As for the offering itself (pre-paying a large sum in advance for, essentially, free-food-for-life at a new restaurant): I wonder if that's a sane method for restaurants generally. There are two in Ogaki that I'd happily spend $1k on, but I'd worry that it would change my relationship with the owners. Being a regular at the local diner is great -- the owner comes out to greet you when you come in, you always get exactly what you like exactly the way you like it, and in general they try to make you feel like a king. I'd hate to have date night in 2019 ruined by "Patrick, you're here again? Dude, it's a Saturday night. I could sell that table. #($'#( it. Well, OK, what will it be -- the free #%(#ing burger again?"
Probably it is how the awards will be defined. Because kickstarter is not preorder.
Also the Kickstarter community so far has shown to be remarkably supporting. So I doubt that they will abuse the privileges that will be awarded. Also basic rule for the rewards should be that you are overpaying but you like it that way. The 1000 burgers for 1000 GBP is clearly unsustainable. But looking at the KS it seems more like a marketing stunt the high tiers. So it is probably budgeted.
I guess most people would eat 200 burgers (I'd say at the high end..) which would come out to 5GBP per burger. Not bad for the establishment.. I can't think of any average but even 100 sounds high to me.
In this author's case, he will be introducing new customers to the restaurant. In fact a stipulation "exactly two burgers" instead of "at least two burgers" would have been better. Also the opportunity cost of selling a table is fairly low (about 10 GBP if that is the cost of two burgers).
Personally, I have fallen in love with some burgers but after a month or two of obsessing I have to hold back because of satiation.
You could just order one to eat there and one to go. If you don't eat it later. Well, 998 to go now.
I'd bring them back to the office, and simply start tossing them at people in their cubicles (or in the parking lot from a moving vehicle if they were unlucky enough to be walking past when I pulled in), and basically just feed the entire building.
I don't think they intended that to happen with their little loss-leader deal to get folks in the door, but it sure was fun. It caught on too. If you haven't had a sack of 20 warm burgers dumped into your lap while you weren't paying attention, you haven't lived.
The way it works is simple: you pay me a fixed price, like $6 or $10, and show up at a particular restaurant at a particular time. My partner and I order hamburgers and cheeseburgers and you get to have as many as you want.
He died at 99, one month from turning 100. Never had heart disease, never had cholesterol problems. He lived in an area in which all the people have similar dietary habits. In fact if you'll ever come to Romania, you'll notice that only the French eat fatter and IMHO the jury is still out on that one, because while the French use tons of butter for everything, I think we are eating more pork-based dishes (bathed in sunflower oil), more than anybody else, pork being way more popular than fish, beef or even chicken (during the holidays). You should see my favorite dishes ;-)
The above is just an anecdote of course, but do take studies with a grain of salt, especially studies on nutrition. Such studies cannot control or even estimate all the variables involved (short of keeping subjects in a cage locked away for 20 years) and cannot be conducted doubly-blind. We are a long way off to understanding anything about the impact of our diet.
Also, it should make you wonder why in the world your medics declared war on fat since 1960, while they ignored the biggest elephant in the room, which is our increased intake of sugar.
A better deal for you meat-eaters - go to market and buy your own cow!!! I think that with post and packaging you could get a whole one for £200 or so depending on how lame it was. Give your cow a name, e.g. Ronald.
Next, get some meat grinder or improvise one. Pop to your local hire shop and just hire one of those chipper things tree surgeons use to turn whole trees into small bits. Give it a proper clean and now put your freshly purchased cow through it. You might want to hire a chainsaw too so you can cut things like the anus out first, or maybe the eyes or perhaps the teeth if you don't want to choke on them in your burger. You could even cut off things like Ronald's gonads for a special treat. Depends on when you hire, but you can expect to part with a good £50 - £100 for hiring such tools.
Now for freezing your 100% pure British Beef. Get a few chest freezers from the local tip or advertised on a freecycle thing. Expect to pay a few bob to a mate with a van big enough to get your chest freezers home. Maybe offer to pay in burgers.
The electricity bill for the freezers could be £100 a year, maybe even higher depending on how big your cow was. Depending on how many burgers you scoff and how quickly your 'leccy bill will vary.
How many burgers you end up making depends on how thin you make your burgers and how much connective tissue (brain, spinal cord) you put through the wood-chipper. You could make many, many thousands of them rather than a mere one thousand. Or you could make just the one cow-sized burger. Or do whatever on a day to day basis, maybe making other beef creations like shepherds pie from the basic mix. Or perhaps meatballs - just drop them in the deep-fat fryer as and when the urge arises.
One benefit of this DiY approach is that any sarky vegetarians will be impressed that you haven't left the difficult killing bit up to some distant abattoir, plus you will have connected with your inner hunter-gatherer self by getting immersed in the gore of killing an animal, as God intended. There will also be considerable benefits when the zombie apocalypse happens, as predicted by George W Bush in 2001.
I don't get it. Why would you name the cow? It's not like it's a pet, or even a dairy cow. It's for eating.
Also why would you use a chainsaw?
Seems imprecise and messy.
I think it would be more efficient to have a specialized tool. But that tool would require a significant ammount of capital... Probably more than the cow! (or buying the burgers).
Maybe someone could have as a paid service a system where you could pay to use or rent the relevant equipment?
Is anyone doing that? Might be profitable. Note to self or others: look into that.
Although, I don't really feel like making a business out of that? It doesn't seem particularly elegant.
Also, my cooking skills aren't very good, so I don't think it would turn out as well?
Maybe I could do the initial cutting apart though?
And then pay someone else to turn the meat into burgers?
That's yet another thing to pay for though, and I don't think anyone is in the business of making burgers out of customer provided meat at the individual scale yet though.
Note to self: investigate this business idea as well.
(combined with renting out the machine???)
All in all, it seems rather time consuming though.
Maybe once every other month as a novelty?
Could be entertaining.
I wonder if the same equipment works with chickens.
... Speaking of which, I'm having trouble imagining a chicken bleed. Does it look the same as other animal blood?
Is it different because it's a bird?
I can imagine a cow bleeding fine, but that might be because the fur is short?
I also have trouble imagining a fish bleed, but I think I kind of remember that, so it's a bit easier.
I guess chicken bleeding would look normal then?
The London startup scene around Shoreditch is great fun, particularly because of these ancillary bonuses (being in a trendy part of town)
Interestingly, Burger Bear has long been a bitcoin-friendly vendor; one of the other programmers has bought all his burgers in Btc so far! Only times I've ever witnessed a real-life Btc transaction.
See you there!
Want on of ...
I like this guy.
I work for an Amsterdam startup and expect to be in London later this year, is this open to foreigners?
It's also cooked with the same griddle and spatula at the moment. A lot of vegans might find that a little bit disconcerting. I don't know how it will be when he has his diner up though!
I'll bring my best stories, you know I have a few.
[1] http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091104170948/trailerpar...
