Those picky people end up ordering the same exact thing off of every menu. Keep that as one of your ten options. Satisfy the boring people, and provide better service to people with some culture.
The book Freakanomics mentions that Westerners in groups tend to avoid picking the same thing to avoid looking too conformist (and the last people to pick are unhappy with their choice because they were railroaded into getting something odd like the Filet of Fish just to show they're their own person) while Asians tend to try to follow the herd even if it is not what they'd rather have.
A lot of food isn't that amazing, and some things some people just do not care for. You can dance around the preparation all you like, but I cannot stand the smell of eggs. Scrambled, over easy, whatever -- just the smell of them is terribly off-putting to me.
There's too much awful food in the world to force yourself to try all of it.
There’s a great Jazz club+Ethiopian restaurant in SF called Sheba that has “penne pasta” on their menu for people who want the Jazz but are too numpty to eat Ethiopian.
> If a restaurant is just going to make four or five dishes, it starts getting perilously close to places like Chipotle.
Not sure what you're on about here?
You're comparing bistros and restaurants with highly focused, individual dishes that they're perfected... with slop from a junk-food place like Chipotle?
No they're not. Have you eaten at Chipotle? No frozen ingredients. Everything is either made fresh there, or sous vide. No deep frying either (except for the taco chips.)
Is Chipotle classified as junk food place ? I find it better than most of the lunch places. Also I can kind of order a keto bowl without rice and beans.
So the bigger menus were likely to address dad, mom, teen, and kiddo.
If a restaurant is just going to make four or five dishes, it starts getting perilously close to places like Chipotle.