Happy Thursday

We have all had the experience of going to a venue (think stadium, theme park, kids' playspace, movie theater), and you're the captive audience beholden to whatever food is available for the event. And let's be honest, 9 times out of 10, it's very clearly an afterthought. Usually frozen, pre-made, pull-out-of-the-bag, and reheat. Oftentimes we don't even think about it and don't even mind, because we're there for something else. (Caveat: I feel like this is most prevalent, if not exclusive to the US).

But it's a pretty spectacular thing to see when this is not the case. When the food doesn't 'have' to be good, and there is no expectation that it will be... but it is. It's almost strange when it happens. I shared an experience I had recently like this on an episode a bit ago.  

This week's episode of the podcast, we had on my buddy Xavier, the co-founder of Over Easy Office and Chouxbox. They have bootstrapped their companies for over a decade to now be one of the foremost providers of accounting and invoice processing services for the restaurant industry. That said, Xavier also has a background as a sommelier, so we spent a decent amount of time talking wine, and a controversial dive into how to charge corkage fees.  

So, of course, to stay consistent with on-the-nose recipes to go with our topics of the week, sharing a super simple classic margarita recipe. Something way too many get wrong, even though it's so simple.  

‍

🎙️ The meez Podcast

Xavier from OEO on Restaurant Bookkeepers vs. AI and How to Charge Corkage Fees

Xavier Mariezcurrena Vega co-founded ChouxBox and Over Easy Office, and like Mike Jacober and me, he came up from the floor before he built software for it. He started with invoice automation, then went upstream into full back-office bookkeeping for restaurants. We got deep into where AI actually moves the needle in restaurant accounting and where it quietly breaks.

• Why AI gets you 80% of the way, and restaurants live in the last 5%
• Cold-emailing big New York restaurants on a borrowed Salesforce login
• Hand-coding invoices himself to force adoption when nobody would engage
• Building a 400-person team in Manila, sleeping on couches to train them
• Why PE-rolled restaurant tech sells more than it builds
• The corkage framework every restaurant should steal

👉 Watch the full episode

🤔🌶️ Hot Take

How to Actually Charge a Corkage Fee

Most corkage is a punishment. A flat fee for the crime of bringing a bottle you love. The guest feels nickel-and-dimed, the restaurant leaves margin on the table, and nobody's happy about it.

Xavier shared an approach that maybe has been considered before, but I had never heard before, and I thought it was super smart. You bring your own bottle. You buy the cheapest bottle on the list, whatever it is, the $40 Pinot Grigio or the $90 Fiano.   You don't even drink it. The restaurant just made a full-margin sale with zero cost of goods. Then you open your own bottle and tip 20% on the wine you would have ordered from their cellar. The one rule: what you bring can't already be on their list.  And it's 1 for 1.  A bottle for every bottle you bring.

Run the math, and everybody wins. The operator makes real money on a bottle they didn't have to pour. The server gets tipped as they sold it. The guest drinks what they actually wanted.  Seems like a great policy?  Would be curious to hear your thoughts.  

👉 Chime in on LinkedIn or Instagram

📔 Chef Notes

When the Food Is Good Even When It Doesn't Have To Be

I was visiting family in southern Florida, and ended up on my brother-in-law's boat on a quick trip to a place called Cabbage Key, apparently where Jimmy Buffett wrote Cheeseburger in Paradise.

This place had all the makings of what would likely be a forgettable lunch with overly sweet margaritas.  And they probably have every right to.  It was a beautiful spot, with turtles and palm trees, and coconuts, and live music.  Honestly, we would have been happy with a 'whatever' fried fish sandwich and some fries.  But they clearly cared, and the food was really good.  Fresh fish (triple tail), cooked perfectly with great sides and some delicious spicy rice and beans.  And to boot, some 1/2 gal margaritas that I did not try, but I'd like to think they were delicious too:)  

Cooking well doesn't cost much more than when it's an afterthought. But it means exponentially more to the people you're serving.

A big shout out to Cabbage Key, all the operators like this, that consider every detail to matter even when they don't have to.  

👉 Watch on LinkedIn or Instagram

Recipe:

Classic Margarita

Going with our theme of 'things that you expect to be meh', the margarita is definitely in the top 5.  It's got all the makings of something so simple to make and so easy to screw up.  

Fresh lime juice, good tequila, and the right balance of sweetness, acid, booze, and some floral citrus notes from Cointreau (or triple sec if you're into that).  

This recipe is nothing special, and I'm really only sharing it here to make a point about why good food (and drinks) require thought and care no matter how simple, and there are just as many ways to make something not delicious as there are to make it delicious.  (Sorry, Rose's lime folks, and while you should not add that to your margarita, it does work really well if you're making Tarama Salata - I'll share that recipe another time).

👉 Get the recipe

‍

🚆 Want to hear more about what's coming soon on the meez roadmap?

👉 Find some time with our team here to learn more

💬 Want to Be a Guest on The meez Podcast?

If you’re building at scale, or wrestling with hard zero-to-one problems worth talking about, I’d love to hear from you.

Apply to be a guest or nominate someone we should talk to.

‍