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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

#321

Post by ssegraves »

joezydeco wrote: post #221

Let's hear from a local about what really happened to Stanich's: https://www.metafilter.com/177718/Sometimes-its-better-not-t... "Anecdotally, I went to Stanich's a few weeks before the shutdown. They certainly weren't getting overrun with customers at that point. The place was maybe a quarter full on a Friday night, and it was filthy. Dust everywhere, dishes left on tables, stains on the floor, the crust on the ketc…

Portlander here and experienced very similar circumstances to what is described in that post just before Stanich's closed.

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

#322

Post by notyourday »

tptacek wrote: post #310
notyourday wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 Stanich is actually accomplishing with his burger. The average foodie tourist is unlikely to arrive armed with that context; they'll pay $30 for the burger, expect a revelation, and leave unhappy. Rubbish. Here's 2006 list of b…

The Rouge burger was a custom meat blend on challah with gruyere. It's a chef burger. What we're talking about is a ground chuck diner burger on a sesame bun. If this was the Raoul burger, 12 served a day, ground short rib and brisket, I'd be right there with you.

Rouge burger was not a custom meat blend. It was a rouge steak ground from steak into ground meat for the burger as the burger was ordered because there was no space in the kitchen - it was that small.

But that's not the point - the list was of burgers: roll, meat patty, cheese, maybe some other stuff. The one that he raved about had gooish cheese etc. Were there also caramelized onions? It was the "we too can make a burger like those fancy places and not a greasy spoon diner next door".

Burger is a burger. The better the burger the higher its price could be if there are people willing to wait for it.

Chef's burger or no chef's burger - i mean hell, NY Burger Co's burgers beat some of the chef's burgers.

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

#323

Post by kasey_junk »

bedhead wrote: post #242
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…

Au Cheval is easily the most overrated burger (and perhaps restaurant) in Chicago. Hey guess what, if you make a 12oz burger, put three slices of cheese on it, place it on a buttered roll, then put pork belly, a fried egg, and mayo on it, it will taste good. And it will also make you want to freakin die the moment you're done because you just consumed 25,000 calories. But people will wait literally 2.5 hours for this…

You can now get the Au Cheval burger at lots of places easily. I do 3 greens regularly. It’s a fine burger.

The real shame is that Au Cheval used to be a nice spot for a beer & burger on a street that was expensive.

Still hard to find good priced, good food on Randolph.

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

#324

Post by MisterTea »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #303
1024core wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you actually try to read it? It says so right there: Apparently, after my story came out, crowds of people started coming in the restaurant, people in from out of town, or from the suburbs, basically just non-regulars. And as the lines started to build up, his employees -- who were mainly family members -- got stressed out, and the stress would cause them to not be as friendly as they should be, or to shout out c…

It seems you and the author have something in common: refusing to believe the man at the center when he says that it wasn't the author's fault. Which he says repeatedly. And he hints at the actual reason, which you and the author just refuse to believe, I guess. And then, in a quieter voice, he started to explain why it wasn’t just two weeks. He asked me not to reveal the details of that story, but I can say that the…

It appears to have been a perfect storm of events. A family problem in a family business can be very stressful, been there, got the tee shirt. Then add on top of that an explosion in business you never really wanted and as a result of the overload, a decline in customer service. That then turned into vitriolic reviews and nasty/hateful answering machine messages. Imagine all of that happening in just a few months. What an awful out of control ride that must have been. No wonder Stanich pulled the plug.

And if people were paying attention, they would have noticed a lot of drug talk from Stanich. Why was Stanich so fixated on talking about drug problems? That usually happens when stuff hits close to home. All speculation on my part but I found it an odd topic for a burger restaurateur.

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

#325

Post by clubm8 »

This is why I tell no one of my favorite spots. My second favorite bars, restaurants, and nature spots are where I meet coworkers, dates from apps, and acquaintances. Only close friends/partners/family get to know my true favorites - keeps them healthy as long as possible.

For example, I know of a cheap, quiet bar in the heart of a major west coast city. It's not perfect, but it's got wifi and cheap drafts and is relatively clean despite beinga dive.

I not only take no one there I don't really like, I will actively discourage people if someone notices it on Yelp when we're debating where to go.

(Luckily, it has a deceptively low Yelp rating due to the hordes of techies who think being told "buy something to get a key to the bathroom" is equivalent to being spit in the face so I can invoke the magical word "sketchy" and steer my party clear)

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

#326

Post by pj_mukh »

foobarchu wrote: post #265
pj_mukh wrote: post #36

Sorry, my engineering my mind craves a solution. Wouldn't forcing people into an asynchronous online/mobile queue be the best solution? You can favour verified locals if you want there, control exactly how many orders you take in, and nip any potential disappointments (leading to bad Yelp reviews) right in the bud. I've trekked to enough "Best in " places and been the "outsider" grumbling waiting outside in a giant l…

I feel like the problem there is that it would require expending a lot of effort to solve what will probably be a temporary problem. That kind of system isn't going to be cheap, and the high traffic will only last as long as the list in question is popular. As soon as another 'best burger place' comes along, all that traffic is probably going to die down, and now you're a small diner left with this complex expensive…

I'm thinking this could be a solution that various businesses could adopt temporarily. And not a turnkey solution for each business.

These stories also keep coming out of various businesses in Europe with the influx of Chinese and Indian tourists, eager to pay them but the businesses have no infrastructure to "shape" the inflow of customers.

If this is indeed a big problem, this is also a big opportunity.

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

#327

Post by tokyodude »

clubm8 wrote: post #325

This is why I tell no one of my favorite spots. My second favorite bars, restaurants, and nature spots are where I meet coworkers, dates from apps, and acquaintances. Only close friends/partners/family get to know my true favorites - keeps them healthy as long as possible. For example, I know of a cheap, quiet bar in the heart of a major west coast city. It's not perfect, but it's got wifi and cheap drafts and is rel…

How will you feel if it goes out of business from not enough patronage or if the owner closes it because it's not meeting his financial requirements for retirement?

If the owner just wants a quiet cozy place that's certainly great but maybe the owner wants the place to be 3x as busy or maybe she want's to open a bigger place or 2nd place as soon as she gets enough people and funds.

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

#329

Post by toofy »

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.

I think this is the point many people are seemingly missing.

Ask any family restaurant/bar owner in a seasonal tourist destination and they’ll explain why locals must be one of the first considerations before you make drastic changes. Particularly if an important reason for opening was a personal preference to serve locals over tourists in the first place.

It’s incredibly interesting to see how few people understand that someone may open a business with priorities other than massive growth potential.

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

#330

Post by tptacek »

notyourday wrote: post #322
tptacek wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Rouge burger was a custom meat blend on challah with gruyere. It's a chef burger. What we're talking about is a ground chuck diner burger on a sesame bun. If this was the Raoul burger, 12 served a day, ground short rib and brisket, I'd be right there with you.

Rouge burger was not a custom meat blend. It was a rouge steak ground from steak into ground meat for the burger as the burger was ordered because there was no space in the kitchen - it was that small. But that's not the point - the list was of burgers: roll, meat patty, cheese, maybe some other stuff. The one that he raved about had gooish cheese etc. Were there also caramelized onions? It was the "we too can make a…

That's simply not true. Chef burgers and diner burgers are not the same product, which you can verify for yourself by reading Yelp reviews of the restaurant we're talking about and seeing the shocked comments from people who expected a transcendent chef burger experience from this place which only ever served diner burgers.

I'd rather have a good diner burger than a chef burger, but the whole point of the story is that the author of this ranking had one intention, his readers took away another, and the result was problematic for the restaurant.

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