This is really interesting. I just saw it in my Substack feed years later. I find it interesting because I’ve always used a distinction called “sushi bar vs beer hall” which I’ve never articulated all the way but it tracks a lot of similar things to diner vs club.
This enlightened me. Every time I’m unhappy with a date night spot it’s because it’s a diner rather than a club regardless of the price. Molly is right the chart was unnecessary, GPV is almost always higher for more expensive restaurants, but the point as I take it is that we can differentiate between similarly priced establishments based on vibe
Seems kind of exclusionary. I've literally never heard of any place on the chart.
Also, it sounds like 99.999% of all dining establishments are "diners" under this definition, which really limits the usefulness of that particular attempt to "cleaver reality at its joint"
Love the ‘cleaver nature at its joints’ in this context, in defense of the theory I do think most restaurants are diners but in fine dining that’s not the case. I think the distinction is only really useful when comparing fine dining spots which is why he can’t really provide nationally recognized examples
OP failed to specify at the start that they were talking about an elite subset of dining establishments, which implies that they weren't considering the others when making thier calculations.
Which then casts doubts - is this a selection distortion effect? Berkson's paradox? Cherry picking?
To be honest - this chart confuses the hell out of me. People frequent Raos regularly... isn't that the whole concept of the restaurant? Yes, agree it's a "club" but not sure this graph totally works for what you're trying to illustrate here. Raos, Polo Bar..they should technically be in the 1st quadrant of this graph (upper right hand corner) indicating high guest potential value AND repeat frequency...no? I think I know what you're trying to get at but the chart just throws me off.
Also guest .... not customer. Even at "diners" like Balthazar ;)
I'm surprised no one has commented on this! Seems like it would be a polarizing conversation starter for restauranteurs. Is it simply commonly known and accepted and thus uncontroversial? Cafes and other counter service shops have had solutions for this, tech enabled and not (punch cards, square/toast, etc), for some time. Do restaurants just already run a more obfuscated/less participatory version of the same with phone numbers/emails collected from reservations?
This is really interesting. I just saw it in my Substack feed years later. I find it interesting because I’ve always used a distinction called “sushi bar vs beer hall” which I’ve never articulated all the way but it tracks a lot of similar things to diner vs club.
This enlightened me. Every time I’m unhappy with a date night spot it’s because it’s a diner rather than a club regardless of the price. Molly is right the chart was unnecessary, GPV is almost always higher for more expensive restaurants, but the point as I take it is that we can differentiate between similarly priced establishments based on vibe
Seems kind of exclusionary. I've literally never heard of any place on the chart.
Also, it sounds like 99.999% of all dining establishments are "diners" under this definition, which really limits the usefulness of that particular attempt to "cleaver reality at its joint"
Love the ‘cleaver nature at its joints’ in this context, in defense of the theory I do think most restaurants are diners but in fine dining that’s not the case. I think the distinction is only really useful when comparing fine dining spots which is why he can’t really provide nationally recognized examples
OP failed to specify at the start that they were talking about an elite subset of dining establishments, which implies that they weren't considering the others when making thier calculations.
Which then casts doubts - is this a selection distortion effect? Berkson's paradox? Cherry picking?
To be honest - this chart confuses the hell out of me. People frequent Raos regularly... isn't that the whole concept of the restaurant? Yes, agree it's a "club" but not sure this graph totally works for what you're trying to illustrate here. Raos, Polo Bar..they should technically be in the 1st quadrant of this graph (upper right hand corner) indicating high guest potential value AND repeat frequency...no? I think I know what you're trying to get at but the chart just throws me off.
Also guest .... not customer. Even at "diners" like Balthazar ;)
Some interesting ideas, but you could have titled this "Toward a Unifying Theory of Restaurants" to give yourself some room to fill it out.
I'm surprised no one has commented on this! Seems like it would be a polarizing conversation starter for restauranteurs. Is it simply commonly known and accepted and thus uncontroversial? Cafes and other counter service shops have had solutions for this, tech enabled and not (punch cards, square/toast, etc), for some time. Do restaurants just already run a more obfuscated/less participatory version of the same with phone numbers/emails collected from reservations?