Dining

The magic of dining, distilled down to the components that make great restaurant experiences work. One story at a time…

Plot Twist! It’s What’s For Dinner

These days, ‘surprise and delight’ is a tactic belonging to most brand’s marketing strategies. While success varies, the concept remains a sound and self explanatory one: enhance customer engagement with unexpected rewards. And yet, as surprising and delightful as dining can be, it’s not exactly a tactic baked into most restaurant programming. I get it…

3 years ago · 17 likes · 1 comment · James Jung

It Didn’t Happen by Accident: LA’s Original A-List Restaurant

Welcome to It Didn’t Happen By Accident, a new series in which we look back at legendary restaurants and the tactics that took them to the top. In honor of the 95th Academy Awards happening this Sunday, writer Darrell Hartman kicks things off by going deep on Romanoff’s – Hollywood’s OG celebrity hot spot. We hope you enjoy, and would lo…

4 years ago · 17 likes · Darrell Hartman

5 Factors That Determine a 🔥 Spot

We all know how hard it is to get a reservation these days. We feel it, and we’ve read about it. Of course, this isn’t true for all great restaurants. There are still neighborhood standbys and tried-and-true spots that are easy to walk into (or snag a day-of reservation at) because they’re out of the li…

4 years ago · 14 likes · Emily Wilson

Power-Ups 🍄 and the Gamification of Dining

Last year, I bought my five-year old son a Nintendo Switch, as well as the latest Super Mario Bros. game: Super Mario Odyssey. I’d be lying if I didn’t say these purchases weren’t intended for Dad, too. But whereas my five-year old immediately took to the game’s seemingly boundless levels, intricate patterns, and problem solving, I was less enthused. My…

4 years ago · 22 likes · 1 comment · James Jung

The Problem with Dynamic Pricing Isn't the Dynamic Pricing

Last week, AMC made headlines — and ruffled quite a few cinephiles’ feathers — by announcing Sightline, a new pricing system that will charge theatergoers more money for the best seats in the house. A week prior to that, in the more niche world of Alpine skiing, Arizona Snowbowl…

4 years ago · 25 likes · 1 comment · Ben Leventhal

Glizzy + 17 Other Terms for Your Post Foodie Era

Those of us who love to eat know the feeling well: you’re being introduced to someone, or perhaps a friend is teasing you, and suddenly you’re being referred to as a “foodie.” Shudder. The timeworn term was coined in a 1980 review by the late restaurant critic Gael Greene, and subse…

4 years ago · 18 likes · 1 comment · Emily Wilson

From The Kid’s Table: Diners are for Regulars of All Ages

Welcome to From The Kids Table, a new, personal essay series we’re beta testing. On some Sundays we’ll ask writers to share childhood memories about dining out. For our second installment, Emily Wilson writes about the enduring power of diners by recollecting weekends at her family’s favorite Greenwich Village greasy spoon. We hope you enjoy, and would …

4 years ago · 16 likes · Emily Wilson

14 Hospitality Rules Explaining the Diner's Unparalleled Product-Market Fit

In this installment of The Supersonic — and for reasons that will hopefully reveal themselves by the end of the exercise, if talking about diners isn't, just, fun — we note the singular American success story that is the diner. The generally understood history is that they starte…

4 years ago · 17 likes · Ben Leventhal

From the Kids Table: The Proustian Power of Restaurants

Welcome to From The Kids Table, a new, personal essay series we’re beta testing. On some Sundays we’ll ask writers to share childhood memories about dining out. First up is our very own James Jung, who recollects winters in New Hampshire and what dinners out in a tourist resort felt like as a townie. We hope you enjoy, and would love to hear your feedba…

4 years ago · 20 likes · 1 comment · James Jung

The Definitive Ranking of Restaurant Perks

Thanks in a large part to social media, we live in a status-obsessed culture. This truism isn’t a big secret — as W. David Marx concludes in his excellent book Status and Culture, “status structures provide the underlying conventions for each culture, which determine our behaviors, valu…

4 years ago · 21 likes · James Jung

Dare to Dream: 53 Restaurant Ideas for 2023

Whether or not this decade will pan out to be the Roaring Twenties 2.0 is still up for debate. That said, if 2022 proved anything for hospitality it was that people are champing at the bit to cut loose. All manners of Martinis and Negronis were sipped. Whole fish finally became a trend here in America. We TikTok’d our pasta chips a…

4 years ago · 25 likes · 1 comment · James Jung and Ben Leventhal

The Case for Thanksgiving at a Restaurant

Thanksgiving ranks as America’s most popular holiday, with 81 percent of the country celebrating — take that, Christmas. And, as we know, it’s a day stuffed with traditions: turkey, travel, family drama, and a smorgasbord of side dishes we hardly touch any other time of year (unless canned cranberry sauce is your jam). It’s also a holiday predo…

4 years ago · 13 likes · James Jung

Here's What Matters More Than a Michelin Star

By most standards (or simply any that disregard Tokyo) New York is a city awash in Michelin stars. Still, when a few famous places get stripped of their status, people tend to notice…or do they? We’ll get to that. But first, last month’s list, which saw nine restaurants that had previously been awarded one-star status fall from Michelin’s good graces. G…

4 years ago · 14 likes · 1 comment · James Jung

It's Alive? What It Takes to Re-Animate a Restaurant 🧟‍♂️

F. Scott Fitzgerald once observed that there are, “no second acts in American lives.” This maxim — however misquoted and, ultimately, untrue (ask any politician) — might well apply to restaurants. Think about it: what iconic eatery has gone from shuttered to re-animated and lived to tell the tale? Sadly, few, especially here in NYC, where gravestones of…

4 years ago · 16 likes · 1 comment · James Jung

The Sneaky Hack to Discover Your Next Favorite Restaurant

It’s not hard to find restaurant recommendations these days. Apps, lists, algorithms, Reddit threads, you name it. At every turn, there seems to be a person, publication, or platform telling us where to dine. Helpful, maybe, but often overwhelming, too. Can’t there be a more effective entry-point? One that narrows the aperture and guarantees a good time…

4 years ago · 22 likes · 3 comments · James Jung

A Case for the Single Seating Dinner

This is likely the first email you’re receiving from Blackbird’s The Supersonic, so by way of table-setting, we’ll use this space to share four things: company news, industry analysis, product announcements, and our observations about the magic of hospitality…

4 years ago · 16 likes · 3 comments · James Jung

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