11–20 of 410 posts
I would visit this place a couple times per year.
It was a place you took someone to for a special time. And when done that way, as it was done for me (Thanks Joe P), the need to respect that seems obvious, built right in.
With life being how it is sometimes, it has been a while.
Damn. This story makes me sad.
I wonder if raising prices quite a bit would have helped.
Not likely. The issues were far deeper than cash flow. The new business was primarily one and done visitors anyway. By the time you've made the trip to the foodie Mecca of Portland and traveled across town to try the "country's best burger" would you really be deterred by a $15 price tag vs $10? How much would you have to raise the price to make that work? How do you do this without forever alienating your loyal loca…
I wonder if raising prices quite a bit would have helped.
Not likely. The issues were far deeper than cash flow. The new business was primarily one and done visitors anyway. By the time you've made the trip to the foodie Mecca of Portland and traveled across town to try the "country's best burger" would you really be deterred by a $15 price tag vs $10? How much would you have to raise the price to make that work? How do you do this without forever alienating your loyal loca…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not likely. The issues were far deeper than cash flow. The new business was primarily one and done visitors anyway. By the time you've made the trip to the foodie Mecca of Portland and traveled across town to try the "country's best burger" would you really be deterred by a $15 price tag vs $10? How much would you have to raise the price to make that work? How do you do this without forever alienating your loyal loca…
Give the locals a loyalty card that gives them half-price burgers.
"What happens when nature goes viral?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itjc14Fm-gs
Franklin's BBQ in Austin has hours long lines. It's very good brisket.
The hill country of Texas is FILLED with equally good brisket joints that don't have lines.
People who wait in line for 4 hours won't admit this. Cognitive dissonance kicks in, and Franklin's is unique and better than everyone else in their minds. Try telling a person that their Bose headphones are overpriced and overrated, and you will see this in action.
Lists are indeed stupid, but only because people aren't rational decision makers.
Enjoyed the article. This reminds me a lot of what Groupon used to do to restaurants in the early days. They would just get slammed by hundreds of crabby people looking to one and done them for a half priced meal. Obviously as Groupon became more ubiquitous this lessened, but I do vividly remember going to a hot dog and burger place and finding the two owner-operators absolutely miserable as a line of 20 people forme…
Some restaurants become popular because people with money are in the right place at the right time, and not because it was an old-school authentic eatery discovered by a food writer and put on a top-foods-list.