More Conan in Cuba:

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Conan-Dines-At-A-Cuban-Paladar

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Conan-Learns-To-Dance-Cuban-Rumba

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Conan-Visits-The-Havana-Club-Rum-Museum

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Conan-Visits-Havanas-El-Malecon

Conan Dines At A Cuban Paladar has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals.

Conan Learns To Dance Cuban Rumba has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals.

Conan Visits The Havana Club Rum Museum has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals.

Conan Visits Havana's El Malecón has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals.

@Shepppard

Restaurants like to be next to one another so long as they are different products. It creates a "food destination". Preferably lack of availability or a restriction would prevent users that have a product that is very similar.

Ever notice how most retail developments only have one coffee shop or one sandwich shop? Retail users ask landlords for an exclusive use. For example, Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts will say they can be the only store that sells coffee in a shopping center. Another restaurant may serve coffee as an incidental use - that is it can't be the central part of their business. This makes it harder for a new user to enter an established market.

You seem to be fixated on peak capacity of sit down restaurants. Restaurants have to complete their own analysis of how much square footage to have to accommodate the heaviest dining times, but still cover their costs when seats sit empty. Each square foot adds to their cost.

This video is very accurate in describing how users evaluate and respond to competition within a market.

I have worked in commercial retail brokerage for the last 10 years with several national users - pharmacies, banks, restaurants, and general retail use.

As a final comment, users can and will move. People do not notice as much but retailers relocate when they must to stay competitive or to block another user from coming into a market.

...This is a terrible explanation, You're comparing two guys with movable carts to buildings, which are.. slightly harder to move.

It explains why the two vendors would eventually be close together, yes, but if you're in a city where you have one spot where you can set up shop forever, then your choice becomes a little more complex.

One of the easier solutions to the question, and the one that I personally find more viable (especially as I work in a restaurant that's close to 3 others) is that people don't like to wait.

If you have your restaurant out in the middle of town, and you get a full dining room within the first hour of dinner service, you may go on an hour long wait. The thing is though, how many people will say "Well, it's going to be an hour, lets sit outside." vs "Well, it's going to be an hour, lets go try somewhere else." Because I'm relatively sure the latter happens more often, especially if there's another place 5-10 minutes up the road.

If, however, you have 3 restaurants all located near each other, the likelyhood of all 3 filling up at exactly the same time is small. Here's the thing though, once you fill up that first restaurant (we'll call it A) restaurant B and C will start to get overflow.

Now it seems like i've defeated my own point, but now, you have 2 more options that are less than a minute away. People will either A) try to go to either B or C, or B) Sit and wait, because they can see the parking lot for those two restaurants are also pretty full.

B) retains more business, and if they choose A) The wheel continues to spin for whichever restaurant fills up first. A fills, B and C get overflow. C fills, B and A get it.

It's a system that actually benefits everyone involved because you'll also likely increase the amount of people you'd have coming to your business just because people know that's where a cluster of restaurants is.

In the long run, it's just a mutually beneficial set up.

Sure looked like Nutella... years ago, started a post-doc at UQ in Brisbane, temporarily rooming at Gatton College. 1st morning, jet lagged at breakfast in dining hall, lathered it on white toast and laid into it. Managed to keep it down, but the gag reflex was winning. Students howled, all in good fun though. When I checked out 2 weeks later, they gave me a gift of a giant jar of it and a homemade booklet "How to Eat Vegemite"... good memories, but could never stomach it again.

to be honest, i've never noticed that. i used to live in the uk, and now in nz. It's been better here for me, if anything.

People say "if you cant afford the tip don't go out", but I should prolly have said that last time i was in usa was on business. I didn't really want to go out dining but the hotel had no restaurant. That tip would come out my own pocket (as far as i know, anyhow). This is every meal, every night for a week or more. It really adds up if you're tipping $15 each time.

I've worked the back of the house (dish washer, prep cook, pantry cook, line cook), and the front of the house (bartender, server).

I never got tipped in the back of the house, but I worked harder and utilized more skills. I got paid hourly, and would therefore milk the clock as much as possible to help buy booze and pay the rent.

As a bartender, I've worked at night clubs, dive bars, martini bars, hotel bars, house parties and I was paid a decent hourly, which was essential for those slow and lonely Monday night shifts. But I made good money on the weekends. However, it usually takes time to work your way to those lucrative spots.

As a server, I get paid a little more than $2 an hour plus tips. But the tips are so impossible to calculate because of a myriad of factors -- how many servers are on, how many tables are reserved, how many parties, what's going on at the Arena, what's going on at the Lied, is it snowing, is it raining, is there a sporting event going on, are they splitting the bill, have they worked in the industry, are they from a country unfamiliar with tipping, was the food good, was the food cold, was the drink stiff, was the wine paired well, was the host pretty, was the bathroom out of paper towels, ad nausea -- that budgeting is impossible. I don't auto grat (gratuity of 18 percent of the bill for parties of seven or more) unless it's a sorority party, Mormons, or New Year's Eve, and that's only because I've been burned so badly by these groups.

What most diners don't realize is that it's really a matter of real estate -- and on a busy weekend night one server may be lucky to 'have' four to six tables with a variable of two and four seats. Dinner is generally served between the hours of 5-11. So, this gives the server a set number of data points for the evening (side note, so for the love God don't linger at a table if you're not ordering anything! When a server is forced to refill your water at $2 an hour, it's rude and disrespectful. That's what bars are for). In addition, most servers 'tip out' the host and bartender staff. On a weekend night, I typically tipped out 22 percent, and I never knew if I'd make $30 or $130.

So I know the business fairly well (I even studied hospitality in Vegas for a minute), and as a server I can make your experience remarkable. Ironically, the best tippers are younger college-era students working in the industry.

I think if anything is going to eliminate tipping in the service industry, it'll be some sort of computerized experiment where you sit at a table and punch in what you want. Till then, be conscientious and considerate when you wine and dine.

Must be an American thing. I've dined at Chinese restaurants from Halifax to Victoria and never seen General Tso on any menu.

Not as bad as http://videosift.com/video/Rough-Seas-Destroy-Cruise-Ship-Dining-Room

There's a place near me where they do this in a windowed off portion of the kitchen visible from the dining area.

Yes, the noodles are very yummy.

I did this exact same thing - that is, build a hand made dining room table for my wife. I didn't care about using reclaimed lumber, but I did want to avoid using glues. I used lag bolts and screws - I figured it would last longer than glue. Also, I used about 1/10th the number of tools he used. But I did use a sawsall and a drill.

I used all pine, but did a faux aging process with vinegar and steel wool, and black tea. It turned out awesome (after 12+ coats of spar varnish on the top... ug). I have two matching benches. It's all very rustic, durable, and functional.

Very cool video!

I really wouldn't be able to pick Piers Morgan out of a line up. I wrote that first comment over a year ago in the immediate aftermath of the Newtown shooting and it was largely a response to the rhetoric pro-gun advocates were displaying all over my Facebook feed.

What I wrote is not at all an over-reaction to what I saw during that time.

Totally normal and sane friends of mine applauded a ten year old girl who shot and killed a home invader, enthusing that this is how America should be.

Totally normal and sane friends of mine waxed romantic about how concealing and carrying a weapon transforms a vanilla suburban dining experience into a potential battlefield. Whereas most people get lost in one of the many flat screen TVs at an Applebees, they spend their time sizing up potential adversaries and keep close tabs on every exit as they feel the reassuring bulge of their Glock at their side.

I totally agree that most of these guys will never end up needing to use their weapons in an adversarial situation, and I totally agree that these guys are responsible gun owners if responsible gun ownership is defined by a safe stewardship of the guns you acquire, but that is not the point that I'm trying to make.

The problem is that these sorts of people and the gun culture they have created has an enormous impact on the type of gun laws we pass. This wouldn't be a problem if they were coming from a place that wasn't obsessive and wasn't paranoid and wasn't delusional, but they are and this is unfortunate because it enables and accentuates much of the violence you lament in inner city culture.

"[A Lord] said he had been left “scarred” after his dinner booking was cancelled suddenly. He complained that his wife was “unable to lunch elsewhere” because she was wearing a tiara." -- Independent

I would like to try to drown them in a bowl of eel pudding, the lot of 'em. Do I have your blessing?

No training required. Beagles are very smart, and when food is involved, their persistence is legendary. We had a beagle who dragged his sleeping pillow into the kitchen, went from it to the top of the trash can and then onto the counter top, opened a cupboard door and ate an entire pound of butter out of the butter dish. And then proceeded to vomit little pools of bile and melted butter all over the kitchen and dining room floor.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

Chorus.-For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint stowp!
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o'kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
Sin' auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

And there's a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.