Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It

thrillist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 410 posts

Re: I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It

#101

Post by astrodust »

hnaccy wrote: post #91
gilrain wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They live in a community. If they raise prices such that their friends and neighbors can not afford to eat there, they will become social pariahs. It would be very difficult to do, and it would alienate the very people they probably wanted to be serving. If you’re a restaurateur, you probably don’t even live near that restaurant. But this advice is tantamount to: tell your friends and everyone who helped you get wher…

Provide a locals only card that gives reduced pricing, could even have a locals only day once a week.

Ten minutes later a "locals only" card goes on eBay.

Re: I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It

#102

Post by CocaKoala »

daveslash wrote: post #65
mujoco wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raising prices would reduce the volume of customers, so the restaurant could maintain its quality standard, but Stanich felt his mission was to give back to the local community of regular diners. He didn't want to price out regular, repeat customers from the neighborhood and have only tourists eating there.

What about raising prices (at the exclusion of the locals), and then using the increased revenue to philanthropically give back to the community in a meaningful way?

Seems like the way he had before was pretty meaningful to the community, given how bummed people sound about the closure.

Re: I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It

#103

Post by chaostheory »

craftyguy wrote: post #51
mujoco wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raising prices would reduce the volume of customers, so the restaurant could maintain its quality standard, but Stanich felt his mission was to give back to the local community of regular diners. He didn't want to price out regular, repeat customers from the neighborhood and have only tourists eating there.

Others in this thread have suggested that the restaurant give locals a 'locals card', which would allow them to purchase food at a more reasonable price.

Why not just look at driver's licenses and student ids instead? Disney parks do the same thing - cheaper prices for locals

Re: I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It

#104

Post by koolba »

LargeWu wrote: post #79

One of the sad things about this sort of list is that it's literally just one guy's opinion. Sure, he tried all the burgers. I'm sure all the burgers in the top 100 are good burgers, but there's probably very little separating them except some personal preference. For example, I probably wouldn't have rated this place as high because I don't care for grilled onions on burgers; I would much rather have raw onions. The…

> For example, I probably wouldn't have rated this place as high because I don't care for grilled onions on burgers; I would much rather have raw onions.

Blasphemy! The one true greatest burger has both kinds.

Also, the grilled onions are between the meat and cheese so that the latter holds them in place.

Re: I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It

#105

Post by 0xdeadbeefbabe »

antisthenes wrote: post #52
Altaer wrote: post #25

There is a local barbershop I have been going to for the past 4 years or so. Recently, they wanted to increase some business, so they were asking customers to leave a review. Loving the place and wanting to give back, I left a good review on Google. Fast forward a few weeks, and received emails from google saying my review has been viewed 100s of times. I used to be able to call and get an appointment the same day, o…

Ask to be put ahead of line for writing the review? I'd have no shame about asking for some free haircuts as well. Your review is probably responsible for increasing their business 1.3-1.5x

Yep exactly or "this" as they say. The Market doesn't have to respond so slowly that prices stay the same even though demand went up. It doesn't have to charge a faithful customer more than an unfaithful one either.

It would be funny, although not culturally normal, to see companies start to review customers.

Re: I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It

#106

Post by geofft »

blang wrote: post #76
narrator wrote: post #22

There's an easy solution to having too much business : raise prices. I think this is one of A16Z's big insights into most businesses[1]: they don't charge enough. If you look at the best restaurants in America like the French Laundry in Napa, they charge astronomical ridiculous prices and they still have reservations for months ahead of time. The oldest restaurant in Paris requires you put down a 400 euro deposit jus…

They could also make it reservations only, and control their price and speed.

Making a burger joint reservations-only changes the character of the service significantly. Imagine Twitter saying "We're scaling too fast for our backend to keep up, so we're going to require reservations a day in advance before you tweet so we can throttle the number of requests."

Re: I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It

#107

Post by astrodust »

comis wrote: post #35
JPKab wrote: post #19

People are lemmings. 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, an…

The most confusing thing about the line at Franklin's is you can just order it to go and skip the line entirely. Granted, you have to plan ahead a bit, but who's deciding at the spur of the moment to go eat lunch at Franklin's anyway?

It's like how a night club with no line is stupid, lame, and not worth going to, but one with a long line is forbidden fruit and so you must line up too.

So many clubs make people line up for no reason other than to have a line.

Re: I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It

#108

Post by L_Rahman »

admn2 wrote: post #9

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…

As another child comment mentions, Shake Shack was designed in a lab to be a franchise monster. The founder of Shake Shack is Danny Meyer, who is quite possibly America's most celebrated restaurateur and the CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group. By the time Shake Shack opened, Meyer had been running restaurants for over 30 years.

The hot dog cart in Madison Park that originated Shake Shack was stocked by the kitchen of Eleven Madison Park (then a Meyer owned restaurant) which sits next to the park, has three Michelin stars and in 2017 was #1 on the World's 50 Best Restaurant's list.

Re: I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It

#110

Post by InitialLastName »

andybak wrote: post #49
harbie wrote: post #40

Reminds me of a Nathan For You episode that lampoons the idea of ranking something as subjective as a burger. Nathan convinces the owner of a burger joint in LA to go on a popular local radio station and promise that he has the best burger in LA, and offer $100 to anyone who eats there and disagrees. The comedy in this is apparent to pretty much anyone, but people will still refer to different restaurants as 'the bes…

My mood has more effect on the pleasure I get from many things than their intrinsic nature. The first beer on holiday in a new country is the best beer you've ever tasted. A meal eaten in silence when you've been looking forward to it tastes divine. Hell - my own narcissism even overrides most things. My own cooking is often my favourite thing in the world. And on the other side of things - high expectations or rote…

> The first beer on holiday in a new country is the best beer you've ever tasted.

I walked 7 miles home from work through 6 inches of slush last night. Right after that came the best beer I've ever tasted.

Post reply on HN