20 March 2020

Adapting Episode 1: Canlis

2Frameworks

14Insights

Frameworks in this episode

Innovation6 steps

Open a Second Restaurant Every 18 Months

Rewrite your operating systems on a cadence so a forced pivot is just another rewrite.

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Strategy8 steps

Start With What You Have: The Overnight Pivot

Inventory the assets you already own and rebuild the business around them in days.

Read →

Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Hot Take· 1

Hot Take33:00

The disease spreading fastest wasn't the virus — it was fear

Mark reframes what Canlis was actually responding to. Watching the spread of fear and discouragement, often for entirely good reason, he argues that a genuinely universal event — one nobody gets to opt out of — creates a responsibility to remind people of the truth about themselves. He ties it back to the company's stated mission, which he admits is a strange one for a restaurant: to inspire people to turn toward one another.

The spread being addressed was fear and discouragement, not the virus
Calls the moment genuinely unprecedented because nobody is exempt
Frames a responsibility to remind people of the truth
Canlis's stated mission: inspire people to turn toward one another
The truth he names is that we don't know what we're capable of

“this company which is I know really weird mission but it's it's to inspire people that turn toward one another”
33:30

“when we saw the disease spreading and I am NOT talking about kovat 19 I am talking about the amount of fear the amount of…”
33:30

#mission#fear#leadership#purpose

Explainer· 4

Explainer07:30

The real economics of fine dining: 115 staff for 150 guests

Mark defines fine dining as the most considered form of caring for someone with food and hospitality, then gives the numbers. Most fine-dining rooms run 12 to 15 tables; Canlis has 33 and serves 150 to 200 guests on a busy night, with 115 employees and only six dinner services a week. There are only four hours a day the kitchen is not in use — roughly twenty hours of work to open for five hours of dinner service.

Fine dining defined as the most considered form of hospitality, not a price point
33 tables versus a 12-15 table norm
150-200 guests on a busy night, 115 employees, six dinners a week
Twenty hours of preparation for five hours of service
Mark calls it 'a model of inefficiency' by design

“we are considered to be a massive fine dining restaurant and their world of fine dining you know 12 to 15 tables pretty standard we…”
07:30

“it takes us 20 hours to open for what is essentially five hours of dinner servus”
08:30

#restaurant-economics#operations#fine-dining#labour

Explainer09:00

A new restaurant concept every day: drive-through, bagels, delivery

In a single week Canlis launched three businesses in sequence — the drive-through on Monday, the bagel shed on Tuesday, at-home delivery on Wednesday — then deliberately used the fourth day to run and refine the systems rather than launch anything new. The volume figures inverted the restaurant's usual shape: around 1,200 drive-through guests and 300 breakfasts in a day, plus a couple of hundred delivered dinners, against a normal 150-200 covers.

Monday drive-through, Tuesday bagels, Wednesday home delivery
Day four deliberately reserved for refining systems, not launching
~1,200 drive-through guests and ~300 breakfasts in one day
A couple of hundred dinners going out for delivery
The restaurant was 'not exactly set up for it' and tuned as it went

“today we served you know about 1200 people for the drive-through”
09:00

“every day this week we've opened a new restaurant concept we started on Monday with the drive-through Tuesday we added bagels”
09:00

#pivot#operations#launch-cadence#covid

Explainer17:30

Why the drive-through was picked as the revenue engine

The drive-through was chosen first because it was the biggest revenue generator and the restaurant's labour bill is its most expensive line. The geography made it possible: guests pull off a busy road, under the porte cochere and straight down the driveway without leaving the car, which also solved contactless service while keeping staff face-to-face with guests. The menu leaned on things the kitchen already did well — burgers, a Canlis salad to go, and ice cream sandwiches.

Chosen because labour is the most expensive line and this concept could cover it
The existing driveway and porte cochere made it physically possible
No-contact service while still facing guests
Menu built from things the kitchen could already execute: burgers, salad, ice cream sandwiches
Framed as 'embracing our inner drive-through' as a fine-dining restaurant

“we saw that as being the biggest revenue generator we have a ridiculous amount of labor here it's the most expensive thing”
18:00

“we were embracing our inner drive through as a fine-dining restaurant”
18:30

#drive-through#asset-reuse#menu-design#revenue

Explainer19:00

Priced not to make money: break-even for three months as the goal

With a $14 burger, Mark says the whole thing was designed not to make money. He is explicit that profit is not unethical in a crisis — in a sense there is a duty to make it — but here it functions mainly as protection for the staff. The bagels clearly lose money and are labour-intensive with no way to scale; raising their price to fix that 'feels dirty'. Burgers should make a little, dinner delivery should become profitable at scale, and the aim across the portfolio is simply not to lose money for a few months.

$14 burger; the concepts were designed not to make money
Making money in a crisis is not framed as unethical — it protects staff
Bagels lose money and cannot be scaled with the equipment on hand
Raising bagel prices was rejected as 'dirty'
Goal: break-even for roughly three months to be well positioned afterwards

“we have designed this thing not to make money”
19:00

“if we can get to break-even even from the onset that's what that's what the goal was”
20:00

#pricing#unit-economics#ethics#crisis-finance

Story· 6

Story02:30

Four generations of Canlis, from a Roosevelt safari to Seattle

Mark Canlis traces the family line back to a great-grandfather who cooked for Teddy Roosevelt on an African safari after his presidency, picked up at a hotel in Egypt and hired as a steward for eighteen months. The great-grandparents arrived in the United States around 1909-1910 and opened a restaurant in Stockton, California. Their son Peter opened Canlis in 1950, Mark's parents ran it for thirty years, and Mark and his brother Brian took over in 2003.

Great-grandfather cooked for Teddy Roosevelt on a post-presidency safari
Family arrived in the US around 1909-1910, opened a Stockton restaurant
Peter Canlis founded the Seattle restaurant in 1950
Mark's parents ran it for thirty years before he and Brian took over in 2003
Four generations and roughly a century of cooking for people

“I run this restaurant with my brother Brian and we very much feel like this is the tale a couple different grandfather's its amalgamation of…”
02:30

“one of them Peter Camus started this restaurant Camus in 1950 so that was my grandfather”
03:00

#family-business#history#restaurants#succession

Story03:30

Three generations of military service shaped how Canlis is led

Service runs through the family: Mark and Brian were in the Air Force, their father in the Navy, their grandfather a Marine for forty-three years. Mark credits military training — particularly how it teaches you to supply and support your people — as a large influence on his leadership. Mid-pivot, running a chaotic drive-through, he took a call from Colonel Mueller, the officer he served under twenty-five years earlier, and told him he felt the training had prepared him for exactly this.

Mark and Brian in the Air Force, father Navy, grandfather a Marine for 43 years
Military experience described as a large influence on how they lead the business
An unexpected call from his old commanding officer arrived mid-pivot
The lesson carried over is leadership, not adaptation tactics

“so I was in the I was in the Air Force so with Brian dad was in the Navy grandfather was a marine for forty-three…”
04:00

“that's just had such a remarkable influence on the way that I lead”
05:00

#leadership#military#family-business

Story05:30

Peter Canlis talked his way into running the USO kitchen at Pearl Harbor

Peter Canlis had left the family restaurant in Stockton wanting nothing to do with the business and was selling dry goods in Honolulu when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Like much of the city he headed to the base to help. Complaining loudly about the food inside the USO, he was challenged by the chef to do better — and by the end of the war was running all the food on base, between 3,000 and 5,000 meals. He opened The Broiler on a then-obscure beach called Waikiki in 1947 before moving to Seattle.

Peter had rejected the restaurant business before the war
A complaint about the food turned into running the entire USO kitchen
3,000 to 5,000 meals a day by war's end
Opened The Broiler in Waikiki in 1947, then moved to Seattle
Mark frames the 2020 drive-through as a return to those high-volume roots

“at some point he finds himself talking a lot of smack inside the USO about the quality of food”
06:00

“by the end of the war he's running all of the food on base the USO it's about kind of between 3,000 and 5,000 meals”
06:30

#history#pearl-harbor#high-volume#origin-story

Story20:30

The bagel shed: one staff member's side skill became a business

The bagel concept came from noticing lunch would be busy and that the expediter — a woman from the Lower East Side — was a baker whose bagels the Brooklyn-raised chef rated as the best he had eaten in New York or Seattle. Canlis already had a bread oven in a shipping container, so they opened a bagel shed serving everything bagels with fried eggs and homemade sausage. A crew of eight sells out in under an hour, which is the opposite of the goal, so they considered deliberately slowing the line and looked at taking over a closed bakery's space.

Concept came from an existing employee's unrelated skill
The bread oven in a shipping container was already on site
Full-time crew of eight, sold out in under an hour
Selling out fast is a problem when the goal is staff hours
Considered slowing the line, or taking over a closed bakery for capacity

“we happen to have a bread oven in a shipping container and it was like a no-brainer so we just opened a bagel shed”
20:30

“we sell out of bagels in under an hour so it's it's full-time crew of eight making these things”
21:00

#bagels#latent-skills#capacity#asset-reuse

Story21:30

Family meal, the staff's own dinner, became the delivery business

The delivery concept is simply the family meal the chef cooks for the team twice a day — a menu the Canlis crew joke is one of the best restaurants in the city that nobody else sees. Delivery is hard to figure out mid-transition, so they kept it deliberately simple: one dish a night, packed with a bottle of wine. The first night was cassoulet, using dry-aged ducks they had already committed to; another night was rabbit pot pie and glazed carrots. The servers who used to carry food to the table now drive it down the road.

The delivery menu is the staff family meal, already cooked twice a day
One dish per night, no big menu, kept simple by design
First night cassoulet from ducks already on order; later a rabbit pot pie
Servers became the delivery drivers, keeping their jobs
Keeps the kitchen cooking all night

“we always kind of it joke about like one of the best restaurants in the city actually being camless family”
22:00

“delivery is tough to figure out and making a transition like this I think it you can keep it simple you should”
22:30

#delivery#family-meal#simplicity#staffing

Story23:30

Tock stood its whole company down to build delivery in days

Canlis was trying to bend Tock, its reservation and ticketing platform, into a delivery system. They called Tock early, explained the idea, and Tock asked for five minutes. Five minutes later the company called back to say it had stood down its existing roadmap, recalled everyone in Chicago and would work only on this. Working around the clock for a couple of days, Tock shipped the platform in time for Canlis to launch — and made delivery available to any restaurant on it.

Canlis was hacking a reservation system into a delivery system by hand
Tock halted its own roadmap within five minutes of the call
The whole Chicago team was pulled onto it
Platform built around the clock in a couple of days
Result was reusable by any restaurant, not just Canlis

“they said we stood our company down we're turning it back on we just called everybody enter in Chicago and we're just going to work…”
24:00

“they cranked it out working around the clock for a couple of days”
24:00

#software#vendor-partnership#delivery#speed

Takeaway· 3

Takeaway24:30

Any restaurant can do delivery — a menu, a page and a to-go box

Mark's direct message to other restaurateurs: not everyone has the geography for a drive-through, but every restaurant can do delivery, and it takes the same scrappiness running a restaurant already demands. The minimum version is one menu, a way to tell people, and containers that hold heat. Canlis built a logo and a splash page, but says neither is necessary — an Instagram post would do. The fancy version, with servers taking maps and texts on their phones for no-contact drop-offs, is optional.

Drive-throughs depend on physical location; delivery does not
You already have the willpower and scrappiness the job requires
Minimum viable version: one menu, one announcement, hot-holding containers
Logo and splash page explicitly called unnecessary — Instagram works
Canlis sold three nights of takeout in about 90 minutes

“not everybody can do drive-thru just the physicality of it the locations into work but any restaurant a company can do delivery”
24:30

“we sold out three nights worth of takeout in about 90 minutes”
26:00

#delivery#small-business#minimum-viable#advice

Takeaway34:30

The daily practice: go outside and check the sky is still up there

Mark's daily instruction to his team is deliberately physical. Reading the news under the covers at night is fine and even important, but in the morning you go outside, look up, and ask whether the sky is still there. It is. So is the birdsong and the neighbour walking past. That becomes the starting inventory, and the follow-up question is what you can do with what you have. He describes it explicitly as a discipline and a practice, not a mood.

Physically go outside in the morning and look up
Start from what is verifiably still there, not from the headlines
Follow-up question: if this is what I have, what can I do with it?
Framed as a discipline and a practice, not optimism
The felt shift inside the building was from helplessness to hope

“you go outside you physically go outside of your house your partner you look up at the sky and ask yourself the question is it…”
35:00

“before it was a feeling of helplessness and after it was a feeling of Hope”
36:00

#morale#daily-practice#gratitude#team-leadership

Takeaway36:30

"We got this, Seattle" — and permission to try your own crazy idea

The line Canlis put on its website was chosen as the most direct way to tell a city that needed to hear it that it was capable of getting through. Mark closes by pre-empting the obvious dismissal — you don't have my restaurant, and this is someone else's story in a city you don't live in — and argues the opposite: if Canlis was crazy enough to try this, that is permission for your own version. He adds that competition only makes everyone better.

The website message was aimed at the city, not at customers
Explicitly anticipates 'this is someone else's story' as the failure mode
Frames the episode as permission to try your own idea
Says he even welcomes the competition it might create
Small acts — smiling at a neighbour six feet away — counted as part of it

“that's why we wrote on that website we got this Seattle it was the most poignant way I could say to a city that needed…”
36:30

“if we're crazy enough to give this a whirl maybe you know maybe some of your crazy is”
37:30

#community#messaging#optimism#seattle