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Restaurants at the end of the Web...Part 2

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OK, as promised, here’s the installment 2 of Restaurants at the end of the Web…

Scenario: You’re hungry so you go to a GENERIC place that advertises that they will serve you anything you want.

Today, let’s look at the process we observe at Irv the ISV’s Diner. Going to Irv's is like the way we do most application software development today. At Irv’s each meal is unique and, while Irv knows the basics of cooking, he seldom can reuse the recipe for a dish he’s made in the past.

Irv's Motto: We make each meal one-at-a-time…and we never make it until you ask for it!

  1. You’re hungry for a particular meal
  2. Irv has no set offerings and no menu and says “What do you want?” and then negotiates with you on a meal.
  3. You and Irv agree on meal to be prepared (he writes it down, most time you in jargon that's hard for you to understand).
  4. You provides some form of down payment to Irv so the cook can create your meal (Irv wants to know knows you won’t order-and-dash)
  5. Irv goes to the kitchen and gives order (as best he can) to cook.
  6. Cook:
    1. Determines what ingredients and recipes she has available (generally not much on-hand and most of her recipes are not reusable)
    2. She asks assistant chef #1 to go to grocery store to get readily available items.
    3. She asks assistant chef #2 to grow, from seed, various spices because she doesn't trust the ones from the store.
    4. She asks assistant chef #3 to go to Williams Sonoma to buy a special pan because she doesn’t have the one she needs to make your meal.
    5. Then she meals as best she inventing as she goes.
  7. Irv brings the dish to you.
  8. You comment that you asked for something slightly different. Irv and the cook then repeat steps 3 through 6, unless it’s an agile restaurant then this interaction is faster but substantively the same although perhaps with less waste.
  9. You eventually agree to accept food although it most likely not exactly what you wanted. By this time you are usually either (a) too hungry to wait any longer, (b) don’t have more money/time to invest in iterations, or (c) its close enough and you’re tired of iterating.
  10. BOTTOM LINE: Most of the time you feel that you would have had a better experience if you had stayed home and cooked for yourself.

As we can observe, not exactly the most efficient place to eat or work. Irv's cook is very qualified but she labors under so much re-inventing that she's thinking about working somewhere else where her talents can be put to better use. She wishes she could convince Irv to let her write down her recipes and keep some ingredients in the kitchen but Irv says he doesn't have time to discuss it.

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