past 20 years, the number of people I've worked with has increased, so I feel like I have to work harder. The number of people I have to protect has increased, so I'm going to try new things. As a result, I had many new encounters with various people. I really like people, so that's my driving force.

## What does the Lavenham brand mean to you?

When I was training in Italy, I remember that the local people also wore Lavenham. I had a strong image of it as being casual, worn relaxing around the house or thrown on while working in the garden, but on the other hand, it also goes well with structured styles such as suits. I have the impression that this is a brand that can be worn in a wide variety of ways.

## In addition to your favourite classic gilets, are there any other items you are interested in?

At first, I was wondering what a gilet without padding would look like, but the dry texture of the polyester material was different from the usual quilting, and it had a nice feel to it. It looks sophisticated and has the impression of being a bit like sportswear. When I tried it on, I realised that it is warmer than it looks because it is made of polyester and does not allow wind to pass through.

Shoichiro Aiba

After training in Italy, he worked as a manager and chef at an Italian restaurant in Tokyo. In 2003, he became independent and opened the casual Italian restaurant LIFE near Yoyogi Koen Station. Currently, he is the owner-chef of five restaurants across the country, and in his private life he lives between Tokyo and Nasu. His books include 30 Days of Pasta and 30 Days of Italian, as well as his latest work, A Restaurant Called Life (to be released in November 2023).