The rise of the creative studio restaurant
Your fave restaurant is coming to Netflix
Welcome to the Sociology of Business. In my last analysis, A culture-driven organization, I explained how to put culture at the center of the business transformation. This Monday, we welcome again Max Meigen, founder of Serviette, an award-winning publication that explores the cultural conversations that center around food. If you are on the Substack, join the chat. With one of the paid subscription options, join Paid Membership Chat, and with the free subscription, join The General Chat on The Sociology of Business WhatsApp group.
I explored previously how restaurants resist the enshittification produced by platform logic. By prioritizing craft, limiting scale, and preserving friction, they protect forms of value that platforms reliably erode.
Platforms are built to smooth everything out, accelerate everything, and market themselves without end. The result is now familiar: a slow collapse in quality, distinctiveness, and user satisfaction.
Restaurants, at their best, still answer to a different logic, news of Noma’s abuse allegations notwithstanding. They are governed not by frictionless optimization but by hospitality, and hospitality remains one of the few commercial forms capable of producing a sensorially rich, socially textured, and genuinely satisfying experience.
Most ambitious restaurants are no longer happy merely to be places that serve food. They are moving into publishing, product development, design, music, education, events, and media. They are building systems around themselves. In the process, they
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