Mark Canlis, co-owner of Seattle restaurant Canlis, explains how reservation platform Tock rapidly pivoted to build delivery infrastructure at the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns in March 2020.
Disclosure
Canlis shut down its profitable fine-dining business to preserve staff hours
“Pretty quickly we realized that it would be just as risky to do nothing as it would to do something really radical, and if we were gonna live into our values then, you know, every once in a while that really is probably gonna cost you something, and this way i…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Mark Canlis predicted COVID disruption would last months, aiming for break-even
“The goal was like, it'd be amazing if for the next three months, Canlis could not lose money. I think that'll posture us really well coming out of this thing on the other side, and I do think of it as a few months, not just a few weeks.”
Disclosure
Canlis COVID pivot served 1,200 drive-thru and 300 breakfast customers daily
“But today we served, you know, about 1200 people through the drive-thru. We served about, I don't know, somewhere in the range of 300 people for breakfast. Tonight we'll send a couple hundred dinners out for delivery”
Insight
Mark Canlis says purely defensive sheltering in a crisis guarantees failure
“Protect, and that's a lousy strategy in a lot of things. Soccer being one of them. Like, you see in sports all the time when an entire team sort of switches to defense and loses their offense, like, suddenly you're like, ah, don't do that. Wait a minute. Like,…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Canlis employs 115 staff to serve 150-200 guests, defying industry standards
“In the world of fine dining, you know, 12 to 15 tables is pretty standard. We have 33. But on a busy night, the most guests we can serve are somewhere around 150 to 200. I have a 115 employees to make that happen. So we are a model of inefficiency and that's j…”
Disclosure
Canlis kitchen requires 20 hours of prep for a five-hour service
“There are four hours a day we don't use our kitchen. So it's 20, it takes us 20 hours to open for what is essentially five hours of dinnertime service.”