Lessons from a Bouillon
We went out for dinner as a family while we were in Paris.
My parents-in-law, proud Frenchies hailing from the Auvergne region in France, picked the restaurant: Bouillon Chartier.
As my father-in-law explained over dinner, the Bouillon format of restaurant was founded and evolved over the 19th century. The core concept, according to the Wikipedia page linked above, was "to serve good quality food quickly at an affordable price" by executing a simple menu en masse and at speed. Tables turn quickly and throughput is high, supported by the laser focus on simplicity across the board.
We arrived at Bouillon Chartier around 6:00pm on a Friday night - outrageously early for the typical French dinner. We queued, briefly, to enter the massive dining hall where hundreds of people were already seated. We had an aperitif drink, 4x starters, 4x main courses and 4x desserts, with a bottle of wine - and the whole thing cost <€100. As we left (around 7:30pm) we passed a queue now several hundred people long waiting to churn through the same machine. Throughput, throughput, throughput.
I thought the whole experience was a great metaphor for the power of doing one thing - or a very small set of things - very well and executing at speed, at scale and over time. By reducing the complexity to only a few things that have to work exceptionally well, it's possible to bring down the cost dramatically and still, I bet, print cash (indeed, Bouillon Chartier itself was founded in 1896 and seems to be still going strong...)
Simplicity and focus are what everyone claims to pursue but few manage. A bargain dinner at this French institution was a helpful way of hammering it home.