4 ms·

My great-grandfather was in the restaurant business back east, but my grandfather saw how unprofitable it was and became a mechanic rather than continue the fam

My great-grandfather was in the restaurant business back east, but my grandfather saw how unprofitable it was and became a mechanic rather than continue the family business. (He got fired once as a short-order chef in the 50's from a Howard Johnsons for cooking too well.) Restaurants must relocate to cheaper areas like warehouses and shift to a delivery-first distribution model, which Uber, Lyft, and Google Express could help dispatch. It sucks from a customer-interaction perspective, but it's necessary. Other businesses like Pret in London were already using a hybrid centralized preparation with small, hyperlocal retail sales model. If you want to make money, you can't think and do what everyone else is doing in all respects.

1996 6y ago
> He got fired once as a short-order chef in the 50's from a Howard Johnsons for cooking too well. Under which logic? The Baron Von Muchausen argument of demoralization?
- kayfox 6y ago
  Consistency is a big deal in restaurants because mismatched expectations drives bad experiences.
  - Melting_Harps 6y ago
    > Consistency is a big deal in restaurants because mismatched expectations drives bad experiences. It could also be that the expo/chefs valued speed over anything else, I've never been or eaten at a Howards Johnoson's, but I can easily see it being an issue if you're trying to make an effort while being behind on a ton of tickets and management prioritizes volume over quality and it they're seen as the bottle neck. I admit speed is not my strong point, but my presentation and knife skills are strong so I make up for it that way and I'm organized and clean--its what got me to work under a 3 star Michelin chef (total nightmare, he finally got fired a months after I left) despite focusing mainly on Farm to table concepts for most of my career. But I've been judged negatively in other kitchens for playing to my strengths and believing/saying that speed comes with time--in the last place I proved that is the case and trained 4 people due to that philosophy/results. But patience isn't exactly easily found in kitchens or tolerated amongst a bunch of fast talking, high-strung adrenaline/stress junkies which is what most chefs are, myself included.
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  I didn’t understand that note about firing either. Care to explain your reference? I’m not familiar with it.
Gollapalli 6y ago
>Restaurants must relocate to cheaper areas like warehouses and shift to a delivery-first distribution model, which Uber, Lyft, and Google Express could help dispatch. It sucks from a customer-interaction perspective, but it's necessary. Other businesses like Pret in London were already using a hybrid centralized preparation with small, hyperlocal retail sales model. Yes. Let's just kill all community space. Great idea. I too enjoy being a pod person.
- pdonis 6y ago
  > Let's just kill all community space. It might be helpful to differentiate "community space" from "restaurant". Or perhaps to differentiate "restaurant that is primarily selling convenience", which is the kind the article seems to be describing, from "restaurant that is primarily selling a dining experience in a community space". I would expect margins on the latter type of restaurant to be significantly higher.
  - chii 6y ago
    all restaurants want to be a 'dining experience'. But only restaurants that can be this are famous ones which have a lot of celebrity pull. So the remaining ones that don't have such pull will need to adapt, or die. It's not that all restaurants will die - just the ones who aren't celebrity/famous and can sell an experience.
    - pdonis 6y ago
      > all restaurants want to be a 'dining experience'. Wanting to be a dining experience, and having "be a dining experience" be your primary business model, are two different things. I'm sure the author of the article would like his restaurant to be a "dining experience", but that's not his primary business model. His primary business model is selling convenience. His customers buy his food because it's more convenient than preparing it themselves, not because they need to have the "experience" of dining in his restaurant. His restaurant could just as easily be a truck parked at the curb--as many sellers of food actually do in large cities--and his customers probably wouldn't care as long as the food was the same and was available as quickly. Sure, if you ask the customers, they'll say they prefer the restaurant space to a truck at the curb, but unless they're willing to pay more for the former than they would for the latter, there's no business value in the former. And the fact that customers aren't willing to pay enough to support a restaurant space, but what they're willing to pay probably would be enough to support a truck at the curb, is precisely why the author is struggling to find ways to cut costs--because he mistakenly thinks the space itself is part of his business model, when it actually isn't. He'd like it to be, but it isn't, because his customers aren't willing to pay extra to support it.
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
Wait, so now the plan is (a) reduce rent overhead (b) pay someone to deliver all the food? You're betting that the increase in costs implied by (b) exceeds the possible drop caused by (a) ? Good luck!

1996 6y ago

> He got fired once as a short-order chef in the 50's from a Howard Johnsons for cooking too well. Under which logic? The Baron Von Muchausen argument of demoralization?

kayfox 6y ago
Consistency is a big deal in restaurants because mismatched expectations drives bad experiences.
- Melting_Harps 6y ago
  > Consistency is a big deal in restaurants because mismatched expectations drives bad experiences. It could also be that the expo/chefs valued speed over anything else, I've never been or eaten at a Howards Johnoson's, but I can easily see it being an issue if you're trying to make an effort while being behind on a ton of tickets and management prioritizes volume over quality and it they're seen as the bottle neck. I admit speed is not my strong point, but my presentation and knife skills are strong so I make up for it that way and I'm organized and clean--its what got me to work under a 3 star Michelin chef (total nightmare, he finally got fired a months after I left) despite focusing mainly on Farm to table concepts for most of my career. But I've been judged negatively in other kitchens for playing to my strengths and believing/saying that speed comes with time--in the last place I proved that is the case and trained 4 people due to that philosophy/results. But patience isn't exactly easily found in kitchens or tolerated amongst a bunch of fast talking, high-strung adrenaline/stress junkies which is what most chefs are, myself included.
throwawaysea 6y ago
I didn’t understand that note about firing either. Care to explain your reference? I’m not familiar with it.

Gollapalli 6y ago

>Restaurants must relocate to cheaper areas like warehouses and shift to a delivery-first distribution model, which Uber, Lyft, and Google Express could help dispatch. It sucks from a customer-interaction perspective, but it's necessary. Other businesses like Pret in London were already using a hybrid centralized preparation with small, hyperlocal retail sales model. Yes. Let's just kill all community space. Great idea. I too enjoy being a pod person.

pdonis 6y ago
> Let's just kill all community space. It might be helpful to differentiate "community space" from "restaurant". Or perhaps to differentiate "restaurant that is primarily selling convenience", which is the kind the article seems to be describing, from "restaurant that is primarily selling a dining experience in a community space". I would expect margins on the latter type of restaurant to be significantly higher.
- chii 6y ago
  all restaurants want to be a 'dining experience'. But only restaurants that can be this are famous ones which have a lot of celebrity pull. So the remaining ones that don't have such pull will need to adapt, or die. It's not that all restaurants will die - just the ones who aren't celebrity/famous and can sell an experience.
  - pdonis 6y ago
    > all restaurants want to be a 'dining experience'. Wanting to be a dining experience, and having "be a dining experience" be your primary business model, are two different things. I'm sure the author of the article would like his restaurant to be a "dining experience", but that's not his primary business model. His primary business model is selling convenience. His customers buy his food because it's more convenient than preparing it themselves, not because they need to have the "experience" of dining in his restaurant. His restaurant could just as easily be a truck parked at the curb--as many sellers of food actually do in large cities--and his customers probably wouldn't care as long as the food was the same and was available as quickly. Sure, if you ask the customers, they'll say they prefer the restaurant space to a truck at the curb, but unless they're willing to pay more for the former than they would for the latter, there's no business value in the former. And the fact that customers aren't willing to pay enough to support a restaurant space, but what they're willing to pay probably would be enough to support a truck at the curb, is precisely why the author is struggling to find ways to cut costs--because he mistakenly thinks the space itself is part of his business model, when it actually isn't. He'd like it to be, but it isn't, because his customers aren't willing to pay extra to support it.

PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago

Wait, so now the plan is (a) reduce rent overhead (b) pay someone to deliver all the food? You're betting that the increase in costs implied by (b) exceeds the possible drop caused by (a) ? Good luck!