
How to get rid of the old-school servers
- July 5, 2021
It was the summer of 2017, and a few months earlier, a man named Scott had begun a job cleaning servers at his favorite restaurant, The Black Sheep.
He was a server, after all.
But as he went through the dishes in the kitchen, the restaurant’s servers began to complain about the amount of food on the table.
In a survey of his fellow servers, Scott noticed a pattern: Many said their food was served too quickly, or was simply out of reach for the customer.
Scott, a server himself, began thinking about ways to cut down on the amount his food was serving, and he came up with the idea of serving his own server.
After several meetings, Scott found a company called Chef John and, as the company grew, the team began to take on more responsibility.
They were taking orders from their customers, cooking up meals, and then serving them at home, with the help of their server.
They also began working on a kitchen automation system, which allowed them to automate the process of cooking and serving at home.
They had to hire an engineer, but the company had already raised enough capital to make it happen.
The end goal was to automate all the jobs at the restaurant, including the servers, so that they could focus on the customer service that they loved most about the restaurant.
It was an ambitious vision.
In December, a few weeks before Christmas, the company announced that it had raised $8.6 million in venture capital, with funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, and Sequoia Capital.
The investment meant that Chef John was on track to hire 100 servers in the next year.
The employees at Chef John weren’t just working on their own jobs, though; they were also working with the company’s chef and server mentors to make sure they were making the right changes to their own recipes, as well as to make those recipes available to the customers.
The new Chef John team included Chef John’s cofounder, chef Scott Kelly, and Kelly’s wife, Mary Ellen.
Kelly had previously worked for Chef John, where he had helped to craft the restaurant and helped to make the company an attractive target for venture capital investors.
“The goal is to create a company that is not just a company to make food,” Kelly told Business Insider.
“It’s also a company where people can have a great experience.
I think that’s the best way to think about it.”
The new job of server The company was set up to be run like a traditional restaurant, with two floors that could seat between 15 and 20 people.
The kitchen was divided into three areas, with servers serving the food, while chefs worked the kitchen.
Kelly said that the company was trying to bring more customer service to the restaurant by taking the customer’s input into consideration, and to create an environment that is inviting, safe, and comfortable for both customers and servers.
“We don’t want a restaurant to be like a fast-food place,” Kelly said.
“Instead, we want a place that’s a welcoming place to eat.”
The restaurant is open 24 hours a day, but Kelly said they could open at different times depending on how busy the city is.
The restaurant serves mostly vegetarian and vegan dishes, and they offer free-range eggs and chicken, too.
Kelly’s goal with the new kitchen was to make that experience as welcoming and comfortable as possible.
Kelly and the rest of the Chef John staff are currently taking orders through a mobile app that they are building.
Kelly described the app as a “one-stop shop” for customers who are looking to order a meal, a “chef-friendly” place for servers, and “a place where people who are older, people who aren’t in their 20s, people with disabilities, people of color, can go in and have a meal.”
Kelly and his team are already working on other features to make Chef John even more inviting to its customers, including a more personal experience in the restaurant: A personalized menu, where customers can order what they want, and the Chef can choose from a variety of options based on their preferences.
“A lot of times, we have to make decisions on a whim,” Kelly explained.
“But the more you learn, the more things you can do in your kitchen, you start to see what works for you.”
As they are starting to implement new features, Kelly said he is also trying to make a conscious effort to be “careful with how we use the resources.”
For example, he said that if there are customers who want to bring their own food, they need to make certain that the menu doesn’t say “no,” and that the server can make the food for them if they want to.
“That’s what we are trying to do: Make sure that our menu reflects what our customers want,” Kelly added.
It’s not clear when the restaurant will open, but in the meantime, Kelly is already starting to see positive results.
“With the Chef, the customer