Update: Rats in the Tokyo Go-Go Building

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) | June 25th, 2010 @ 10:08am

Following our post about rats at Tokyo Go-Go, we received an email from Tokyo's Sushi Boss, Kevin:

Subject: not cool…
hey. who ever is in charge of this blog please take off whatever that rat thing is about. there has never been an incident of rat problems here inside of tokyo go go. never been any reports. so i dont know what this guy is talking about. if you have any questions please give me a call.

Accepting that maybe we didn't do enough research on this, we pulled out the “pic or it didn't happen” card on Generic. As you can see, it was no lie:

Here’s today’s offering in infestation. Not yesterday’s, mind you, not the day before’s, but today’s. I kind of threw up a bit in my mouth taking this picture.
…
ALSO: KevMo at Uptown Almanac blogged my plight. Apparently he got an email from the owner of Tokyo Go-Go who was, um, irate. So I gave him a call, left a message, then he called me back. What follows is a dramatic recreation of the conversation and is in no way a verbatim transcript:
(ring-ring)
generic: This is generic.
Sushi Boss: Hi, this is Sushi Boss.
generic: Oh. Hi.
Sushi Boss: Look, I’m really sorry this is happening to you, but you’re kind of screwing my business by telling everyone our restaurant is infested.
generic: That’s not what I wrote.
Sushi Boss: You said there are rats in my restaurant.
generic: Re-read the blog post. I said there are rats in the building. Know why I said that?
Sushi Boss: Why?
generic: Cause there are rats in the building. I live in the building; I have rats, ergo… And it’s been a longstanding problem, for several months, before I even moved in.
Sushi Boss: I guess I should talk to the landlord about fixing this.
generic: I guess you should.

Generic goes on to mention he feels bad to the guy at Tokyo. In spite of the fact there clearly are rats in the building, there is no evidence to suggest the restaurant is plagued (although it seems doubtful there wouldn't be rats). I talked with another friend that used to live on 16th and Albion and she says “there are rats all over that part of the Mission. I saw rats on a nightly basis behind my house feasting on the neighboring restaurant's trash. Not the small rats either, these were the big kind.”

This basically sums up what everyone should already know: 16th St. is pretty disgusting and if a little bit of dirt in your food bothers you, you shouldn't eat around there..

Be sure to check out Generic's entire followup. Especially if you want to know how to kill rats.

Comments (8)

Ariel. | June 25th, 2010 @ 11:37am [Permalink]

I kind of thought we all assume that since we live in a city we probably have rats and cockroaches and whatever else crawling around in our walls. That’s just how it is, right? Especially in a neighborhood this dense and with this many restaurants. So we just do what we can to keep it under control. I’ve seen non-human movement at a few different spots around the neighborhood, and it hasn’t stopped me from eating there. Except for once.

Trolling for Anonymous Sex | June 25th, 2010 @ 12:45pm [Permalink]

The rat problem is definitely getting worse. I think some of it has to do with the composting ordinance. There are a lot of sloppy composters out there.

generic | June 25th, 2010 @ 12:52pm [Permalink]

I do believe you’re right about composting being a huge factor.

The idea that you just accept an infestation in either your home or restaurant isn’t a sign of urbanity, it’s a lowered expectation circa 1604 AD.

Ariel. | June 25th, 2010 @ 1:05pm [Permalink]

I don’t think we have to just accept it. To be clearer, I think that the issue is that any restaurant can have rats or roaches, so the important thing is are they keeping it under control? I do a lot to keep roaches from living in my house, but my neighbor doesn’t, so no matter what I do eventually they find their way back in. City life. I think it’s a constant struggle.

MrEricSir | June 25th, 2010 @ 1:41pm [Permalink]