Thought one
How is David Chang so disconnected:
“Is there a sustained move toward delivery and away from in-restaurant dining in that new world? Yes. Not to sound callous, but that’s it. I thought that shift was going to happen over the next 10, 15 years, and no one would have noticed because it would’ve happened gradually. This change is now going to happen instantaneously.”
Actually, make that most of the restaurant industry. I speak to many restaurateurs and there’s a general disbelief or reluctance to accept delivery is a thing. You may not like it, you may not embrace it, you may decide not to participate…but it IS a thing.
Like so many industries, tech-disruption is hurtling at you like a freight train. Blink, and its already passed you and it’s in the distance; and you’re probably too far behind on the horizon to ream of hopping on. Sure Covid might have accelerated the engine, but this was always coming at light speed. Not 10-15 years as Chang muses.
If you’ve ever sat around with millennials and a DoorDash app, this was always painfully obvious. They don’t care about your restaurant, they just want to eat.
It’s fascinating that so many industries don’t see themselves as ripe for disruption, or massive change. We will always be, because we’re essential. Remember when Kodak thought digital cameras weren’t a thing, yeah how’d that work out.
I say this as a small business owner myself and almost on a daily basis I think about how to radically rebuild what we do. Change is the only thing you can count on.
Thought two
I’m losing real weight on my Covid diet. My fervently tumbling cement mixer of a brain suggests it could be cancer, because the occham’s razor reality is far less appealing obviously. For reference the Covid-approved diet consists of:
- Actually paying attention to what I put on the plate
- Fairly subdued lunches
- Using leftovers creatively
- Generalized anxiety
- Replacing copious amounts of daily Bud Light intake with copious amounts of boxed red wine
- No visit to the bar in over a month
- Likewise restaurants, March 11th was the last
This morning (remember weigh yourselves first thing, dehydrated guys, it counts) I weighed in at an all time modern day low of 162lbs. During my restaurant critiquing heyday I barreled around at 195lbs or so.
Brain be like: