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Thursday, April 18, 2002
A bunch of hard-core Chowhounders recently organized the first Chowathon, visiting 24 Chicagoland restaurants in a 24-hour period. One of them smartly invited along a Trib reporter, who covered the experience and summarized each of the stops on the tour in today's paper.
The list of visited restaurants reads like a laundry list of places I need to visit, places that embody the quintessence a Chowhoundian discovery. Hopefully I'll be able to join in on the next Chowathon. Until then, I've got plenty of places I need to get under my belt. So to speak.
posted by sandor weisz at 12:22 PM | 4 comments
Wednesday, April 17, 2002
Just as the Friendly Confines are free of any outside advertising -- at least for now -- so should be our restrooms. An ad-free ballpark lets you concentrate on the task at hand, and an ad-free restroom will do the same. This doesn't preclude posting such things as newsletters or pieces from today's paper, as long as those items properly reflect the mood of the whole place. I hate the idea that we're so cheap that we'd be willing to sell wall space over our urinals just to earn a few measly bucks.
Speaking of concentrating on the task at hand, we'd also be wise to follow the lead of the Dutch, who've implemented a fiendlishly clever idea in the men's restrooms in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport that dramatically reduces clean-up time. I can speak from experience; it does work.
posted by sandor weisz at 3:17 PM | Comment?
Monday, April 15, 2002
Alternative idea on the tax front: on every tax day, sales tax is withheld for anyone who carries in an envelope addressed to the IRS. We could hire a courier to stand at the door and collect returns, then zip off to the post office every hour or so. We'd even provide free postage.
This is essentially equivalent to offering, what, a 9% discount? Our slogan could be, "We put the fun back in refund," except that refunds already are a lot of fun. New rule: you only get the discount if you're not getting any money back.
posted by sandor weisz at 3:43 PM | Comment?
While strolling down North Avenue on my way back from lunch last week, I passed by a restaurant I'd never seen before. I peeked at the menu in the window, hoping it would be cheap enough to add to my list of lunchtime excursion possibilities. Not only was it cheap enough, it had the following phrase at the top of the menu: All prices include sales tax.
First thought: What a brilliant idea! Second thought: If it's so brilliant, why haven't I ever seen this implemented at a restaurant before?
It makes too much sense. And unless there's so obvious drawback to this strategy that I'm missing, we must apply it to our menu. Tax has always added unnecessary anxiety to the buying process for me, so it's a refreshing feeling when I know the price I'm being quoted is exactly how much I'll be charged.
It'll help in other ways. Big parties will be alleviated of the hassle of including tax when trying to split up the bill. And I haven't done the math on this yet, but I have a feeling it'll somehow work in the favor of our waitstaff's take.
posted by sandor weisz at 3:05 PM | 3 comments
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