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

thrillist.com

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

#131

Post by lazerpants »

geofft wrote: post #106
blang wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

Not necessarily. I live in a heavily touristed neighborhood in Brooklyn. But I also know the managers at the restaurants I like in the neighborhood. The secret is that these managers hold some tables for walk-ins every night, and that they mostly give them to locals.

I can guarantee you there are famous NYC restaurants in my neighborhood where I can get a table even if there are lines out the door or reservations are completely full.

You just have to live in the neighborhood and actually put some effort forth to introduce yourself to staff and maybe go occasionally when you know it will be slow (like during a snowstorm or holiday). It does require a good manager/host though.

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

#132

Post by cimmanom »

geofft wrote: post #97
daveslash wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There are some things in a capitalist society that are the domain of philanthropy, and some things that are not. A school or library might be a suitable target of philanthropy, but a burger place or pub or barber shop isn't; there's no way to fund it and have it end up the same sort of place it would be on its own. At best, it can be a target of a GoFundMe or something - but that's just to pay operating costs. The st…

GP is suggesting the burger place become a source (or maybe a conduit) of philanthropy, not a target.

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

#133

Post by crooked-v »

hnuser355 wrote: post #88
stagger87 wrote: post #43

I eat at a few other particularly popular Portland restaurants where they don't take reservations and the wait can be several hours. Fortunately they will put your name on a list so you can go do something else in the meantime. It's easy to say this sitting behind my computer, but I think the only thing I would change if I were in the owners shoes, is to handle the crowds at the door better. Just because you have a l…

When I visited Portland me and a friend tried to go to that ice cream spot everyone loves. Way too long so we went to the book store instead

I suppose it says something about the city that I'm pretty sure "that ice cream spot everyone loves" is Salt & Straw on NW 23rd. The line there is always ridiculous and there's other great local ice cream places within a 10-minute walk throughout downtown.

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

#135

Post by tptacek »

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 Chicago regularly, as I'm sure people in NY and LA do as well; there's a biennial ritual of naming the new "best burger" in the city (it's Kuma's! no, now it's Au Cheval! no, Au Cheval is franchising, time for something fancier --- Mott Street! no wait, the Loyalist†). It definitely "ruins" the restaurant, in the sense that it becomes basically impossible to eat there anymore. But it's hard to fault the businesses for going along! They're there to make a living for themselves.

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; it's a standard burger shop burger executed well. It seems like the only real scaling option Steve Stanich has, if he's not willing to piss off part of his clientele (a reasonable option!) is to partner and franchise.

† I'm particularly irritated about Loyalist because their bar has one of the best amaro collections in Chicago

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

#136

Post by chaostheory »

craftyguy wrote: post #124
chaostheory wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Well, sure, but having the customer flash a card to the employee would save more time than having the customer hand over the card for inspection by an employee.

Wouldn't checking an already existing ID card be easier vs printing up and distributing specialized cards?

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

#137

Post by slededit »

astrodust wrote: post #101
hnaccy wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Doesn’t matter. It’s still rate limited.

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

#138

Post by gwbas1c »

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…

> I'm sure this place has a lot of smart money wanting to use their name and recipe. Maybe not such a bad outcome?

You have to understand and emphasize with someone's goals for starting and running a business. It's not always money and notoriety. Sometimes it's just that someone wants to do a certain thing with their waking hours.

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

#139

Post by scruple »

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…

I've been to Sukiyabashi Jiro, in Tokyo, four times. The Ginza location twice and the Roppongi Hills location twice. Lunch and dinner service at both locations. These are Michelin 3 and 2 star restaurants, respectively, and it is actually quite challenging to get in to the Ginza location as a foreigner, especially the dinner service. I don't mean to say anything to discredit Jiro or his sons or their apprentices. They are absolutely amazing chefs of the highest quality and they are serving some of the highest quality sushi you can get. It is the best sushi that most people could ever hope to have and the food service itself is worth the experience. But... This place was made famous by Anthony Bourdain and then a documentary.

All of that said, I've personally had sushi that is comparable in quality out in the Japanese coastal countryside at an essentially random michi-no-eki. It's also significantly cheaper and they have pieces of sushi that you won't find in the larger cities that are unique to the region or town.

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

#140

Post by paulie_a »

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's umami. Au cheval is overrated with the pretentious staff.
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