Lettuce Entertain You

Wow Bao started from 'smallest restaurant that fits in a lobby'

Shaan recounts visiting Chicago's Lettuce Entertain You group, whose Wow Bao concept began by working backwards from a single question: how small can a restaurant be? They started from a 10x10 footprint that could fit in a tower lobby.

“this is a, you know, 10 by 10 square foot, you know, 10 by 10 restaurant. He's like, this is the smallest footprint you can do with a restaurant. And we started with that question, how can we make a restaurant so small it could fit in this one tower's lobby where it was like there's only this tiny space that used to be just for like, I don't know, like greeting cards or something.”

Steal thisWork backwards from an extreme constraint (smallest possible footprint) to invent a new business concept.