Amsterdam to open entirely staffless restaurant
With jokes like ‘Please help yourself’ and ‘Better leave yourself a nice big tip’, chef Edwin Sander is getting ready to open up a restaurant called ‘Foodsy’ on 5 November in Amsterdam that won’t have any staff. Although English sounding, the name ‘Foodsy’ is a nod to the Dutch word ‘foetsie’, which means ‘gone, disappeared’ – like the staff.
We don’t have a clue what it means to go to a restaurant and do things yourself, but we do know what it is to stay home and do everything yourself, so why bother? Sounds like a reality TV show. The restaurant won’t take reservations, but function independently with instructions on how to cook things. It’s not making too much sense to the media, either. The main question is: will anybody be overseeing the people in the kitchen? Otherwise it’s a bit like breaking and entering, but then with food and a kitchen.
(Link: www.marketingtribune.nl, Photo by FotoosVanRobin, some rights reserved)
I can’t see how this will profit. Nobody wants to go out and still have to cook. The only people who do will do it to game the system, unless you pay by the head to get in and eat whatever you want.
I think this is a really interesting, innovative idea. Sometimes food lovers don’t just want something cooked for them, they want to see it cooked and learn how it’s done.
I would go to a place that taught me to cook, providing me decent ingredients (how often do I try a dish only to realise I’ve picked the wrong thing at the supermarket!) and decent cooking appliances, which are lacking in many Amsterdam apartments.
You aren’t going here for a ‘meal out’, you’re going here to enjoy cooking things you like with your friends with good ingredients and supplies at your disposal (which for some would be a great date night, or a fun party!)
I have no connection to this place, but I’m really keen to try it out!