Every chef is talking about the need to develop lower-cost restaurant concepts that
can be replicated in different locations, essentially rebooting the whole idea of “fast food.”
(I have a fried-chicken place, Fuku, in this category.) It’s a way to diversify and offset the
inefficiency of your higher-end restaurants, which don’t pay for themselves. Roy Choi and
Daniel Patterson are doing this with LocoL in California, and Daniel Humm and Will Guidara
are about to dip their toes in with Made Nice in N.Y.C. If restaurateurs do it right, we reach a
larger audience, support great farms, and, well, survive