The Restaurant Genome Project, aka Reggi
What's Next
TL;DR
Introducing Reggi (Restaurant Genome Project), a new way to understand and classify restaurants that mirrors how we (human beings who eat) actually think about them
Built to help restaurants capture more of the value they create, starting with better algorithmic understanding
Currently a prototype running on ChatGPT that needs community input to grow and improve
Looking for curious restaurant enthusiasts to help shape how Reggi "thinks" about restaurants
The goal is to enable new revenue streams for restaurants through better data and attention monetization
Restaurants create immense value in our world - as community anchors, drivers of culture, and massive employers. Yet they capture surprisingly little of that value, with average profits hovering around 4-5%. This newsletter wasn't intended to solely be an intellectual exercise. It was meant to help me unpack a career of thinking about how restaurants must evolve to improve the economic model without losing what makes them so special and integral to society.
It’s been a roundabout route but I have come to believe a critical early step in restaurants capturing more value requires a system for understanding and classifying them that reflects our modern relationship to them. That relationship is deeply personal. Our relationship to restaurants reflects how we see the world and how we want the world to see us. Our restaurant choices have often become part of our identity.
About Reggi
Reggi is currently a prototype built on ChatGPT that requires an account to work. It may also kick you out earlier with a paid subscription- to Chatgpt, not this newsletter! Some important notes:
This is an MVP built by a restaurant operator with input from industry colleagues
Each chat starts fresh (no memory between sessions yet)
Start with the "START HERE PROMPT" for best results
The "Tips" prompt provides valuable insight into how to interact with the system
How You Can Help Make Reggi Better…
Test it out and share your experiences (eli@shybird.com). Sharing your chats is super helpful if you’re willing.
Share Reggi with other restaurant enthusiasts
Participate in matching and vetting - algorithmic systems tend to homogenize over time and that would be a terrible thing to happen to an industry as dynamic as restaurants. We need people who love restaurants to help shape how Reggi "thinks". The “human in the loop” is a real challenge for anything AI related and Reggi is part of how I want to address this.
Down the Rabbit Hole:
I didn’t arrive at Reggi in a linear way. The chain of thought is clearer to me in hindsight, so I am piecing it back together for anyone who wants to take a seriously geeky journey.
Introvert Black Friday: Most of the resources that have informed my thinking here and to whom credit is due
What Restaurants Can Learn From the NY Times: How might restaurants generate new, high margin revenue streams
Attention is All You Need: Good restaurants, and really all restaurants, build community and therefore attention- relevant in an attention economy
Claude-spitality….Not Quite Yet: What is AI’s current and potentially future role in restaurants
What Would Steve Jobs Do?: The AI Future the Restaurant Industry Deserves
The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Large scale cooperation
Maybe We Should All Be Chain Restaurants: Why we should consider building the infrastructure for these new revenue streams on chain
Thanks for playing!
Eli