
Why No Dining App Is the ‘Airbnb of Food’ Yet - prostoalex
http://www.eater.com/2016/3/31/11293260/airbnb-for-food-apps-eatwith-feastly
======
Mikeb85
While this is an interesting idea, restaurants are booming right now. In many
cities you also see the proliferation of cheap(ish) tasting/dégustation menus,
and higher end food in more casual settings. If the choice is between a 60-70
dollar menu in someone's home vs. 60-70 dollar menu at a restaurant, I think
the restaurant wins most of the time.

Then there's the fact that this is basically illegal in much (most?) of the
US, Canada, and likely elsewhere. You can't prepare meals for the public
without the food being prepared in an inspected and licensed establishment.
Just like you can't run a hotel without the proper permits.

Also, as a side note, I was a cook/chef for 10 years (now an older university
student), my last gig being a head chef job in a fine dining restaurant. I've
toyed with the idea of starting a food-related business. I would personally
love to be able to serve people in my home instead of spending $100,000+
(actually more like $500,000) on a small restaurant, or $50,000 on a food
truck or other mobile establishment.

But allowing unlicensed establishments to operate opens up a huge can of worms
- what happens to businesses who pay thousands of dollars in taxes, who buy
liquor licenses often for upwards of $100,000, who are forced to pay
exorbitant amounts of money to build a kitchen which follows the various
health codes? Will they be compensated? Will the meal-sharers be forced to
upgrade their kitchens? Will they be inspected?

We have to decide, as a society, if we want to allow businesses to operate in
residential areas. We can't simply encourage people to break the law because
it makes some guy with an app money...

Edit - just found a good article about the legality of food
sharing/underground dining: [https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/page/regulating-
underground-s...](https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/page/regulating-underground-
secret-supper-clubs-pop-restaurants-and-role-law)

~~~
zappo2938
I've been writing code for 4 years now but have 17 years cooking experience,
11 in Michelin star restaurants and 6 as a private mega yacht chef. I have all
professional small equipment in my home kitchen and the kitchen and dinning
room are the same.[1] I am set up.

People tell me to do a food sharing experience for the public and I quickly
say no. First, I don't want strangers in my house especially if they are
drinking. It's illegal to sell alcohol. It's illegal to sell food without
health inspection and license. I've never in my entire career have had someone
come back to me suffering from food poisoning from something I've served,
however, there is serious personal liability concerns over health risks and if
someone gets into an accident after drinking at my party. A restaurant can
prepare a stock that can be used over a couple days in several different
dishes. At home, I have to prepare a stock for only one dish. It is very
inefficient. I can't buy only the amount of parsley I need, I have to buy the
whole bunch and it's like $3 now. The worst is the prohibitively expensive
price of purchasing food at retail prices especially gourmet products. If I
purchase a whole filet, lamb from Costco, or cod and tuna from the local fish
monger, I'm still paying $25 - $30 per person for food. Economically scaling
is a huge problem. I can make a risotto for 8 people with almost the same
effort I can make the same dish for 35 people. Running a 8 seat restaurant in
my house economically and legally doesn't work.

[1] [http://imgur.com/a/P8FrP](http://imgur.com/a/P8FrP)

~~~
Laforet
Nice kitchen. Do you mind sharing what prompted you to switch career entirely?

------
coldtea
Because people in general don't like to socialize with strangers and get into
potentially awkward situations.

With Uber you just need to get from place A to B - a much easier sell, we
already did that with strangers driving taxis anyway.

With dining, you want to relax, and be in an environment you like. And you
need to trust the cooking and all that, and you don't want an afternoon out
with your friends/family/spouse/romantic interest to get ruined from unfit
hosts.

The same reason "rent-a-tool-from-your-neighbors" social services haven't
caught on.

[http://www.fastcompany.com/3050775/the-sharing-economy-is-
de...](http://www.fastcompany.com/3050775/the-sharing-economy-is-dead-and-we-
killed-it)

~~~
welly
> Because people in general don't like to socialize with strangers and get
> into potentially awkward situations.

I'm not sure that's entirely true otherwise the likes of Meetup.com wouldn't
have been a massive success.

Part of the reason I wouldn't use the "rent-a-tool" services is I know that
sod's law dictates when I really, _really_ need to use my drill, I'll have
rented it out to someone else.

There's a lot of things in life that I would only use perhaps an hour in its
lifespan but when you need to use them, you need them on hand and not
elsewhere.

------
krick
I have a different answer: it may be just me, but I never even thought that
such apps exist. I mean, I don't give a damn about airbnb, airwft or whatever,
but the idea that I need to sleep somewhere when I travel is obvious to say
the least, so I just google (ddg) something, find airbnb, somebody else does
the same, finds airbnb, mentions it in his blogpost — and so it spreads.

But I don't go to google when I want to eat while being in my hometown.
Because, well, it's my hometown — even if I'm not eating at home I already
know some places myself, I can ask friends for advice, I can go for a walk and
"find" something.

Actually, thinking of it, I might be one of these guys who would actually like
socializing like that (which might not be rare, but certainly not as common as
wanting to sleep under a roof, while staying in a country far away from home),
but it never occurred to me that such practise exists.

------
ig1
The problem with this model is lack of both supply and demand. On the supply
side the revenues are relatively low restaurants amortise costs across lots of
customers which someone hosting in their house can't really do, so they either
have to charge more (weakening the demand-side) or take the financial hit.
There's not really a lot of money in it for the amount of work involved.

On the demand side there's no significant value-add for customers over
restaurants.

That's not to say that there's no business model that might work in the space,
but rather it will require more innovation.

The obvious model would be for people to operate their own takeaway
businesses. Services like Deliveroo and UberEATs essentially mean that all you
need to be a takeaway is a kitchen, everything else (marketing, payment
process, delivery, etc.) you can outsource to your platform. Takeaways are
much more scalable than "eat-in" allowing for more revenue and the demand-side
doesn't care if you have a shop-front or not.

------
qq66
I think there's a market size problem here. I just don't want to eat with
strangers. I have stayed with strangers in AirBnBs to save money, but far
prefer whole-apartment pseudohotels. But the stay is not the benefit I'm
receiving, the trip is what I'm seeking and the place to rest my head is a
requirement. With the restaurant, the dinner is the thing I'm buying, and
dining with strangers would reduce the value substantially (for me).

If they can capitalize on the economics while having tables of two or four,
I'll be down for these pseudorestaurants.

------
ThomPete
So I actually tried the Japanese dinner they talk about with my wife and can
attest that it's a truly unique experience. However I can also imagine it's
hit and miss depending on who you end up eating with.

It's almost like being invited to a dinner party where you know very few
people. If you are lucky the people you meet are great.

I eat out quite a and have eaten anywhere from Noma to French Laundry, Eleven
Madison etc. and you can't really compare it. It's two very different
experience.

------
mtw
It sounds like these apps are targeting high-end experiences. What about fast-
food? Could be less hassle

~~~
wmeredith
"Hey Google, find me a house in this neighborhood where I can pick up a ham
sandwich."

~~~
mtw
or not just fast food, could be casual food. "Hey google, where can i eat a
bowl of hot soup". Doesn't have to be $60 and you could end up talking about
life with a grandma

------
barnabee
This idea seems a lot like what GrubClub
([http://grubclub.com](http://grubclub.com)) are doing in London.

------
theinternetman
Maybe because apps cheapen the experience…

I like taking my friends to hidden gem restaurants I find myself because if
its good they'll be surprised. If an app was an charge any restaurant it
points me to will be rammed and a sucky experience anyway.

------
dschiptsov
Homemade meals is a much more crowded market and much less profitable. Look at
Asia.

------
Kiro
This seems to be some kind of social experience. That's not comparable to
Airbnb for me and personally something I would hate (I don't enjoy meeting new
people but I do like food).

~~~
vidarh
I do enjoy meeting new people, but not in that kind of setting...

------
raitom
Still waiting for an Airbnb version with blackjack and hookers.

~~~
yakult
Online gambling is a solved problem, but airbnb with hookers looks like it
could be lucrative.

I'm guessing airbnb is the de-facto "airbnb with hookers" at the moment?

~~~
raitom
An mobile app allowing you to choose a prostitute, IF, done legally and in a
"clean" (no mafia, human traffic, ...) way could be VERY profitable.

