What are you serving?
There are diners and there are restaurants. Diners produce quick and cheap meals, whereas restaurants specialize in a slower and more intimate experience. But they’re two ends of the same spectrum — a food production service. That spectrum is narrowed when you consider the make-up of these types of businesses: both serve food, both operate in a building, and both employ a combination of people to source, compile and cook ingredients. Diners and restaurants serve food to customers in exchange for money.
But both are very different in their experiences. Not just the experience the place provides, but also in what customers expect from their visit. You’d expect a diner to provide fast and cheap food from an extensive list of options — whereas you’d expect a restaurant to curate a smaller menu, cooked to perfection, but served at a higher price point.
The way the business is run also depends on the type of food it serves. A restaurant trains its servers to interpret the mood of the table, to suggest wine pairings and deliver meals when there’a a dip in the conversation. A diner maximizes profit by optimizing for speed — the server is also the cashier and sommelier in-one. Neither is better nor worse than the other — just different. In that difference comes an understanding of what is acceptable, what is expected and what just doesn’t belong. For example a single bathroom unlocked with a key attached to an oversized spoon wouldn’t meet the expectations of a high-end restaurant, and taking 45 minutes to produce a slice of grilled cheese sandwich on fine china wouldn’t be right for a diner. But… it’s just food, right?
A chef needs to know where they work. A server needs to know whether to wear a suit or not. Customers need to know whether they’re paying for farm-to-table, or fast food. The experience is the difference.
