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by rjett
4072 days ago
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Interesting. By getting rid of front of house, that eliminates on average 80% of the square footage needed to be a full service restaurant, and they can vie for non-premium properties, so rent will be much cheaper. That said, all else is pretty much the same as any other restaurant business. Delivery drivers replace front of house workers on almost a one for one basis. Kitchen buildout is the same cost. And customers will be customers until they have their first bad experience. They're playing a volume game. And without alcohol sales, they'll need a lot of volume. So then the question is this: Does "fancy food" from a high end chef like David Chang have a wide enough appeal to solicit the type of volume needed for this to be successful? I suspect it does in pockets of NYC. From a higher vantage point, I'm less optimistic. Restaurants are about more than food though. Their job is to set a stage with design, lighting, music, background noises, service, plating, and conversation amongst other human beings. That's why people pay $1000 for a bottle of wine, $45 for a New York Strip, or $4.50 for a cup of coffee. If we didn't care about these other things, we would all be getting delivery, making our own food, or eating out of vending machines and paying 75% less to do so. |
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My delivery options are very limited, and vending machine food is almost universally terrible. I cook a lot, and like it. However, sometimes I do not have the time or do not want to devote the time to cook, so I go to a restaurant. Plus, there are some things I can't do well at home for lack of equipment. For those cases, I go to a restaurant. I don't care much about design and lighting, hate having what most places call music, don't like much background noise, and really don't care what the food looks like on the plate. It is a predominantly functional experience for me. Some of my favorite restaurants are very Spartan affairs.
Now, I have no idea how typical I am and suspect it varies based on location. I am probably closer to typical here in Dallas than I would be in NYC.