6 ms·

My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore?

33 points by petewailes 6y ago

foolzcrow 6y ago
If America has a civil war I predict that so called journalists will be tortured to death until real journalism returns.
_curious_ 6y ago
Does anyone in the restaurant industry honestly feel as though their establishments are necessary?
- cafard 6y ago
  There is a line somewhere in Lichtenberg's Waste Books running roughly "If only the necessary were done, how many millions would starve to death?" How many of us on HN are in necessary establishments? What portion of the FAANG world is necessary?
  - _curious_ 6y ago
    "How many of us on HN are in necessary establishments? What portion of the FAANG world is necessary? " Great questions...much like restaurants, no-one is, certainly not any tech companies lol.
- t3wggs 6y ago
  People need food to live. Not everyone can cook. Not everyone has a big kitchen or a place they can store food. Good food is important to people's quality of life. It provides comfort. It brings people together. It's a cornerstone of culture. People need "third places". Places to gather, meet with friends, meet new people, discuss things. Revolutionary ideas in art, science, and politics started in coffeehouses. Yeah, I'd say restaurants are necessary. Not all restaurants of course. But I don't want to imagine a world without restaurants. And what's not necessary? 90% of the "uber for x" VC pump and dump schemes that we spend all our time on.
  - _curious_ 6y ago
    Not restaurants as in the entirety, simply any one given establishment. America could certainly carry-on and be fine with a double digit reduction however. "90% of the "uber for x" VC pump and dump schemes that we spend all our time on." Who is we?
    - t3wggs 6y ago
      Sure, one restaurant going away won't change anything (though it would mean a lot to the regular customers, and to the employees). That's true for anything though. We could close one hospital, or shut down one power plant, and life would carry on. Who is we: Welcome to Hacker News! A sizeable portion of the HN audience works in unicorn startups, or startups that aspire to be unicorns. Some turn into mature businesses that provide value to many people. Most fail fast and disappear. A few of them, like WeWork, subsist on VC cash infusions and hype fumes while providing little value, or negative value. I'd be more sad if restaurants disappeared than if these did.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - _curious_ 6y ago
        So to answer the question posed in the article title "Does the World Need It Anymore?" we all know the answer: Nope. Thanks for the welcome!
        t3wggs 6y ago
        You're welcome! I don't think the answer is supposed to be "Nope". I don't think you are supposed to answer the question posed by headline. I think it's one of those articles where thinking through the question is more valuable than the answer. Makes me appreciate what my favorite restaurants have meant to me, and what role they play in life, and how they are changing.
xhkkffbf 6y ago
I'm sure it was wonderful, but the reality is that automation is rapidly changing this business. Check out the restaurant Spyce up in Boston. The orders are taken by iPads and then robots mix the food. There's only one person who takes it from the robot and hands it to you. They give the person a fancy title (garde manger) to make the job seem important, but I'm guessing they could easily replace the human with an extra bit of robotics. The person's real job is to call the police or the owners if something goes wrong.
- t3wggs 6y ago
  Most restaurants aren't completely automated yet. You can order on your phone or at a kiosk, but someone still makes it and someone still hands it to you or puts it on your table. Until technology improves, those jobs are still needed for restaurants to operate. Besides, I don't think the article is concerned with that. She says she could easily do more take out or do online ordering. The point is, that restaurants are more than this. They are a fixture in the community. Now that we can't go to any, many people are realizing how important it is to have that third place to share food and congregate.
- ac29 6y ago
  Automated restaurants are more or less a gimmick right now. They might serve, what, one out of hundred thousand meals? A million? The widely written about, heavily financed semi-automatic pizza company Zume stopped making food before covid-19. The restaurant you linked to is currently closed as well, indicating it isn't any better at providing meals during crises (ironically, many entirely human powered restaurants are still open). Automation is absolutely useful in mass producing things like canned soup, but we are a long, long way off before it can replace the sort of meals that make going out to restaurants memorable occasions.
defterGoose 6y ago
This made my heart pretty heavy. I learned about Prune and Gabrielle from "Mind of a Chef", and her cuisine just seemed absolutely fascinating. It was definitely among the most intriguing of that series. I had planned to make a beeline there the next time I was in New York. Who knows exactly why the restaurant was unable to transition to the takeout model that many are now subsisting on (at least here in LA). Maybe it's just that NYC has been hit particularly hard by the virus and peoples' habits have been too-far eroded there. In any case, I hope she is able to continue at a later time. It's sad to think of all the truly good small restaurants with visionary chefs going under and leaving us with very little other than mega-conglomerates to serve us food outside the home.
mjehanzeb 6y ago
Its not only about restaurants, storefronts were first to hit hard. If lockdown doesnt end soon, a lot of industries will go under who manage to survive so far.

33 points by petewailes 6y ago

If America has a civil war I predict that so called journalists will be tortured to death until real journalism returns.

_curious_ 6y ago

Does anyone in the restaurant industry honestly feel as though their establishments are necessary?

cafard 6y ago
There is a line somewhere in Lichtenberg's Waste Books running roughly "If only the necessary were done, how many millions would starve to death?" How many of us on HN are in necessary establishments? What portion of the FAANG world is necessary?
- _curious_ 6y ago
  "How many of us on HN are in necessary establishments? What portion of the FAANG world is necessary? " Great questions...much like restaurants, no-one is, certainly not any tech companies lol.
t3wggs 6y ago
People need food to live. Not everyone can cook. Not everyone has a big kitchen or a place they can store food. Good food is important to people's quality of life. It provides comfort. It brings people together. It's a cornerstone of culture. People need "third places". Places to gather, meet with friends, meet new people, discuss things. Revolutionary ideas in art, science, and politics started in coffeehouses. Yeah, I'd say restaurants are necessary. Not all restaurants of course. But I don't want to imagine a world without restaurants. And what's not necessary? 90% of the "uber for x" VC pump and dump schemes that we spend all our time on.
- _curious_ 6y ago
  Not restaurants as in the entirety, simply any one given establishment. America could certainly carry-on and be fine with a double digit reduction however. "90% of the "uber for x" VC pump and dump schemes that we spend all our time on." Who is we?
  - t3wggs 6y ago
    Sure, one restaurant going away won't change anything (though it would mean a lot to the regular customers, and to the employees). That's true for anything though. We could close one hospital, or shut down one power plant, and life would carry on. Who is we: Welcome to Hacker News! A sizeable portion of the HN audience works in unicorn startups, or startups that aspire to be unicorns. Some turn into mature businesses that provide value to many people. Most fail fast and disappear. A few of them, like WeWork, subsist on VC cash infusions and hype fumes while providing little value, or negative value. I'd be more sad if restaurants disappeared than if these did.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - _curious_ 6y ago
      So to answer the question posed in the article title "Does the World Need It Anymore?" we all know the answer: Nope. Thanks for the welcome!
      - t3wggs 6y ago
        You're welcome! I don't think the answer is supposed to be "Nope". I don't think you are supposed to answer the question posed by headline. I think it's one of those articles where thinking through the question is more valuable than the answer. Makes me appreciate what my favorite restaurants have meant to me, and what role they play in life, and how they are changing.

xhkkffbf 6y ago

I'm sure it was wonderful, but the reality is that automation is rapidly changing this business. Check out the restaurant Spyce up in Boston. The orders are taken by iPads and then robots mix the food. There's only one person who takes it from the robot and hands it to you. They give the person a fancy title (garde manger) to make the job seem important, but I'm guessing they could easily replace the human with an extra bit of robotics. The person's real job is to call the police or the owners if something goes wrong.

t3wggs 6y ago
Most restaurants aren't completely automated yet. You can order on your phone or at a kiosk, but someone still makes it and someone still hands it to you or puts it on your table. Until technology improves, those jobs are still needed for restaurants to operate. Besides, I don't think the article is concerned with that. She says she could easily do more take out or do online ordering. The point is, that restaurants are more than this. They are a fixture in the community. Now that we can't go to any, many people are realizing how important it is to have that third place to share food and congregate.
ac29 6y ago
Automated restaurants are more or less a gimmick right now. They might serve, what, one out of hundred thousand meals? A million? The widely written about, heavily financed semi-automatic pizza company Zume stopped making food before covid-19. The restaurant you linked to is currently closed as well, indicating it isn't any better at providing meals during crises (ironically, many entirely human powered restaurants are still open). Automation is absolutely useful in mass producing things like canned soup, but we are a long, long way off before it can replace the sort of meals that make going out to restaurants memorable occasions.

defterGoose 6y ago

This made my heart pretty heavy. I learned about Prune and Gabrielle from "Mind of a Chef", and her cuisine just seemed absolutely fascinating. It was definitely among the most intriguing of that series. I had planned to make a beeline there the next time I was in New York. Who knows exactly why the restaurant was unable to transition to the takeout model that many are now subsisting on (at least here in LA). Maybe it's just that NYC has been hit particularly hard by the virus and peoples' habits have been too-far eroded there. In any case, I hope she is able to continue at a later time. It's sad to think of all the truly good small restaurants with visionary chefs going under and leaving us with very little other than mega-conglomerates to serve us food outside the home.

mjehanzeb 6y ago

Its not only about restaurants, storefronts were first to hit hard. If lockdown doesnt end soon, a lot of industries will go under who manage to survive so far.