I am President of Happy Cog, a boutique web design firm.
I live in the Philadelphia countryside with my amazing wife and 15 month old son. We pull our Airstream trailer around whenever we can. I love bad music, good barbecue, and any kind of fermented or distilled beverage.
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Restaurateurs are smarter than this. Right?
I consider myself a foodie, but not in the traditional sense of the word. I'm not regularly seeking out the latest Thomas Keller creation or José Andrés' unique brand of molecular gastronomy on a regular basis. I enjoy a well prepared burger or some solid french toast just as much. That said, I fully appreciate a good chef's imagination and skill, and I always pay attention to the thought and detail that goes into planning a restaurant's aesthetic and physical experience. Philadelphia icon and restaurateur Stephen Starr likens dining to a theater production. The vibe of the place you eat in is just as important as the food, and I agree wholeheartedly.
Any good restaurateur (who doesn't have to be a chef themselves) scrutinizes every aspect of his or her business - from conceptualizing, to scouting locations, to cost control, to hiring quality people, to sourcing fresh ingredients. But those are only pieces of the puzzle. A successful restaurateur is also a professional marketer. They understand where the opportunities are. They are able to execute their concepts and effectively differentiate themselves from competitors. And they are nimble - capable of adjusting strategies to serve the fickle dining public. Through careful, consistent application of these principles, they start to establish themselves as a brand - a brand they can eventually introduce into other markets.
If they aren't able to do this sort of thing themselves, presumably they are hiring firms that do such things for them, like Bullfrog & Baum.
I have watched the dining revolution unfold in this city right before my eyes. I thank recent Philadelphia-based visionaries like Stephen Starr, Jose Garces, Marc Vetri, Daniel Stern, Michael Solomonov, Leigh Maida and Brendan Hartranft, Audrey Claire Taichman, Chris Scarduzio, William Reed and Paul Kimport, Tom Peters & Fergus Carey for giving my city what it really lacked. Variety.
Being a principal of Happy Cog, a web design agency, perhaps you know where the focus of this post is headed. I'm not the first to write about this, and I won't be the last. It's 2010. I cannot for the life of me understand why so many smart restaurateurs (or the agents that work on their behalf) simply fall flat on their face when it comes to their online strategy. While I believe their intentions are genuine, many simply don't understand the values of accessibility and usability. It frustrates the hell out of me - not so much as the president of a standards-based web design company, but as a human being.
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