To think if you put your style choices above customer comfort your business is going to fail?

[BluthsFrozenBananas]

It’s a tough market right now, so why do new businesses, especially restaurants and cafes, do this?

I went to a new cafe in town yesterday with DH and DD. It’s been open a couple of weeks and what I assume where the owners were in there, three rather earnest hipsterish blokes. The food was pretty good and a decent price, but the style choices that had been made ensured I’d probably never go back.

All hot drinks were served in tin mugs, my tea caused the mug to heat up so much the handle was too hot to hold and the rim burnt my lips. I asked for a china mug, to be told they only had tin ones, but they’d make me another tea. So I got a second tea pot full of Luke warm water, which wasn’t hot enough to actually brew the tea properly.

Alongside this the tables were very small and designed with legs shaped liked an inverted v. This meant that the tops of the table legs dug into the thighs of any adult sitting at them. I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t got the thinnest of legs, but looking around the cafe I could see most of the adults were either sitting awkwardly far from the tables or had pulled their chairs around to the corner of the table so they could sit in comfort.

On the way out one of the earnest hipsters asked me if I’d be coming back, I told him I would if they got some china mugs, he gave me a look. I’m not going to take to trip advisor and slag the place off, but I probably won’t bother to go back either.

It was the similar with the posh burger place which opened up near me, and recently closed. Although with them it was the menu which was the issue. They had lots of fancy pants and frankly odd burgers on their menu, but not a single plain one. The plainest was bacon and cheese, and the only way to get a plain burger was to ask for bacon and cheese without the bacon and cheese, but you were still paying for them.

TLDR, hipsterish notions aren’t great for long term business success.

A lot of places are very wanky now

They think that it sets them apart as unique

It does...uniquely shit like everything else who tries to be cool

Food belongs on a plate. Drinks belong in a proper cup

Tables need to be big enough for adults. Chairs need to be comfortable

That’s it

I advise small businesses and most of the ones that fail it’s because they start a business around what THEY want as opposed to what customers actually want.
Friends and family usually go “yeah, that’s great” to be supportive rathe rthan tell the truth, yiu onky have to watch Dragons Den to see the “great “ idea that clearly aren’t but “loads of people say they would buy it”.
At which point I usually shout at the screen BUT THEY DIDNT!!

In my experience, hipster businesses tend to think they're doing you a favour by letting you buy something from there.

I actually would go leave a review. You've said the food was actually good so you should tell them that you'd love to go back but you couldn't drink the tea due to the scalding hazard (and explain it) and also that you can't use the tables and chairs due to the style (and explain that many others had the same problem). But in a nice way like... please think about these things as we'd love you to stay open.

These people live in a world of their own.

I bet they don't drink their own hot drinks from tin mugs!

I hate tiny tiny tables. I hate uncomfortable chairs.

Hoppinggreen that’s exactly what I imagine happened. Everyone probably politely said how cool the place looked, but no one wanted to point out that tin mugs belong on camping trips and nowhere else and the tiny tables were in danger of cutting off the blood supply to adult legs.

With uncomfortable tables & chairs it sounds as if it's a fast food place... Designed for you only to want to sit there 20 minutes... If that's what they're aiming for, they've achieved it!

Although it sounds a if they're hoping to be a cafe with slightly longer visits!

There's an independent cinema in my town. It's really good, varied programme, small screens as well as big ones. The owner has been quite open about how he had a dream to have a cinema and show lots of foreign and experimental cinema but he soon realised if it was going to work he was going to have to show the big films that people actually wanted to see.

When businesses open like the ones you describe I always want to send the manager round for a chat with him.

It's not just food places. There are so many shops that are all about the owner's dream to have a particular type of uber stylish shop rather than actually figuring out what customers want. You can always tell because they have a fancy website that bangs on about their vision or their journey but when you go in there's nothing you actually want.

I agree. I recently went to a cafe and ordered a hot chocolate, they gave me 5 pieces of dark chocolate, a cup of hot milk, and a toasted marshmallow. The milk wasn’t hot enough to properly melt the chocolate so what I actually drank was a mug of warm milk and got a gob full of sloppy chocolate at the end. Marshmallow was nice though.

@ the deconstructed hot chocolate! That’s so shit it’s amazing!

They should do a little pot and spoon with chocolate shavings instead. Probably save some money on the chocolate squares too.

Shredded I know what you mean, but I don’t think it was the case here. This cafe’s usp is pancakes and waffles, both sweet and savoury. They want the family market, where I live that’s a much larger and wealthier demographic than the young and hip. It’s not a university or especially young or trendy town.

I took my dd to a lovely little coffee shop near us. Their cakes are amazing. I ordered her a hot chocolate and we were presented with a mug of warm milk and a lump of chocolate on a stick. Dd is 3, this did not go well. She was absolutely filthy by the end of it.

I've had a shit DIY hot chocolate recently too. The milk needs to be scalding for it to work and even then really you need a whisk

I hate this with a passion. I live in a very hipster town and it’s driving me nuts! If I get served my drink in anything other than a normal, ceramic cup/mug I never go back. Tin mugs are ridiculous. My absolute hate is when my tiny overpriced artisan coffee comes in a glass.

The pub opposite me has just been taken over by hipsters. They have a new concept, apparently: the serve drinks and food.

Just adding that I to have had the shit hot choc experience! If I’m paying an extortionate amount for your bloody hot hoc then the least you can do is make it for me.

What makes me laugh with all these places geared to hipsters, is hipsters barely spend any money!

Where I live is overun with them, loads of stupid microbreweries and poncy 'food' places, loads of pubs that don't sell normal drinks, but they are normally always empty or populated with wanky hipsters that make one cup of tea last 4 hours.

Yep, it's wanky.

YANBU. We had a fancy cocktail bar open near us. It seated about 12 people max. One person behind the bar trying to make the most ridiculously complex cocktails. Took about 15 minutes to get a drink and rarely could you sit down to drink it. They tried the coffee morning thing too but then it just became full of friends and their toddlers nursing a coffee. Closed about 7 months after it opened.

Sounds like a coffee shop near me. They did the hipster thing at the start, deconstucted every, fancy but uncomfortable tables.

They did great great coffee so used to get the odd takeaway. Eventually they started asking people why they would get a takeaway coffee but never stayed and had food.

Basically, it was that the chairs were too uncomfortable, no one wanted deconstructed food and that the music and lightening was depressing.

They did relaunch, food is no longer deconstructed, they changed the seating, lightening and music. Business is booming. It is not the place the owner wanted but it is what his customers want.

I don’t know if I find these places annoying or depressing. People clearly put their hearts, souls and life savings into their businesses, it must be horrible seeing it all go down the pan within a year or two. For a lot of places all they need is to change a few things to work, an independent coffee shop doesn’t have to be a Starbucks clone to succeed, but no one wants a glass of warm milk and a couple of chunks of chocolate when they order hot chocolate.

I mainly find it annoying because it's a little bit arrogant and entitled thinking you know so much better than everyone else.
Depressing is where the small business tries really hard and does everything right (or you would think it was right) but it still doesn't work because of Amazon or crazy high business rates or rent hikes or car parking costs meaning people stop coming to the town centre.

I think when hipsters open businesses, their definition of success is how many likes their arty pics get on social media, not ‘proper’ business success (like profit, longevity, staff/customer loyalty).

I’m watching a team of under 25yo hipsters who’ve opened a jazz bar in my town. It’d be hilarious, if they didn’t have so much of their parent’s money sunk into the place.

At the launch, I tried to order a drink. The bar dude (who I’m sure has a title with the word ‘curator’ in it) instead gave me an earnest 15 minute lecture on how the only good bourbon is made in Poland in special brass vats. I hadn’t even ordered a bourbon!

The (unisex) loo is so dark you can’t apply lipstick. Took me a few minutes to figure out basic loo necessities (how to flush, door handle, etc).

They are determined to hold strong to their vision, no matter how wrong they’ve read their market.

Last week I did notice they’d capitulated and put up a sign (with their name) over the door. They’d hoped to be mysterious and edgy, and just had an Edison bulb hanging over it (down an alleyway). Sheeesh!

I give them till Xmas. The only bearded bloke in there will be Santa, but only if they ‘reconstruct’ the biscuits for him!

He worst ones are where you arrive the first thing you are asked is “are you familiar with our concept”. The concept is - I’m hungry/thirsty and I’ve come here to eat!