
I was a corporate restaurant consultant - gpresot
https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/bjp9xv/how-chain-restaurant-menus-get-made
======
leroy_masochist
I work as an independent consultant and one of my recent projects was a study
on the fast-casual restaurant industry on behalf of a long/short investor.
It's a fascinating industry, and a bit depressing to learn about in depth
(kind of like reading this article).

The basic business model of all franchised restaurants with fixed menus and
nationalized marketing budgets is getting people in the doors with something
appealing (e.g. a value meal) and then get them to buy high-margin products
(i.e. coffee, soft drinks, french fries, and food items that don't contain
vegetables or meat).

One thing I think most people don't realize is how much the house loses money
when you go in there and buy the healthy stuff. At QSRs from McDonald's to
Panera the cost of delivering a salad to the customer exceeds the salad's
price. If you're a starving entrepreneur and you can be disciplined about
shopping for value, the healthy stuff at QSRs might be your best bet on a
daily basis.

~~~
danans
> the cost of delivering a salad to the customer exceeds the salad's price.

Is this mostly due to the higher cost of fresh ingredients, or the additional
labor required to assemble them?

~~~
leroy_masochist
> Is this mostly due to the higher cost of fresh ingredients, or the
> additional labor required to assemble them?

Both. On ingredient cost alone, restaurants will analyze across multiple
dimensions: the per-unit pure cost (e.g., the wholesale price of a head of
lettuce), transportation cost, storage cost, and spoilage rate (lots of
interesting volatility modeling done on this).

~~~
danans
There must be a price point where it starts to turn a profit, and it must be
less than, say, $25 for a salad.

There are plenty of places that turn a profit mostly selling healthy stuff and
a moderate (but not cheap) price point.

Admittedly, these places tend to attract people who can and will pay a higher
price for healthier options.

~~~
leroy_masochist
Salads are profitable for QSRs in a broader sense -- they're loss leaders.

QSRs are happy when the customer comes in to buy a $5.59 salad that costs them
$5.85 to make, because the customer also usually buys another product that has
great margin, e.g., a $1.79 drink that costs the restaurant $0.20.

------
dugmartin
Years ago, my wife’s friend who was the marketing director of a regional chain
of family friendly restaurants told us about a few menu positioning tactics
that are used to maximize revenue. The one I still remember is the item on the
first inside page on the top right corner is the item with the highest margin,
usually pasta. The reasoning for the placement is that people who didn’t have
a strong preference for what they wanted would scan the entire menu and then
return to the beginning of the menu and get “stuck” in the corner on their
second pass. I’m not sure if this is based in any research but it’s a fun
thing to look for when you are out to eat.

~~~
larrydag
I worked for a large restaurant retailer in the corporate office. It's a
mistake to call it a restaurant company. These companies are marketing
companies and marketing drives everthing. Even to the detriment of operations
and efficiency.

~~~
zeveb
> These companies are marketing companies and marketing drives everything.

This is a _huge_ problem with our society. Marketing is important, but when it
takes over it destroys companies, people and eventually society itself.

We see it with restaurants. Once, a restaurant was simply a place which served
food; now it's a brand, an experience, a carefully-crafted image which imparts
all the right feelings but only some of the substance — if any.

We see it with food. The produce we buy isn't the healthiest or the most
nutritious: it's what _looks_ healthiest & most nutritious, by metrics which
no longer come close to making sense (e.g. the redness of a tomato doesn't
signify ripeness in a world with artificial pseudo-ripening, and the shininess
of an apple is meaningless in a world with vegetable wax).

We see it with relationships, with entertainment, with hardware (c.f.
speculative execution & caching), with software (c.f. shiny effects), with
political parties, with 'news' — in a word, _everything_. Our world is being
destroyed by marketing, by appearance with no substance to back it up.

I can only identify the problem; I don't know what the solution is.

~~~
corey_moncure
Right, it's this quote from the article:

>“Asian food no longer has a health halo merely by existing,” the manager
explained as I cleared away plates of mangled spring rolls. “The once
‘healthy’ perceptions of brown rice and lettuce cups aren’t believable
anymore. Today, guests are linking health to nutrient density. Ancient grains.
Avocado. Micro-greens.”

The experts' domain here is not what is actually healthy. Actual health
doesn't even enter consideration. It's what "guests" are "linking" with
health, that is, only perception matters because the operational goal is
personal profit above doing right. Our food industry at large is suffering
from a total preoccupation with orthogonal concerns, of which our insane food
culture is the natural consequence.

~~~
beat
Michael Pollam has written about this extensively... the proliferation of
"magic ingredients" that confer "healthy" status on the same old food.
"Ancient grains" are just starch. Omega-3 fatty acids are just oil. Etc. The
fashion changes, but the structure stays the same.

Chain restaurant food relies on year-round availability of ingredients of
consistent quality (although "seasonal menus" exist, they're more about
marketing than availability, the illusion of freshness again). Lots of white
flour, vegetable oil, refined sugar, factory-farmed meats. Restaurants are
more factory than art. Raw ingredients go in, get turned to finished products
and sold on-site.

~~~
smogcutter
> Chain restaurant food relies on year-round availability of ingredients of
> consistent quality (although "seasonal menus" exist, they're more about
> marketing than availability, the illusion of freshness again)

Yep. The yearly appearance of the mcrib and its huge marketing push tracks the
price of pork futures. McDonalds is a commodities trader as much as it is
anything else.

~~~
beat
My mind jumps to something Budweiser did, after being purchased by InBev.
Their recipe uses a particular hops from a unique valley in Germany. Under
InBev, they suddenly declared they had enough of these hops, and wouldn't buy
any more for a year. This crushed farmers in that valley, of course... and
then Budweiser could negotiate for better prices with the survivors a year
later.

------
briandear
I see the results of these consultant-driven places everywhere and, everywhere
it’s like they all used the same consultant in a dire bid for relevance. It’s
poke-this, quinoa that, avocado toast with a side of “authentic” matcha.

The hell with it. Give me a “voice” — do something with your food. Don’t
Kardashianize every damned item.

An example of someone I feel that is doing it right is a guy in Houston named
Russell Ybarra. He just started his latest place called Burger Libre — and it
wasn’t consultant driven, it was driven by his decades of success with his
Gringo’s chain in Houston. The “consultants” are his friends and employees
along with actually knowing how to make a restaurant succeed.

Tillman Fertitta is another guy who uses years of experience to create great
chain experiences.

The restaurant business is filled with people that have more money than sense.
It’s obviously about the food, but it’s about having something to say with the
food and experience — and that voice rarely comes from consultants that travel
to 20 restaurants in 2 days looking for insight.

The same could be said about startups. Want to make money? Don’t chase yoga
pants. Yoga pants follow, they rarely lead. If you are duplicating what’s
working with the yoga pants crowd, you are already 5 steps behind.

“Don’t skate to where the puck is, but where it’s going. — Wayne Gretzky” —
Michael Scott.

~~~
Damogran6
I don't know where it's like where you are, but around here, there's a dozen
established eateries, and corners of strip malls that get new restaurants
every 8 months or so. There's gotta be a solid profit in selling loans to
people who have a dream of owning a restaurant (or bar, or eatery, or
whatever), but haven't the faintest clue how to run the business.

~~~
marak830
The statistics thrown around are 75-80% of new restaurants won't last the
first two years.[1]

That day want terribly surprise me, as I spent a sizeable portion of my career
travelling around fixing restaurants.

Biggest issue I've seen is people creating a restaurant because they think it
will be fun, or high profit margin. (Spoiler: it is neither).

(Source: chef for 18 years). [1] I don't have a source to back this up, it's
just been repeated so many damn times. I think it would be closer to 60-70%

~~~
ksec
>think it will be fun, or high profit margin.

Quite possibly the complete opposite. Especially when today's asset / property
prices are being pushed up to a ridiculous level by QE, rent eats into
profits, And most restaurants owner I know has thin profits margin and lots of
long hours working.

>The statistics thrown around are 75-80% of new restaurants won't last the
first two years.

I guess it depends on location, but 50%+ of new restaurants changes hand
within the first 3 years.

~~~
marak830
The standard costing for a restaurant meal is 25% food cost.

It approx breaks down as: .25 food cost .25 staff cost .25 rent and gas/elec
etc .25 profit.

That's not real world though, that last .25 is going to be eaten into. I
personally prefer to try and run at .21 - .22

It may seem like an awfully unbalanced profit margin, (in relation to me
saying low profit margin), but you need to add in wastage on top of this, both
due to staff error(eg keeping by too much stock on hand), unexpected quiet
periods or even supplier sending lower quality produce. There's also the
matter of variable prices for ingredients as well.

This is one of the biggest things I had to drill into clients, it's not just
about making good food and slapping a fee on top, it's a strict regieme of
training, control and excellent book keeping on top of a passion for food and
a desire to make people happy.

As to your last paragraph, I believe that's covered by closing, I should have
clarified on that point, my apologies

~~~
ksec
Interesting. When I first got into the industry, knowledge pass down to me as
30% Food Cost, 30% Staff, 30% Rent / Electrics, and 10% Profits. Again this
differ from places, City and non City restaurants. And This is mostly in Asia,
HK, Taiwan and China. ( Not Japan )

When I left the industry, Food Cost are now pushing down close to 20%. Staff
Cost and Rent made up of nearly 70%. With Rental taken nearly 40%. Since Staff
Cost, and Rent are mostly fix cost, the only way they could improve Revenue
was to becomes fast food alike, i.e faster table turnover. ( A trend I really
dislike )

>This is one of the biggest things I had to drill into clients, it's not just
about making good food and slapping a fee on top, it's a strict regieme of
training, control and excellent book keeping on top of a passion for food and
a desire to make people happy.

This. So Much.

I still wanted to get back into Food and Hospitality business someday. I think
Food is a topics that connects with everyone. And I still think there is lot
of innovation and tech could help with the industry, it is rather unfortunate
no one is taking a look into it.

------
function_seven
> For every perfect, client-ready pizza, there were at least six that missed
> the mark­— ... pepperoni that curled when cast in the oven, pockmarking the
> pie with tiny buckets of grease.

Ummm, that's a feature, not a bug. Right? best pepperoni is the curled up kind
as far as I'm concerned.

~~~
arkades
After reading that passage in the article, I thought maybe I’m misremembering
- weren’t cupped pepperoni the superior?

And then, when it got to the passage about “truffle oil” being “craveable” I
stopped doubting myself. Truffle oil is synthetic garbage used to sucker
people unaware of the non-relationship between truffles and “truffle oil.”

Now I just can’t figure out whether this is a fast food consultancy that knows
nothing about actual food (which would be ironic, but not surprising), or
whether they know about food, and this is pure cynicism on their part
regarding the public’s taste in food.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
> Truffle oil is synthetic garbage used to sucker people unaware of the non-
> relationship between truffles and “truffle oil.”

I've had real truffle oil in Croatia and it is absolutely divine. A far cry
from the synthetic stuff, which I can now smell a mile off. The real deal is
incredibly expensive, mind.

I suppose I just wanted to point out that not _all_ truffle oil is garbage,
although perhaps in the US the real stuff is vanishingly rare.

~~~
Cthulhu_
I'm nowhere near an expert, but isn't the same thing true for olive oil? It's
a huge market but probably also with huge differences in quality.

~~~
arkades
Olive oil is oil from olives, with marketing playing up differences between
brands for the sake of price stratification.

Truffle Oil is olive oil with synthetic flavor and perfume added, to make
people think it's somehow related to truffles. Real truffle oil isn't a thing:
truffles are consumed shaved into food like a hard cheese, generally, and
their flavors don't infuse oil well at all. Marketing here isn't about making
some truffle oil look better than others; it plays the role of making people
believe that truffle oil is a thing at all.

------
jasode
A related video from Dan Jurafsky where his team analyzed the words in 6500
menus and found correlations of adjectives & nouns used by the cheap vs
expensive restaurants.[1]

(Or put another way... imagine this thread's "menu design" story being
multiplied 6500 times and DJ researchers analyze the _output_ of those
consultations -- the 6500 menus. The corpus reveals some interesting repeating
text patterns.)

To apply DJ's findings, we notice that the author India Mandelkern writes:

 _> Back at the office, our team pooled our observations on multicolored
sticky notes that we stuck to a giant whiteboard. “Dishes have no freshness
cues.”_

We assume this results in a Pei Wei menu[2] with these excerpts (and with
particular words _underscored_):

 _> Then we wok-sear it in our _delectable_ orange sauce and finish it with
_fresh_ orange slices

>our Wei Better Orange Chicken and Wei Veggie Orange Chicken are made with
_fresh_, not frozen chicken,_

According to DJ, the expensive restaurants would not use words like _"
delectable"_ and _" fresh"_.

[1] deep link:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iYwUh1Hdho&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iYwUh1Hdho&feature=youtu.be&t=14m27s)

[2]
[https://www.peiwei.com/orangechicken](https://www.peiwei.com/orangechicken)

~~~
0x4f3759df
I learned the concept of counter-signalling from that video

"Contrary to this standard implication, high types sometimes avoid the signals
that should separate them from lower types, while intermediate types often
appear the most anxious to send the “right” signals. The nouveau riche flaunt
their wealth, but the old rich scorn such gauche displays. Minor officials
prove their status with petty displays of authority, while the truly powerful
show their strength through gestures of magnanimity. People of average
education show off the studied regularity of their script, but the well
educated often scribble illegibly. Mediocre students answer a teacher’s easy
questions, but the best students are embarrassed to prove their knowledge of
trivial points. Acquaintances show their good intentions by politely ignoring
one’s flaws, while close friends show intimacy by teasingly highlighting them.
People of moderate ability seek formal credentials to impress employers and
society, but the talented often downplay their credentials even if they have
bothered to obtain them. A person of average reputation defensively refutes
accusations against his character, while a highly respected person finds it
demeaning to dignify accusations with a response."

[https://kelley.iu.edu/riharbau/cs-
randfinal.pdf](https://kelley.iu.edu/riharbau/cs-randfinal.pdf)

~~~
scarface74
Could something similarly explain how law enforcement treats the poor and
minorities?

~~~
magic_beans
The simple answer is that the enforcers of the law don't usually come from
poor and minority communities.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
Interestingly even if they do they still don't treat the poor and minorities
very well.

------
nimbius
One of the first jobs I had after graduating with a culinary arts trade degree
was at one of the big 5 chains of restaurants where they nail salvage items to
the walls and play classic rock. After 2 years working the kitchen and bar, I
can attest fully these are the equivalent of a Chuck-E-Cheez for adults.

"food" is slightly more than a step up from fast food. main course Items are
delivered frozen and reconstituted in a high speed sous vide system. Fries or
any fried finger food are frozen, and depending on the franchise owner there
is a specified hold time of up to 2 hours. My location ignored this because
'we sell so much food!' when in reality we're ignoring it because wastage is
logged and reported to corporate and the franchise owner wasnt interested in
lectures from the suits.

Other items like specials and anything that read 'grill' was placed in one of
four high speed commercial microwaves, then sent to a 'finisher' which
resembled a grill but simply imparted the markings on the food in about 20
seconds. Hamburgers didnt receive this treatment as they arrived fully cooked
in many cases, with the exception of the angus burger, which was one of 2
items on the menu that was actually thawed and cooked on a real grill.

The bar isnt operated on a razor-thin margin of profit, its just flat out
greed. items are chosen for hold time and markup. Frozen margaritas/anything
can be held for up to 2 weeks, as the mix from corporate is largely
preservatives. distributer orders do not specify a brand, only a negotiated
price for a specific liquor. Beer provided almost for free, as corporate
aggressively negotiates the terms and in some cases, owns major stake in
distributors. all poured alcohol is underpoured partly because the
establishment is cheap, and partly because the only thing that can shut down
these shitty chains is an alcohol violation or poor customer experience
because of an 'over-service event' at the bar. they just reopen in a week
'under new management' anyhow.

If you're wondering how franchise owners play into the restaurant, theyre
basically nonexistent. Our franchise owners only visible presence was a plaque
on the wall with their names, and occasional half-hearted sentiments from the
managers on things the owners would like us to do which were basically
restatements of what corporate wanted us to do. It wasnt until my last year of
employment when I learned they were in their early eighties, and confined to a
nursing home somewhere out of state. Power of attorney rested with their son,
who had been in and out of drug treatment programs somewhere in california. We
were eventually purchased as a franchise package by a venture holdings company
in chicago.

~~~
shadowtree
Do people really expect anything beyond that from a franchise/chain
restaurant?

If you have a total of 5-10 items on the full menu, your food is likely fresh
made.

If its a giant menu with all kinds of styles, laminated, well, it's not a
kitchen back there but a conveyor belt.

~~~
scott_s
The New York area is full of diners with enormous menus that are not chains.
Quality varies highly (and often not correlated with price), but I believe
it's mostly made in-house.

~~~
cm2012
It definitely varies, but diners bulk buy most of their stuff from national
distributors for sure. Nuggets, fries, burgers, meatloaf, gyro meat, etc.

------
criddell
The article mentions Applebee's and that made me think of Chili's. I remember
in the late '90s going Chili's somewhat regularly and always being happy with
the food and service.

On a whim, we went to a new Chili's about a year ago and nothing was very
good. Anything that wasn't deep fried was microwaved. It made me wonder if my
tastes had changed over the past 20 years or if Chili's changed their
processes. Is this the result of relying on consultants?

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Everything changed. We're not the generation they're catering to any more? An
upbringing of burgers and fried food has brought a new generation to
restaurants.

~~~
Cthulhu_
I want to believe that said generation, if they really are into burgers and
such as much, would gravitate towards higher quality products, but I guess
convenience, lack of competition / options, familiarity, and probably most
importantly, cost would stop anyone from making it in that area.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Maybe 'quality' is in the eye of the beholder. Really good, boutique burgers
are quite tasty. And you can fry food badly or well. There's room for it all
in a good restaurant.

------
marak830
The biggest take away (no pun intended) I got from this article is that the
owner was cluless and the chef was non existent.

Where I come from, the chef designs, costs and impliments the menu. If I, or
the theorical they, don't draw customers or sufficient funds to cover the
business they are out on their arse.

For a chain, there needs to be an executive chef whose sole job is to cost,
oversee each location, ensure quality standards are being kept, use the fact
that the restaurant is order x amount more than anyone else to get a better
price from suppliers and make sure everything is running at cost (our next
cinname in the industry is bean counters for a reason haha).

This sounds to me like the owner got in way over their head.

------
bardworx
Working in the hospitality field for half my life, I can attest to this
article. Its really on point (company I work for went through a similar
exercise a year or so ago).

The thought that goes into menu design is spectacular but it's less science
and more shooting darts in the dark; No one can predict consumer behavior but
there are always "staples" that have been proven to work.

~~~
johan_larson
I wonder how often consultant-driven revampings like this actually succeed. I
seem to remember that the show "Kitchen Nightmares" generally fails to turn
around the restaurants they work with.

~~~
bardworx
From personal experience: 50/50\. If a brand has solid OPs, then consulting
firms do wonders; Menu is only part of the equation.

If a brand has spotty OPs (poor service, lack of "energy", employees who are
not engaged) then a new menu will not help them.

McDonalds, Panda Express, and Subway did not win because they had the best
food; They won because they had predictable food with good OPs and
understanding of trends.

A real word example: Panda Express makes sure that when their orange chicken
is coming out of the kitchen, it's always in a sizzling wok. That "experience"
is trained (by their OPs) from the beginning to embody the story of "hot &
fresh right off the stove" feeling (from the guest).

Chipotle attempted to simulate a similar feeling with their open kitchens:
sounds of knives chopping and grill sizzling provides an atmosphere that their
food is fresh, regardless if its mass produced.

This wasn't by chance but heavily researched, including the sound (in
decibels) of the sizzle from the guest's side.

~~~
fenwick67
What is an OP?

~~~
bardworx
OPs is Operations. Kinda like DevOps for development, they keep the wheels
turning.

OPs are usually everything after the GM (General Manager) so the area manager
(would have multiple stores), then regional manager (would have several areas)
and above.

Operations also include anything that has to deal with getting product into
the store like Research & Development, supply chain, or commissary.

Hope this helps.

------
magic_beans
This article is a sad reminder that the goopy atrocity that is PF Chang’s is
the ONLY encounter swathes of Americans ever have with “Asian” food. What a
shame.

------
ryandrake
I don't get all the sadness in these responses. Are you guys all surprised
that businesses finely tune their marketing and operations in order to
maximize profit, and sometimes they hire consultants to help? You wouldn't be
surprised that retail clothing stores measure and optimize everything about
their ops, store layout, merchandise presentation, color palette, music, the
fragrance in the air. Your favorite grocery stores are carefully engineered,
too, and your favorite hotels, home improvement stores, gas stations. Nobody
would be surprised that these places are tweaked and optimized for profit by
MBAs. But, suddenly it's shocking that your favorite restaurants are all phony
too?

~~~
eqdw
Not sad that they do it. Sad that they do it _stupidly_

Almost everything described in this article as an optimization was something
that makes my experience worse

------
eadmund
> “Yes,” the strategist answered. “That’s an operational solve.”

I recall several years ago 'ask' being used as a noun (which struck me as very
odd, given that 'request' exists and suffices); the use of 'solve' instead of
'solution' seems equally gratuitous.

Has anyone spotted any other similar oddities in the wild? I wonder if it's a
trend. One wonders if 'food' will someday just be called 'eat' (yes, there's
already 'eats,' which is subtly different) or 'article' 'read.'

Reading the article itself, it's a little amusing how much of this is trend-
chasing (European blazers, odd habits of speech, 'lighter, brighter, fresher')
rather than trend-setting. It's a bit like a middle-aged dad trying to seem
'hip' and 'with-it.'

Incidentally, the restaurant in question appears to be Pei Wei.

~~~
ggambetta
"Learnings", which seems to be uttered by people who also speak of "asks". I
find all these terrible.

~~~
RankingMember
Please do the needful.

~~~
praneshp
kindly revert back with the same

------
Kagerjay
I had thought it was Peiwei as well but Peiwei doesn't serve korean BBQ
bimibap (maybe its their newest item and I haven't seen it yet). Everything
else in the story matched 100% with Peiweis decision making.

Peiwei has had some... questionable management choices in my opinion. They
revamped their website not once, but twice overhauling it with a new webstack
in the last 2-3 years. Everytime its been changed, its gotten significantly
worse to order online. They originally had a perfectly fine site built in PHP
now its in ASP.net. They had broken functionality on their chile ramen noodles
for about 3-6 months which is strange because I reported the issue to
corporate and it didn't get fixed.

I didn't quite understand their marketing strategy until I read this article.
I remember when poke bowls were introduced. Then dandan noodles. Then thai
peanut noodles (which was removed). They are trying to do everything, which
never works out at the end. Peiwei has a lacking brand identity, they do
everything but at an extremely mediocre level.

They just.. simply are copying the current trends. Japanese / Korean fusion
used to be the hottest trend in this market. Then it shifted towards hawaiin
and pokebowls. Now the current hot trend I would say is streetfare food /
tapas (taiwan, singapore, and thai).

Source: I eat at peiwei maybe once a month for 3+ ish years, personally have
met the owner of Panda Express, and consulted with many growing restaurant and
national chains as well.

------
mamurphy
I wish I could figure out what chain the main example is about.

~~~
mabcat
Some tactical googling about the orange chicken says Pei Wei. Not from around
there, never heard of them, but it’s clear from their menu PDF.

~~~
empath75
Definitely Pei Wei, I w just ate there a few nights ago. It might be that it’s
in a location with a thousand authentic Asian restaurants nearby, but it’s
almost always empty.

The new menu is pretty good though, I have to say. I think they’ve been using
it for a few years now.

------
heathercranston
i've been a corporate consultant for roughly 20years. Last year, I started
working with the biggest restaurant consulting firm in NYC, The Restaurant
Company. I can tell you, one of the most honest truths I can bring to this
conversation is how the world works; plain and simple. We as consumers, pay
for service. and I'm not referring to the service of a waiter; the service
fees associated with service. NOTHING in this world is priced at cost, price
is determined by the "perceived value". Not something you should be depressed
about, but just aware of, as a consumer. If you pursue to purchase things at
cost, you will have to chop out a few middle men. Your vendor, your farmer and
the entity you walked in to purchase the meal. Your pockets are paying for
convenience, unless you have an interest and time in growing your own garden
and raising a few cattle.

James Leak Head QSR Advisor The Restaurant Company www.therestaurantcompany.us

------
gadders
I remember reading a story once about how McDonalds wanted to start
introducing wraps or salads or something. The impact on the supply chain at
that scale was immense.

------
mikeymz
Part of my soul just died

------
swanson
Anyone know the name of the consulting company featured in this article? I
find this kind of stuff super fascinating -- the intersection of behavioral
economics, lean manufacturing, queuing theory, and food.

------
nfriedly
I don't eat out very often any more, and I really don't miss it. I get better
food at home, for less money, and counting travel time, it's probably faster
too.

------
ggambetta
I'm so jaded that I read "Blockchain Restaurant Menus" and believed it for a
second...

~~~
zeristor
So it wasn't just me then

------
fowl2
The marketing jargon is entrancing.

~~~
mrob
I'm particularly irritated by the talk of "guests". It's a huge insult to
charge guests money for food. If I have to pay then I'm a customer.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
To me it's in the same league as referring to McDonald's locations as
"restaurants".

~~~
gamblor956
A restaurant "is a business which prepares and serves food and drinks to
customers in exchange for money."

McDonalds prepares and serves food and drinks to customers in exchange for
money. This clearly makes it a restaurant. It may not be a fine-dining type of
establishment, but it _is_ a restaurant.

More pretentious is all the hipsters that look down on restaurants like
McDonalds simply because it doesn't fit their narrow, preconceived notions of
what a restaurant should be.

~~~
geodel
Agreed. Long back my office used to have 'canteen' for food. But nowadays it
is considered downtrodden and 'Cafe' is used in place.

------
soniman
One of the biggest mistakes I see at mom and pop stores is too low prices. I
told the mom and pop Asian place at the local high-end mall to raise their
soda can prices from $1 and I just went back and they'd raised it to $1.50.
It's really the mom and pop places that would benefit the most from consulting
like this.

~~~
justherefortart
My local Ma & Pop diner charges 2.75 for drip coffee. I just don't order it
anymore. At 2.25 it was already ridiculous.

I'm a soda-holic. I never order soda at any restaurant. 100% water for the
last 3 decades. The cost is too high and the quality is shit as well.
McDonald's Coke is probably the worst I've ever tasted. It's been shitty since
the 70s.

~~~
dagw
_I 'm a soda-holic. I never order soda at any restaurant._

Counterpoint. I'm a very occasional and 'casual' soda consumer, but if I'm at
a restaurant and feel like a soda I'll order a soda no matter if it's $1 or
$5.

------
Graham24
I couldn't read to the end of that article, I just felt myself dying inside.

------
Damogran6
I hate these people. The pessimist in me thinks it's the emergent behavior of
universities convincing people they have to have a college education to be
successful, which turns out millions of MBA's, who then descend on society,
looking for untapped profit to optimize.

It's a position that does nothing for the customer but convince them to spend
more for less.

~~~
cat199
"I hoped he didn’t sense the sarcasm in my voice. As much as I enjoyed the
perks of the job (free pizza), working at the agency had been a mixed bag. I
had spent nearly eight years in grad school analyzing the politics of 18th-
century venison feasting, and here I was, Googling high-res images of French-
fry containers before I could leave for the day."

~~~
vinceguidry
I suspect the agency he worked for is going to hear about the article, realize
who it was, and hound all his future employers about what a disloyal cad he
is.

I appreciated the insights that the article offered, but it felt like a
scurrilous bit of whistleblowing to me, the kind you really don't want to know
about, like married CEOs sleeping with their staff.

~~~
794CD01
What's wrong with whistleblowing? It's pretty concerning that your example of
something that isn't worth blowing a whistle about is basically rape.

~~~
vinceguidry
A CEO sleeping with subordinates absolutely crosses ethical and moral lines,
but it isn't rape. It's not rape unless it's rape.

There's too much depressing shit in the world to report and publicly name and
shame everyone that decides to be a cad. If he crosses over from cad to
monster, that's when I want to hear about it.

------
blowski
Interesting article about what’s involved, but there doesn’t seem to be any
“science” in the article. Just a combination of knowledge, experience,
competitor analysis, and “see what happens”.

~~~
baq
looks like science to me, only without p-values and peer reviewed papers.

~~~
suprfnk
Next you'll have people claiming vaccines cause autism and global warming
isn't real and you'll have to believe them because "it's just a combination of
knowledge, experience, analysis and 'see what happens'".

------
dsego
In capitalism it's all about illusion. Illusion of healthy, illusion of
choice, illusion of ancient, illusion of homemade. If they can sell it to you,
reality doesn't even matter.

~~~
StevePerkins
I think this is pretty much a constant in every system of human organization
that's ever existed.

~~~
dsego
I guess you're right.

------
gwbas1c
I read this article for about 15 minutes and I did not come across any
science.

~~~
dang
Ok, we'll switch to the subtitle.

------
JoeAltmaier
Hey we all 'program' right? And I 'paint'. And a doctor will 'cure'. Its been
going on for aeons.

------
thisisit
"If any subject uses two words and one of them is science, then there is no
science behind it" \- My maths teacher explaining the word - "political
science".

~~~
chillydawg
Computer science is obviously a total scam.

~~~
dagw
Obviously not a scam (I doubt most people would call political science as scam
either), but the question is, is it a science?

~~~
paulific
At the university I studied at it was still called "Government". I suppose the
"science" is to make a distinction between the "practice of" and the "study
of". If you study history you are a historian, but if you study politics you
are not a politician (usually), so I suppose you have pick something academic
sounding.

------
spodek
> I was a corporate restaurant consultant. Here’s how the sausage gets made.

Didn't even make two sentences without a tired old cliché, maybe supposed to
be clever because of the food connection. Sounds like a venture capitalist.

