01.2024 Edition

Editor: Justin Khanna​

Hey Reader,

Happy New Year! 🎊

As we enter 2024, my mind is filled with thoughts of optimism.

Today, I want to make a strong case for embracing optimism and why it's essential in a world where pessimism and negativity often hold sway.

Why optimism, you might ask?

Well, 2024 marks a significant milestone for me – it's been a full decade since I started creating content, at least in a formal sense.

Not all of my early work is readily available for you to watch, but I can vividly recall the first video I published on my main YouTube channel - it was an unforgettable Norwegian seafood diving excursion, an adventure I embarked on with my kitchen team at Lysverket, accompanied by a marine biologist and a world-class diver.

I won't deny that there's a stark contrast between that initial upload and the numerous uploads I have planned for this year.

The doubt I often feel when hitting the "Publish" button has grown along with my audience, which is now thousands of times larger than it was back then.

On top of that, the internet itself has evolved significantly, with an overwhelming influx of high-quality content vying for viewers' attention.

As I reached new audiences myself and built a catalog of content, I couldn't help but notice that negativity and pessimism have become almost as ubiquitous as oxygen if you find yourself increasingly online.

When you factor in "what-about-ism" rhetoric, anonymous commenting under pseudonyms like "user_908713250," and the rise of tribalism, it becomes evident that the cost of spreading negativity is nearly zero.

Let's not forget the gravity of monetization incentives and the fact that, often, when we enjoy someone else's content, we simply consume it and move on with our day.

Said differently: optimism and positivity often go unnoticed, buried beneath like counts, view counts, or the number of 🔥 emojis left under a post. The genuine expressions of love and appreciation are frequently overshadowed by an overwhelmingly high ratio of witty critiques and attempts to "dunk" on content creators.

I recently came across a peculiar form of internet-native language called "downtalk."

You've maybe seen it before, peppering comments sections with phrases like "My dude, bad take. This ain't it, chief. Read the room, and do better. Delete your account."

It doesn't "get the people going" to be positive. People want the drama.

It's no wonder that most content creators and producers don't make it to their 10-year mark.

Occasionally, I put myself to the test when I encounter a frustrating comment on my work:

I look at the next post in my feed and ask myself, "How could this be spun negatively? What's a bash I could add to this post?" Astonishingly, I always find something I could potentially criticize.

Of course, I never engage in hurling negativity, but it serves as a stark reminder that it's effortless and inexpensive to be negative.

This example brings to mind a quote that I've modified to better suit my memory: "Pessimists get to be right. Optimists get to be rich."

So, as we step into this new year, the question is: do you want to be right, or do you want to embrace the potential for growth, even if it comes with the risk of failure?

Will you choose to remain in your comfort zone (where nothing changes), or will you venture out and seek challenging opportunities?

When you consume content, will you look for negative comments to make, or will you seek the lessons it can offer?

Speaking for myself, I've decided to choose the latter in each of these question sets, and I hope you'll join me in doing the same.

Optimism. Empathy. "Toxic Positivity". Gas people up. Support great work. Spread the love.

Here's to an incredible 2024! 🥂

Worth Reading 💥

​Reality is a Long Game​

Food writer & photographer Bonjwing Lee went off on this one as a "State of the Union" on restaurants this week.

"On both coasts and in between, restaurants are becoming indistinguishable from each other, a polyglot brew of bistro and trattoria, with a streak of boho, or a dash of Chinese and Moroccan thrown in as an attempt at personality.

Steak frites will show up alongside a stew of chickpeas with chermoula, for example.

A roasted head of cauliflower and XO sauce is no longer culturally at odds on a menu with tacos al pastor (I hear they nixtamalize and grind the masa in-house).

Seafood tower, anyone? How about a plate of finely sliced charcuterie? Don’t forget the pasta section. Oh, and there might be pizza too."

Our Take: This echoes a lot of sentiments we're seeing on-and-off the internet lately.

It's not just business owners who are seeing the ramifications of infusing politics and social issues in their businesses; consumers are too.

(Cue the optimism ✨) We see opportunities across three "flags that might get planted" in the months to come in our industry:

• A "No"-Focused Identity - It won't be about all the things your restaurant/team CAN do, it'll be about the vital few things you choose to do after saying "no" to everything else. What do you want to be known for? What do you want guests to tell their friends about you? Of course you can make a bangin' noodle dish, but should it be on the menu at this concept?
• Exemplifying Excellence - This is a double edged sword. Excellence requires high levels of performance. Performance requires putting skilled people in positions to do what they do best. Skilled people require development. Development comes at a cost of time, money and resources. It's not to say there isn't space for lowest-common-denominator businesses where anyone can be hired and execute on the product correctly. But the bar is so low to be impressive in 2024. We're excited to see the organizations and teams that really go for it this year.
• Guest-Driven Dining - Instead of seeing concepts being applauded as being "chef-driven", the goal should be to point to elements that prioritize the guest first. Less: flexing on a new flavor combination that made the menu just because "you've never seen it before" and more: "you wanted to make yourself another plate of these because I polished off the tasting portion you just made". We're already seeing the decline in guests bragging about the "number of courses" in an experience; too many people have been through a 11 course dinner that was just flop after flop. They'd rather have a 90-minute experience that's truly satisfying and enjoyable. Consider it through the lens of a re-defined view of humility from Rick Warren: "it's not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less" (See this Guest-Driven vs Chef-Driven idea discussed on Episode #120 of the podcast with Max Shapiro)

​Manresa's New Plan​

Remember the news that David Kinch's 3-Michelin starred Manresa was closing down? It's technically opening it's doors again in 2024 - but with a new chef-in-residence-style twist called Ritual.

Chef Kinch is credited as the "Culinary Ambassador" as he firmly steps into a curation role in this new chapter (he's in his 60's btw!). This is a great example of your "network being your net-worth", especially comparing this to the route that he was supposedly going to go down in 2023 via selling the property & just continuing to"work at his other, more casual properties".

Because we're nerdy about numbers, let's dig into some guess-timated details here (if you have info you're willing/able to share real numbers about this story, we'd love to hear them! Just hit "reply" to this email and provide your sources):

• It was reported in August of 2023 that "a lease has been signed" on the space. By who? We're unsure, but did Chef Kinch dust his hands clean of the property but come on as a consultant for the project, allowing them to "use" the name? The next few dot points might explain how/why 👇
• In doing some digging on LinkedIn, there are 16 team members listed at Ritual. The 2 Co-Founders supposedly come from experience through Y-Combinator and launching MEITRE (a reservations, guest and revenue management platform).
• The town of Los Gatos lists the net property value of the Manresa space at $2,407,638
• Other sources have the valuation between $3.5m-$4.9m
• Running some back-of-napkin math on these dinners, 3-weeks per chef (ticket page says a 5-day week), times 10 months (they're skipping February and October apparently), times 48-seats per night at a $450/pp before beverages, this concept will do a minimum of $3,240,000 in revenue this year. That's if every single seat sells out for every single chef on every single night (so far the case on the website).

If that's the case, and Chef Kinch has a reasonable amount of skin in the game in this, what a phenomenal way to ride off into the sunset in closing your restaurant 👏 gets a chunk of a 7-figure windfall in selling the property and manages to maintain cashflow with a pretty hands-off and low-time-investment lifestyle.

Oh, and if you wanted to save yourself a click, here's who is going to be featured on each respective month:

January: Aponiente, Chef Ángel León (Spain, 3 Michelin Stars)

March: Atomix, Chef Junghyun Park (New York, 2 Michelin Stars; World’s Best Top 10)

April: D.O.M. Chef Alex Atala (São Paulo, 2 Michelin Stars)

May: The Clove Club, Chef Isaac McHale (London, 2 Michelin Stars)

June: Odette, Chef Julien Royer (Singapore, 3 Michelin Stars)

July: Ikoyi, Chef Jeremy Chan (London, 2 Michelin Stars)

August: The Jane Antwerp, Chef Nick Bril (Antwerp, 2 Michelin Stars)

September: Lasarte, Chef Paolo Casagrande (Japan, 3 Michelin Stars)

November: Chef Paul Liebrandt (New York, Chef of Previous Michelin Starred Restaurants)

December: Château de la Chèvre D’Or, Chef Arnaud Faye (Paris, 2 Michelin Stars)

Our Take: What we wanted to highlight here was the way that tickets are being sold for these experiences.

There's a "membership" to this whole concept that costs $190/month ($2,280/year) for nearly-guaranteed spots at each dinner.

The way it works is that members get access to booking all 5 days of the week (Wed-Sun). Non-members only have the ability to book on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and you're still competing with members on those days through the standard reservation-platform booking experience.

Members also get meet-and-greets with the chefs, "concierge service" (potentially to coordinate other elements of the experience like travel, hotel stay, transportation, wine tours, etc.), the ability to book a private room (available for 8-12 guests), and more.

Excuse us while we add more back-of-napkin-math, but if they can successfully get enough members to both sign-up AND book on those 3-nights a week that are reserved for them (Fri-Sun), that's adding an additional $820K in just membership revenue, helping this business crack $4M/year, only operating dinners for 10 months out of the year.

Between flying out and putting up the chefs & their teams, sourcing product, staffing and other operational expenses...will it be profitable? Only time will tell.

Another fun figure: as a member, if you end up taking advantage of every element of your membership and dine at least once per chef, you'll have spent a minimum of $6,400 by the end of 2024 at Ritual.

What do you think?

If you live in the Bay Area, compared to the time & money required to travel to Spain, Belgium, France, London, Brazil, Singapore, NYC...maybe it IS worth it?

Share your thoughts with us - just hit "reply" to this email!

ICYMI 🙌

🎙️ I had the immense pleasure of joining Mike and David of The Focused Podcast for their 193rd episode talking "The Problem with Mise en Place" - this is an audience outside of my typical hospitality-professional circle, and I had a blast jamming on this one.

🎉 The Repertoire Podcast cracked the Goodpods Top 50 Food Podcasts in 2023, as well as getting a ton of love from you folks in this year's Spotify Wrapped. Massive thanks to everyone who listens to the show!

This Week, We Learned… 🧠

nick kokonas @nickkokonas Next has about 70 seats (rounding) and a private dining room (PDR) that seats 12. With a large staff and a high level of execution what cuisines *do work*? It's not surprising, but it is narrow -- and has some broader market lessons. /1 1:40 PM • Dec 9, 2023 3 Retweets 120 Likes Read 8 replies

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• Re-designed dinner checks, an ad-supported restaurant network, and 50+ more "Hopes and Dreams" for restaurants in 2024 from the folks at Blackbird.
• This pastry shop in NYC does a $50 box of cereal made of tiny spoon-sized croissants 🥐
• Investor Jason Calacanis is accepting applications for a 14-week LAUNCH CloudKitchens Incubator program for folks who want to enter the space or find a co-founder
• Tempering steaks, actually tested 🥩

Comment from you folks:

To Peep 👀

• MISE Footwear launches a relaxed fit with a collapsable heel

• Korin is doing 20% off of knife accessories (new sharpening stones, anyone?) until 1/31
• Gestura still has stock of their Japanese-steel cake testers ($14/each)
• Breville's counter top Smart Oven now comes in Red
• This ThermPro instant-read thermometer for 30% off
• Messermeister has a decent sale on knives right now, but what caught my eye was this interesting messenger-style knife bag if you want to carry both knives and taller items like sharpening stones, tall notebooks, etc.

Quote I'm Pondering 💭

Thanks for reading, as always,

👊Justin​

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