Another Restaurant Idea. This time the public is the cook. Unlike Kramer’s “Make your own Pie” concept, the public doesn’t make their own food, but they do create their own recipes…we call the place something like “Lazy dave’s,” “Name the Menu,” “I make that,” “Your recipe, our oven,” something like that.

We build a restaurant with a “local atmosphere” and the day we break ground we launch an open menu campaign. We put adds in local papers, tv, and radio that our menu is going to be based entirely on recipes we get from the public (hence the name “Lazy Dave’s”). We take in recopies and pick the ones that seem like they have the best chance of being good. We build a menu from that and contact the people who’s recipe’s we used. We have them sign release forms and agree to name their food after them in some creative, wacky way.

Every table will have suggestion cards (probably get more asshole answers than serious ones) for customers to offer ideas about the restaurant. Not just the food. They can suggest uniforms for the staff, ways to decorate the restaurant, different kinds of beers (bottled), what kind of carpet cleaner to use...you get the idea.

Customers can write or email us new recipes and we will keep them stockpiled until we reset the menu. This happens in normal restaurants every now and then anyway.

Each table of course has their own tv so the customer can choose what to watch. Ear plugs would also be given to each customer just in case they actually wanted to listen to the show they are watching. The customer has a lot of control (I thought about trotting out servers a la the bunny ranch for each customer to pick as they enter the restaurant, but that would be a bit much). Every hour on the hour a random customer gets to pick one item (from a select group) that is ½ off for that hour. This way we can get rushes on the hour that last the whole hour. This could also possibly minimize the “walk away” rate when we are on a wait because people will stick around to see what is going to be half off next. We would also have a traditional happy hour with the more traditional idea that every night there is a different drink special.

We can even take votes on what to do on the weekend. I don’t think local karaoke dj’s will be upset if you cancel at the last minute. Of course any kind of big promotion we will have to lock in and advertise, but we can even have customers advertise for us. Have a “most compelling facebook advertisement” contest for the bar. Winner gets free drinks for the night they advertise for (we will base our judgment on how many views they get.

The main idea for the place will be that anyone with a good recipe could be (at least locally) famous. After their dish is retired from the menu they would join a wall of fame with a picture and a copy of their recipe on a wall.