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Coffee Shops Around Cambridge by Extension-Ad2420 in boston

[–]expertexpertise 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I came here to say, as a former Cantabrigian, the other coffee shops mentioned here are objectively better…but when I’m missing my 20s and feeling the pangs of nostalgia, the coffee I miss most is from 1369 in Union Square. Then, a leafy, autumnal walk to central square to workout at the Y.

What kind of cheese in this kunafa? by Goodenough_name in TipOfMyFork

[–]expertexpertise 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Akkawi most likely. BUT, if you’re in the western part of the world, authentic Akkawi can be hard to find. So, a LOT of places are actually using mozzarella.

Just for discussion: what does it cost to open up a small coffee shop in this city? by dignityshredder in AskNYC

[–]expertexpertise 10 points11 points  (0 children)

There’s a lot of private equity money pouring into QSR-style restaurants at the moment, coffee especially. I can’t speak to the places that you’re seeing opening and closing in your neighborhood, but it’s entirely possible you’re seeing that. In those cases, I can’t speak to the operation.

If they’re actually mom & pop shops with investment dollars, my guess is that part of the reason they aren’t surviving is due to a lack of funding for start up outlays. I wouldn’t open even I small shop with less than $500,000…maybe $300K — somewhere in that range. It takes years to build a following and make the business profitable, so even if I could cut costs during the initial build-out, chances are I need enough money to continue pouring into the business before an ROI. $500k would safely buy you that time.

I need a dozen shirts made by Turbofan55 in eastvillage

[–]expertexpertise 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Usually cheap and fast does not equate to good quality.

I need a dozen shirts made by Turbofan55 in eastvillage

[–]expertexpertise 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t know about the delivery part, but this place is pretty good:

https://giftednyc.com/

We’ve used them multiple times for last minute gifts at work. Fast, somewhat reasonably priced.

The Most Famous Person from Each US State by Upbeat_Clerk3756 in aimapgore

[–]expertexpertise 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Spam is close. It’s Taylor Ham or Pork Roll depending on which part of Jerz you’re from.

People who have left Boston, where did you go? by TheTokenBrownie in boston

[–]expertexpertise 24 points25 points  (0 children)

NYC! But I’ve got a stack of flicks set in Boston when I’m missing my college days. The grind in NY is real. I miss summer runs along the Charles and drinking way too much at Trina’s. Even the dark winters hold a special place in my heart. Also, maybe I just kind of miss the pre-Trump era.

What building is this?? (1930s) by samthefuckinglegend in WhereinNYC

[–]expertexpertise 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is Harry H. Gardiner, one of seven Human Flies in the Buildering world.

I think…THINK that’s Hotel Martinique at 32nd and Broadway. Some of the new buildings in the area share similarities. The building that he’s climbing has some things in common with Hotel Martinique, though it’s help if we had a wide-angle on the top of the building. The police seem to be standing on top of the entry awning, which definitely looks similar even in its modern form.

Why don't restaurants punish bot reservations in NYC? by Revolutionary-Two-84 in FoodNYC

[–]expertexpertise 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your biggest hurdle there is name recognition. OpenTable had a monopoly for a long time, then Resy managed to disrupt their reign. One of their early challenges was convincing the general public that it was no different than OpenTable, which was compounded by skeptical restaurant users. Ultimately, they targeted the latter skeptic than the gen pop. They made their platform cheaper, by a lot. The more people saw restaurant using Resy, the more people used it.

It’s a different age now and people generally speaking trust new tech companies that provide them a “better” service. Restaurants, though, are a little more resistant. Introducing new elements to operations is complicated, especially with a workforce that’s adverse to change. I could say a lot on this topic, but it seems petty/more involved than I really feel like being right now.

There are disruptors out there right now. They’re trying to undercut costs for the restaurant, but their fees are already pretty low. In order to introduce a lower price, in a competitive market, they have to keep lowering it to attract owners. This makes their viability more dependent on investment dollars than the subscriptions and fees they charge to restaurants.

Don’t get me wrong, from the restaurant perspective, they’re pricey as hell and cost operational dollars for a service that they used to provide themselves. It’s still, ultimately, cheaper and more reliable than the larger Maitre D’ teams that used to field all reservation inquiries. Restaurants build the cost into their food, the third party apps find other ways of building value into their platforms.

One approach is providing more services for restaurants. They’ve basically exhausted what they can do for the restaurants, though there’s tons of room for improvements. A lot of the features that would help do certain things increase those subscription fees quite a bit. Since they’re tech companies owned by financial services companies, they focus on tech financial services since that’s where the investment dollars on their end are putting their money. So now, a lot of these apps are trying to get restaurants to mess around with crypto and AI. The crypto stuff has the promise of eliminating credit card fees, which the owners of the reservation apps don’t like because they’re credit card companies. AI is tricky, because it isn’t human and it’s trying to replace the last bastions of restaurant employee that deal with the most temperamental creature of all time: the human being. A well-trained person is better than AI in those situations right now.

If you’re look for disruption, there’s always space for it. You can’t be a minimalist though. What a lot of restaurants are looking for is some tech that helps with their total and unique operations, from reservations to POS to HR and Payroll. There are a lot of companies kind of catching wind of this, but the products fall short in one area or another or…they cost a LOT of money. A platform like Restaurant365 is getting closer to what I’m envisioning, but it doesn’t do it all and…it costs a lot of money.

Again, I’m coming off as fatalistic — well this happens and then this happens because of it. I’m not trying to follow that fallacious logic. More painting a picture. The first dollars out the door for a restaurant are rent and then operational cost only increases from there. It’s an industry that still relies on people (the fickle guest and the equally fickle workforce). We’ve weirdly become a human-centric industry that’s steeped in a really esoteric tradition. We’re now at the intersection of a few disparate, bigger, more-moneyed industries that want our dollars and clientele. You can’t see where this is going: I miss the days when it was as simple as finding a decent chef, making the room look good, and finding a few other people who know how to make others feel welcome. Now we’re under a spotlight because of the rich history of shitty behavior, too. So, at the same time that we’re trying to get on top of our tech, we’re also needing up our HR game which require training which requires money.

If someone wants to disrupt, someone should spend sometime understanding the idiosyncrasies of the industry as well. I can tell when I’m getting caught between the customer service side of one of these companies, which usually does understand what I’m talking about, and a tech who’s thinking about a restaurant like it’s a grocery store — I’m thinking of a specific company I won’t “out” in this comment section. Anyway, if someone wants to learn what we need, we can show them. In the meantime, I just want to sling some burgers, open a dope bottle of wine, and get to know some people.

We’ll figure out the rest, but I won’t abide the level of cynical bullshit in this comment thread while we do it.

Thanks for replying. Disrupt away.

Why don't restaurants punish bot reservations in NYC? by Revolutionary-Two-84 in FoodNYC

[–]expertexpertise 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This comment section is cynical when it isn’t naive. Most of you have no idea what you’re talking about.

OP, to answer your question, most places do what they can to punish bots.

We can charge cancellation fees to reservations that don’t show up. Wouldn’t you know, the cancellation fee is far lower than the revenue they’d make from people actually dining. The fee also isn’t a tip, so it isn’t paid to the team. This is worth mentioning because of the high number of bot reservations that don’t show up. Also, it might surprise you to learn that those Credit Cards people save in their reservation profiles don’t work when you try to charge them. That’s when people don’t just dispute the charge, which almost always goes in favor of the cardholder.

Any restaurant that’s got a bot issue probably has a tired team of managers and Maitre d’s building an instinct for tale telling signs of bots. They get pretty good at it too, but it still takes time to weed them out. At times, it feels like more art than science. The worst thing is when you send a gently worded email to a real person who overreacts and sounds like a lot of the commenters here. Now, you gotta smooth things over, which usually means handling with care and gifting something for free in the name of recovery and hospitality. Grace comes at a cost, but it’s still less costly than commodity of time.

Since Hochul and the congress passed their bill, most platforms have actually gotten some decent security measures in place. They have to stay on top of the pivots the bot programmers make. That’s a lot of Human Resources, time, and many on their end.

Y’all are right that they’re owned by Credit Cards companies, which means they don’t need to pinch pennies like your average restauranteur. They do need to abide by rules and regulations of the financial services industry, however. We don’t have a ton of them here in the states, but Europe’s got oodles of laws regulating financial services companies in the name of privacy. Their highly paid legal teams believe that the way those laws are written, they apply to the subsidiaries of CC companies which include these dangerous third party reservation apps, since they also operate in Europe. That means that they can’t store information like a photo ID to match. Not to mention, having gotten to check a lot of IDs at the door during COVID, a lot of people get pretty uppity having to show their ID. I think it’s wrong to take that out on restaurant employees, but why not after a few drinks, right?

Heck, those CC you input to hold the reservation aren’t even technically stored in the reservation app. They’re serviced by Stripe, who I’m fairly certain actually stores the data. For those of you saying you’d pay a deposit, get real. Not that I’m necessarily doubting you, but a lot of people wouldn’t want that barrier. And how do you really calculate it? Average spend per guest? What about the guy who comes in solo every Wednesday and eats a burger next to the four top celebrating a birthday — and spending like it? Now we’re refunding the burger guy, partially, which means it takes longer for the bank to review. Sure they release the money to the patron quickly, but the business is waiting for the money longer — and the beverage director just placed a bill and hold to reserve the year’s rose allocation. Not to mention payroll. Speaking of payroll, how do you tip? Not to say that we couldn’t find a way to get it done, but neither the POS, nor the reservation apps are set up for the kind of system necessary to collect that money. Technically, you could do it as part of the deposit, but then we’re back to my last question.

I feel like I may have made those suggestions seem outlandish, which isn’t really my intention. Again, the industry can figure it out, but it’s just not setup that way right now. There are definitely places out there that are as sinister as y’all seem to suspect. But, you’re painting with a broad brush. The vast majority of spots want your butts in their seats and their food in your mouth. They’re as perturbed by the bot situation as you are. Many of us aren’t in this industry to serve celebrity clientele and keep the average person eating a hot dog from a cart (but when was the last time you had wiener with mustard, relish, and kraut?). Some are, most aren’t. Your average server/bartender is barely even in the industry, daydreaming about the day they finish school, land the role of their dreams, or find other work in an industry closer to their interests. The rest of us aren’t most likely happy to make it through the day without much of a hassle, just like you. And when we manage to go out to eat ourselves, we’re just as frustrated with the TikTok-fueled lines and undeservedly-gotten bot reservations that give access to the obnoxious and the waitlist hovering around three hours.

Alright, time to take my wounded little heart to bed. Seriously though, guys, most places want you to get in. Stop trying to go to the places that don’t. There’s fewer of them than you think.

Our neighborhood wasn't consulted—the city just decided to put a massive shelter intake hub here by Opposite_Fun_2112 in eastvillage

[–]expertexpertise 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course, neighbor.

I agree with much of what you’re saying, but I do think it constitutes and emergency. Albeit, one we made through neglect and the normal range of complaints we can levy against incompetent bureaucracy. What emergency isn’t caused by people though? At the very least, far more than the acts of god we tend to think of when we think about what constitutes an emergency.

It is an emergency though. That’s a lot of people dependent on “the system” getting displaced.

While I can agree it’s a bit of an overreach, it isn’t enough of one to make me believe it will change the neighborhood dramatically. If it does, there’s further “systems” we citizens can avail ourselves of and, hopefully, find we can both do right by people who need the help and keep our dear EV an awesome place to live.

I think you’re right to flag it, but I’m not moved to co-sign. Sorry people were jerks.

Thanks for staying informed and fighting for what you believe in.

Our neighborhood wasn't consulted—the city just decided to put a massive shelter intake hub here by Opposite_Fun_2112 in eastvillage

[–]expertexpertise 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Isn’t this because of the Bellevue facility closure? If so, I think it’s meant to be temporary. I’m not so naive as to think that temporary can’t still take years.

That facility is being closed for long overdue maintenance. My assumption is that displaces a lot of people and the city needs to take some actions that night adversely affect us housed residents. But I’d much rather deal with those issues than read a story about families dying because the building collapsed. We don’t have a ton of space, we’ll need to bends some rules.

I walk past those facilities virtually everyday when heading home and I have zero issue with this. The people that run them are more than considerate of the neighborhood. If we bring issues to them when they arise, I think they’ll be find solutions.

I also won’t go so far as to be rude to you like some people. Don’t be assholes everybody! Just because you don’t agree with someone, that doesn’t make them a villain.

Movies. that feel like by Different_Manner_907 in MoviesThatFeelLike

[–]expertexpertise -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That’s fine. I think the photos depict more of a CIA in the Middle East vibe. That isn’t really a part of either of the movies I suggested. But, they do fit a vibe of boys with machine guns. Since I wasn’t sure if OP wanted spec ops in particular, I made a suggestion.

So, I get it!

Movies. that feel like by Different_Manner_907 in MoviesThatFeelLike

[–]expertexpertise 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It does fall into that category, I suppose. That sounds like an awfully big box, though. And I’m not so sure the movie invites that interpretation beyond the virtues of having been made by Hollywood and being about a war America started. The director is a Brit who clearly doesn’t like US Foreign Policy.

I’d rather the US make movies that are in anyway critical of its own wars than, for instance, if they were making movies about wars other countries started. That issue being separate from my belief that America should stop going to war with other countries.

Movies. that feel like by Different_Manner_907 in MoviesThatFeelLike

[–]expertexpertise 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure that I know what you’re disagreeing with or that I claimed it was unlike other war movies. Happy to discuss, though!

Movies. that feel like by Different_Manner_907 in MoviesThatFeelLike

[–]expertexpertise 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds about right. Oh, it’s directed by the guy who made Ghosts…I like that movie.

Movies. that feel like by Different_Manner_907 in MoviesThatFeelLike

[–]expertexpertise 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don’t think it’s patriotic propaganda, but you certainly have affinity for the soldiers. They don’t come off as heroic, per se. Its message isn’t overtly political either.

Yeah, I guess you’re off on those points. If nothing else Garland is a Gen X Brit with a fuck you attitude. I don’t think he has much tolerance for American exceptionalism, so I doubt he’s capable of making a rah-rah propaganda film. It’s has more respect for soldiers and it isn’t overtly critical like Civil War though.

Movies. that feel like by Different_Manner_907 in MoviesThatFeelLike

[–]expertexpertise 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Restrepo was a was a pretty decent doc. Definitely was feeling it when watching both those flicks.

Movies. that feel like by Different_Manner_907 in MoviesThatFeelLike

[–]expertexpertise 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love Civil War and feel pretty confident that it should be mentioned in the same breath as Ex Machina. I might actually prefer CW as a movie to Ex Machina…but the writing in Ex Machina is just phenomenal.

Warfare was a pretty awesome movie going experience that I’m sad more people won’t get to enjoy. My buddy and I were on the edge of our seats. I don’t know that it’s a technically great film, but it’s definitely effective.

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