Introduction to the Menu / Mission Statement Workshop (Baresco, you're on notice!)

Richard started the day with 'Odds & Ends', where students speak of their restaurant experiences from the past weekend, through the filter of what we study. Russian Pam Anderson seems to go out a lot, late at night, with her husband -- they hit up Spice Market and Fig & Olive on different nights, both in the Meat Packing district. Other than being surprised by the lack of business they were doing on weekend nights around midnight, she was primarily annoyed by the 'small plates' of F&O being too much food -- no one likes to over-order.

The Ramen Kid described waiting for 2 hours to get a seat at a hot ramen bar, and drank a lot of sake in their bar while waiting. The advantage of hype -- people are not only happy to wait for a table, they spend on high-profit booze and the line itself becomes a sort of advertisement for others.

Whitey Sushi Cook described a dinner at a high-end sushi joint that offered nothing by way of dessert -- that annoyed Richard, as it's such an apparent way of pulling in a chunk of cash easily, particularly when the restaurant is not busy and you don't need to vacate the table. I chimed in, as I went to Korean BBQ with my friend K this past weekend -- I never get dessert at Asian joints, but she was in the need for a sweet and ended up getting the ONE thing they had for dessert -- red bean ice cream. It was good, but still. They were in a big hurry to get us out of there, there was a line.

I spoke of my recent experience at Batali's Otto -- the cold temp, the distracted waitress, the over-cheesed and poorly-made pizza. The professor said that underlined the fact that most people don't know what good food is -- places with a name like Batali can get away with sub-standard food because people just assume it must be good because of the media cloud. Richard went on a bit about the design of the restaurant -- the front is a very elegant bar...that is almost all standing room. They can pack in a lot of people for those high-profit drinks. Looking from the bar, you see a long dining room, with tables to the left and right, all spaced pleasantly with lots of room to move. However, when you pass through, there is the main dining room, with its smaller tables, chairs that bump up next to your neighbors, and waiters who must serve from only one spot at the table because theres no space to get in there.

Our introduction to the menu was not what I expected. It started with a simple question:

Why do people go out to eat?

Here is what the class threw out, in no particular order:

• Do not have to/want to/able to/no time to cook
• Special occasion
• Socialize
• Convenience
• To be served
• Entertainment (or as some restaurant reviewer once coined, "Dine-utainment")
• No equipment (Pepe's in New Haven has a coal-burning oven, I do not)
• At work
• For a business meeting
• Travelling/touring
• Exploring a different cuisine
• Killing time
• Get out of the apartment
• To be in a warm/cool room
• Seems like it's cheaper (though even with the cheapest places, it's usually not if you really know how to cook.)

And two things that the professor pointed out that we did not mention:

• Hungry
• Nutrition

If your going to try to meet the needs of your clients, your concept should focus on the first list. If you think your client is coming to your restaurant mainly because they are hungry and seek nutrition, you're most likely going to be derailed by everything else that goes into how one chooses a restaurant....

And the next question was:

Why do you choose one restaurant over another?

• Convenience
• Cost/value
• Location
• Consistency/reliability
• Perks/promotions
• Food quality/quantity
• Service & staff
• Ambiance & decor
• Recommendation
• Beverage selection
• Sanitation
• Habit
• See & be seen
• Entertainment value

All these factors serve to make a restaurant competitive. Richard again pointed out that food is just one of many factors -- in most cases, it's not the factor that makes you competitive. In fact, it's more likely to hold you back. When thinking of a strategy for long term competitiveness, certain things will serve you better than others. Being cheap is not particularly effective, as shown by the fast food price wars started by Wendy's then mimicked by all the chains. Burger King's flame-broiling over McDonalds, now there is a factor that would be neither cheap nor easy for a competitor to take over. As is Lombardi's coal-burning pizza oven.

Next up was more Mission Statement Workshop. We each introduced our statement at the table and chose which one to pick apart. Both Jazzman and Pastry didn't write one: dudes, why are you spending your time and money here if you're not going to do the work? Chicagoette had semi-formed statement about a Mexican-themed home style restaurant, and I presented my statement about my pizza product, but took it off the table as not being a restaurant (and felt a bit egotistical to put it forward, as no one else seemed to want to lead the table.) Lenin-Pisser had switched seats with Northfork, a blonde lady with a mission statement about a coffee/gelato cafe attached to an (already existing) artisinal coffee roaster on the Northfork of Long Island. That makes me a little excited because B 'n me have been spending vacation time on the Northfork since we met, so maybe forging a new connection with it could be really cool.

Professor opened up talk to pick apart the other groups. Russian Pam Anderson had an idea for a Mediterranean wine bar in the west village, which sounded like a strong concept but her grammar was lacking a bit. Whitey Sushi Cook had an idea for a sake-smoking bar, which Richard pretty much shot down from the start as being illegal in NYC, where the statement said it was to be. The smoking restaurants that were grandfathered in after the smoking ban will be losing their smoking rights soon, and the legal trickery needed to open a smoking restaurant makes it nearly impossible now.

I asked the professor for his view on the effect of the smoking ban in bars and restaurants in NYC, and he said it was exactly as predicted: there was a small dip in customers briefly, but soon came back stronger than before and stayed that way. Proof positive that the bottom line is that there are more non-smokers who like to go out than smokers, but non-smoker's behavior don't make smokers want to stay home or leave early.

We spent the last half-hour broken up into random groups and were then sent out to explore some assigned Italian restaurants in the neighborhood. On Wednesday we'll reconvene with notes, and write concept statements for them. Problem is, at 11am on a frigid Monday, any restaurant that doesn't do a breakfast service is very closed. Bar Baresco looks very nice from the outside, with nice modern leather-backed seats, but I'll just have to hit it up tomorrow for a meal with the wifey. Bar Baresco, look out, I'm comin' to student-review you!