Menu 6
- 2. Menu 6 is a philosophy, an ideal, and a way of life. It is a new way of envisioning the world which will soon transform our society.
- 3. Menu 6 • The problem
- 4. The problem Restaurant menus of the modern age
- 5. The problem Restaurant menus of the modern age
- 6. The problem Restaurants of the modern age suffer from debilitating menu bloat. In an attempt to satisfy as many customers as possible, restaurants pad their menus with mediocre options which do not represent their specialties. When competing with another restaurant to capture as many customers as possible, size matters… creating a vicious cycle of menus bloated with inferior choices. These items distract and divert from the true quality the restaurant offers.
- 7. The problem Our society has come to fetishize choice, personalization, and individuality. The result is great difficulty navigating the structure imposed on us by the modern restaurant to find the excellence, beauty, and quality which makes us proud to be part of human civilization.
- 8. The problem This problem has existed for centuries. Societies have devised various strategies to cope.
- 9. Menu 6 • The problem • Partial solutions
- 10. Ask the waiter At most restaurants, just ask and the waiter is happy to distill a lengthy menu down to a few special dishes which the staff recognize as the standouts. Most waiters will also earnestly indicate which dishes are not particularly good. These “not special” dishes are the menu bloat.
- 11. Chinese restaurants When advertising a restaurant in China, region is used to communicate what the specialties are. Shanghainese Beijing Sichuan Mongolian Cantonese …
- 12. Restaurant Week During Restaurant Week, a restaurant demonstrates the quality of its best offerings to encourage customers to return. This is often an opportunity for the chef to distill his menu down to a few items which he truly excels at and can comfortably produce in large quantity. Restaurant Week is Menu 6 week.
- 13. Yelp
- 14. Partial solutions The prevalence of these partial solutions indicates a systemic problem. Only a complete solution can bring us out of the Dark Ages of the restaurant menu and usher in a new Age of Enlightenment.
- 15. Menu 6 • The problem • Partial solutions • The complete solution: Menu 6
- 16. The complete solution: Menu 6 The theory of Menu 6 holds that no restaurant should offer more than 6 items on its menu. Beyond 6 items, a restaurant has expanded beyond the core dishes it truly excels at. This applies equally to cocktails, desserts, etc.
- 17. The complete solution: Menu 6 Menu 6 is a philosophy of quality as paramount. Menu 6 is the belief that the key to the best possible restaurant dining experience is to limit a restaurant to its best possible dishes.
- 18. The complete solution: Menu 6 Menu 6 is a normative claim that quality is better than quantity. Enjoying what the chef excels at is better than satisfying the particular preferences you bring into the restaurant.
- 19. The complete solution: Menu 6 Menu 6 is a first step. At first, it will be an alternative menu alongside the more traditional menu given to less sophisticated customers. Over time – perhaps decades – society will embrace a preference for quality and recognize its reliance on Menu 6 alone, and we will eliminate the menu as we know it today.
- 20. Menu-6.com