Part I of Learning from Ells: Simplicity is beautiful

Back in January this year, Oprah met with Steve Ells (founder of Chipotle) who not only paved the way as one of the first fast casual restaurant chains, but through their contribution to the growing conversation on naturally-sourced food.  Moreover, his restaurant chain made the breakthrough discovery that fast food does not have to be thought of as, "cheap, highly processed, not good for you... not good quality".

Thank you Steve Ells, that's rightfully forward thinking of you.

For Chipotle's monumental success (more than 1000 restaurants today since their first Denver location in 1993), for their commitment to using "everything fresh" to "serve food with a conscience", and for generally thinking out of the box and revolutionizing food culture, Oprah invited Ells to be featured in her "Food 101" episode.  And even though Oprah clearly isn't a fast food type of gal, she exclaimed that she might just have to stop in to try Chipotle's brand of "fast food".

I hope you did Oprah, because Chipotle is really on to something.

It's true.  Not all fast food should be associated with "fast food".  SABI Sushi takes what Chipotle made famous and raises the bar.  Afterall, what's more fresh than fresh fish?  For some time now, sushi has been growing in recognition for its role as a lighter, healthier alternative to some of the greasier, heavier fare on the market.  Naturally low in fat, nutritiously balanced, and flavorful, sushi has the means to provide a delicious path to smarter eating.

But limitations imposed by slow service and expense stood in the way of sushi reaching its full potential.  The vast majority of traditional Japanese restaurants can wrack up huge expenses in order to provide the kaleidoscope of types of fish available on their menus.  Expenses that trickle down to the customer.  And the time-consuming process of preparing the fish for sashimi, or sushi, or nigiri, or hand rolls... they're time-consuming on the customer end as well.

There had to be a better way.  So SABI looked to the strengths demonstrated by the Chipotle model to step outside of these limitations and think outside the box.  Ells had a valuable lesson: while options are the key to broad appeal, simplicity is the key to broad satisfaction.  Applying it to the sushi tradition, already notable for being clean in product, preparation, and presentation was naturally... simple.  In the chaos of the technology age where we are bombarded with information to process and difficult decisions to make, we could use a little structure.  Keep the menu simple, so we can maintain a high standard of quality, so we can stay fresh and delicious, so that we can save you money, and so we can save you time.  It's just the cherry on top that sabi itself means elegant simplicity.

And here's something else: simplifying our inventories simplifies bookkeeping, which allows SABI to direct attentions to more important issues, such as doing that little something extra (both in our restaurants and our local communities) to make the SABI experience mean something more.

"Service with a smile"?  Of course, but let's not forget it's your smiles that really count.