Theme Cafeterias

I contract at a large company, with many cafeterias spread across its campus. Although I sometimes eat at the closest cafeteria, I often venture further afield in search of novelty. There is, however, precious little novelty to be found.

One could quite reasonably increase the novelty available by making "theme cafeterias." It would be nice if there was an all-vegetarian cafeteria, for people who feel that other cafeterias don't have enough veggie options, or who object to their grill items being prepared on a grill that's also had meat stuff prepared on it. A Chinese or Mexican themed cafeteria might see additional business, and be worth an extra walk.

Of course, you could go overboard on themes that have nothing to do with the food itself: the nudist cafeteria, the 'pirate galleon' cafeteria, the 'dinosaurs!' cafeteria, and so on. Or you could have cafeterias themed on newly-updated products: In honor of its release, we could have the Windows Vista cafeteria for a week...

Restaurants with Cell-Phone-Style Contracts

Prix-fixe daily menus, so many visits a week, tips included in the price, paid in advance. Bigger discounts for more visits in a month, or if you're willing to sign up for the yearly rate. I like my Victrola coffee card, but think that the concept could be generalized to great advantage.

Fast Food Ringtone Contest

A decade ago or more, I seem to remember that Burger King had an ad campaign that featured a normal businessman-looking fellow. Patrons at Burger Kings all across the country were to be on the lookout for the guy, and whoever saw him first in a given franchise won some kind of prize. There was a big hullabaloo about it, and it seemed to be very successful.

This suggested to me a new ad campaign. First, they'd need a really catchy jingle. A new song, instantly recognizable, that they could play all over the place until everyone knew it meant 'Burger King,' or whatever chain took this idea and ran with it.

Then they could put ringtones on their Web site. For all kinds of cell phones. And they could give them away for free.

And then they could have a 'secret shopper' fellow, an anonymous man (face blanked out in the commercials, as though he was in the Witness Protection Program) who could go to major metropolitan areas or big suburban areas full of teenagers (the people most likely to download ringtones, I suspect), and who would give a cash prize to the first person in that area whose cell phone he heard with that ringtone.

Any time a phone using the tone went off, everyone in the area would think 'Burger King' (or whoever), and would look around to see if the secret shopper was watching.

The contest is just a gimmick; it's the free ringtone advertising the product far and wide that's the real win.

McEscher’s

A happy meal with moebius strip fries (it should be easy to cut potatoes into rings, and to shape the rings to have a 'twist' look to them) and klein bottle burgers. Hey, it makes me laugh, and it's a Friday.