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

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

#201

Post by phlakaton »

sizzzzlerz wrote: post #196

Who waits for 5 hours to get a hamburger? That's just silly. Either limit the hours in which burgers are served or hand out tickets allowing the holder to buy up to, say 4, burgers. The total amount served would be based on what the staff can reasonably prepare over a certain amount of time without going crazy. If you don't get a ticket, sorry, come back tomorrow. If you don't want burgers, you get to skip the burger…

Same people who wait all night for a product launch.

Or all day to get into a convention panel.

Or all afternoon to get into a concert.

People get unreasonably obsessive about the things they love. It is known.

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

#202

Post by Fuzzwah »

amoorthy wrote: post #78
_jn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That can happen when the votes all occur in short succession.

Fascinating. Are you certain of this or is this conjecture? Feels like this could be exploited if true. Maybe it's more sophisticated like votes must be from people with high karma points?

It can definitely be gamed. I always used to notice links to the nautilus science site would instantly get 6 or so upvotes. While pondering this was when I realised they were YC backed, and stopped wondering if they'd get called out on it....

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

#203

Post by sgc »

tptacek wrote: post #189
mabbo wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To the commenters saying Stanich should simply raise its prices: there's a price ceiling for that burger. It's not a fancy chef burger; If you have a five hour lineup for a burger, you need to raise your prices at least a little bit. You'll make more money overall, and your customers will be happy.

You can do that to a point, but if what you're serving is simply a well-executed diner burger, then, like I said, there's a ceiling. You can't charge $30 for that. Or, you can, but you'll create more problems than you'll solve. This guy ate at 330 different burger restaurants. He has a finely-tuned metric for what a good burger is (his #3 is also a neighborhood place he grew up with). He's set up to appreciate what S…

Sure, but raising prices by 20% might not do that, but cut the line by 60% without eliminating it.

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

#204

Post by sgc »

radlad wrote: post #193
afterburner wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The customers you made money from when you're starting out don't have to be the same customers you make money from when your restaurant hits the big time.

There's risk associated in shunning your existing clientele in hopes of attracting a newer, more premium clientele.

Certainly less risk than just closing up shop.

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

#205

Post by sureaboutthis »

When I went for training at Qantel Computers in Hayward California long ago for a few weeks, we desperately searched for decent food in the area and even bought a hot plate to make our own food in our hotel room (which we later were told to remove cause that wasn't legal at the time). On our very last night, our handlers told us about a family owned Mexican restaurant down the street. We ate there that night and it was the best Mexican food I have ever had.

"Why didn't you tell us about that place weeks ago!", we cried. "Cause every time we do, when we go there to eat, we have to stand in line behind guys like you and can't get in", they said.

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

#207

Post by JumpCrisscross »

tptacek wrote: post #135

It's hard to blame Kevin Alexander for this, because Steve Stanich played ball with the review, like most restaurants would. If he wanted to, he could have asked not to be featured in the list, and Alexander probably would have complied; otherwise, he could have done other things to make it clear to his customers that he wasn't interested in fulfilling the role the ranking carved out for him. We see this effect in Ch…

> It definitely "ruins" the restaurant, in the sense that it becomes basically impossible to eat there anymore

Worse. The people who eat there change from those who enjoy food to those who enjoy the idea. That takes the right kind of pressure off the chef and owners and substitutes it with the wrong kind, e.g. Instagrammability.

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

#208

Post by masklinn »

radlad wrote: post #193
afterburner wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The customers you made money from when you're starting out don't have to be the same customers you make money from when your restaurant hits the big time.

There's risk associated in shunning your existing clientele in hopes of attracting a newer, more premium clientele.

If clients have to wait hours for a burger, the existing clientele is gone either way. If you end up folding, the existing clientele is hosed anyway.

And as the original commenter noted, you could put coupons in the local newspaper and the library and whatever else, so the locals have access to burgers at the old price.

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

#209

Post by [deleted] »

sgc wrote: post #203
tptacek wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do that to a point, but if what you're serving is simply a well-executed diner burger, then, like I said, there's a ceiling. You can't charge $30 for that. Or, you can, but you'll create more problems than you'll solve. This guy ate at 330 different burger restaurants. He has a finely-tuned metric for what a good burger is (his #3 is also a neighborhood place he grew up with). He's set up to appreciate what S…

Sure, but raising prices by 20% might not do that, but cut the line by 60% without eliminating it.

[deleted]

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

#210

Post by jrochkind1 »

mujoco wrote: post #46
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…

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.

Also... he was just burned out. An experience many here may identify with. That's why the place is still closed.

It's possible there was something he could have done to make things good again... if he wasn't too burned out by the experience to figure it out and carry it out.

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