I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It • Hacker News Board

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

#71

Post by dsr_ » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 7:00 PM UTC

siphor wrote: post #29

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…

do you know of a pair of better/cheaper over the ear noise cancelling headphones?

No. I know of dozen better solutions for people who want to listen to music in high-noise environments, starting with the cheap-and-good (Mee M6Pro, $50, plus ear-safety isolators, $10) and ranging through moderately priced and good (Sennheiser HD280Pro, $100, Beyerdynamic DT770, $150) and going on up in price but not necessarily isolation.

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

#72

Post by majormajor » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 7:01 PM UTC

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 think the internet caused a lot of this. It's easier for everyone to herd to a SINGLE point. I don't remember this sort of line size discrepancy being nearly so common twenty years ago.

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

#73

Post by zem » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 7:02 PM UTC

gerbilly wrote: post #47

comis wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I believe there is such a thing as "queuing culture." I don't know if it's driven by Disney resorts and cruises, but it seems as if people like standing in line for some reason.

yep, I have a friend who went and stood in line to buy the new apple phone because it was "part of the experience". whatever makes people happy, I suppose.

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

#74

Post by nradov » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 7:02 PM UTC

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…

Right I've seen hipsters in the Bay Area lined up for hours just to eat ramen noodles! What's wrong with these people? Even great noodles aren't much better than average noodles. I really can't understand it.

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

#75

Post by briandear » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 7:03 PM UTC

gilrain wrote: post #62

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 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…

It’s called supply and demand. If there is a 5 hour wait, there’s a problem: no local will wait 5 hours for a burger so you exclude them anyway. Price is the best mechanism to address supply and demand.

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

#76

Post by blang » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 7:03 PM UTC

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.

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

#77

Post by willyt » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 7:05 PM UTC

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.

Burger pass. $30 for a burger pass. Gets you burgers for $4 for the rest of the year. or pay $20 for a burger now. You can secretly give out burger passes to locals when the tourists aren't looking.

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

#78

Post by amoorthy » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 7:05 PM UTC

_jn wrote: post #4

goshx wrote: post #3

This reminds me of Anthony Bourdain's visit to Venice and a local restaurant that only accepted being filmed if he didn't tell anyone the name or location of the place. It can definitely kill the business. Off-topic question: how does a submission gets front page with just 3 points?

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?

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

#79

Post by LargeWu » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 7:06 PM UTC

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 only reason anybody cares about that reviewer's opinions are because he has a platform and people are desperate to belong to something, anything.

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

#80

Post by soneca » Fri, Nov 16, 2018, 7:06 PM UTC

Great article. A paragraph with the gist of what I enjoyed in it:

"Or is this just what we are now -- a horde with a checklist and a camera phone, intent on self-producing the destruction of anything left that feels real, one Instagram story at a time?"