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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

#81

Post by luma »

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?

The new noise-cancelling champion appears to be Sony's WH1000XM3, which retains the same eye-watering $350 pricetag as the QC35s.

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

#82

Post by jabb0r »

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…

Just to add a little subtlety to your comment, Franklin (no s) BBQ revolutionized Texas BBQ when it first opened. Nowadays, there are several places that can go head to head with it (Micklethwaite and La Barbeque for example), but at the time, there was nothing even close.

Many of those famous places in the hills or even, gasp, Lockhart, really weren't that good once we had Franklin BBQ. I've noticed a lot of these old-school places have had to up their game in recent years and are now competitive again.

That said, waiting in line at Franklin is sort of an event of itself. Most people bring coolers of beer and turn it into a tailgate-like atmosphere. You're right though, I haven't waited in the line for years because I can get something similar much easier.

I'm with you 100% on the Bose headphones comment though. Those things are a ripoff.

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

#83

Post by TheDong »

nradov wrote: post #74
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.

> What's wrong with these people?

> I really can't understand it.

Why does anything have to be wrong with them? Why can't it just be that they have different tastes?

I have no issue with you having your own opinion (it's stupid; I won't do it, I can't understand). That's all well and good.

Saying "what is wrong with these people" about something you don't understand, but that is harmless thing and doesn't involve you significantly... that's just plain close-minded.

The comment above yours at least tried to provide some reasoning (people following recommendations, fooling themselves with cognitive dissonance), but it didn't try to draw a distinct "me vs them, something is wrong with them" as your comment did.

You should reflect a little if this is your gut reaction to people doing something you don't understand but that is harmless; it shouldn't be "something is wrong with them", it should be "I wonder what they see in it? I just don't get it for some reason; I guess we live different lives"

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

#84

Post by Reedx »

jacquesm wrote: post #23

"Too much love will kill you, just as sure as none." It's an interesting reflection on the effect of the internet hordes that can be called up by a careless article or tweet. A similar thing happens to restaurants that receive the Michelin stars and to single individuals that end up being in more popular demand than can be sustained (this happens to some consultants). Not all of the typical defenses are available all…

It's even affecting non-business locations now as well, as a result of geotagging and instagram.

What happens when nature goes viral - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itjc14Fm-gs

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

#85

Post by cf498 »

briandear wrote: post #75
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…

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.

Thats not a solution for the problem though, if your goal is to keep your old customer base. It is only a solution if you view your restaurant as an investment instead of a passion. The counter example from the article is Paiche.

edit: To give another example, I have a kebab shop in my neighborhood who will not take any orders by phone let alone online. They dont have flyers or a web presence. Its a small street faced window run by an immigrant family who keeps the booth open throughout the day, from 11 to 11 longer or shorter depending on when they are out for the day. Most of the time the place is empty but during mealtimes there is regularly a line for half an hour. For the area, this is extremely well. And they sit right next to two other kebab shops, a pizza place and two asian places with mostly no line, literally the street down in 3 minute walking distance.

The reasonable thing would be to close the shop in the afternoon and take orders in advance, but thats not what they want for their shop. They want to talk and be a place where people meet, despite them not having any tables and not serving any drinks except a tea on the house from time to time.

And their food is absolutely amazing. Home made sauce and bread, it is worth the wait or to eat at 4pm in the afternoon. They dont let them self get rushed and it is always an amazing meal.

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

#86

Post by hnuser355 »

nradov wrote: post #74
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.

Hmm, hours is weird and beyond my limits but many restaurants serve quite good ramen many enjoy.

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

#87

Post by hedvig »

peterwwillis wrote: post #20
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…

Shake Shack began as a hot dog stand, but a hot dog stand created for a park being developed by a successful NYC restaurateur who owned a hospitality management company. If you're the sole developer of a new downtown park, and you own the only hotdog stand in that park, and you have lots of resources, it's going to be a success. When later there's the opportunity to develop the park further, you may pony up the cash…

Supply side economics dominates. There is no such thing as authentic demand.

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

#88

Post by hnuser355 »

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
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