Mt. Joy

I used to watch Saved by the Bell every morning before school. One of the fixtures in that show was "The Max", a restaurant that served as the default meet up spot for the characters between classes. A default meet up spot. Where people *choose* to gather and interact in their spare time. How many other types of businesses can even aspire to become such a thing? In this increasingly digital world, I’ve been thinking a lot about how restaurants can become centers of gravity for communities. I am drawn to the idea that, for the people living in the neighborhood, a restaurant doesn’t have to be a discrete experience that starts and ends when they walk through the door. To that end, last week we launched a neighborhood leaderboard game at our Capitol Hill restaurant. The leaderboard itself - which looks like the HIGH SCORES screen you’d see on an old school arcade game - is displayed on a big ol’ display that’s visible from the sidewalk outside the store. To get on the leaderboard, all you need to do is try the daily puzzle (which we send out via text message). Oh, and whoever holds 1st place eats for free at that store. When we first debuted the leaderboard, it was only accessible to folks who placed orders. But within just a day, the staff at the store was reporting that passerbys were coming to ask about the leaderboard and how to play. That’s when we opened up the leaderboard to anyone with a phone to play. And just a week on, we have 150 active players. I don’t think any of us imagined it would grow as quickly as it has. But for me, the real success came yesterday. I was at the restaurant doing some tech maintenance, and, over the course of an hour, two separate groups of people came in. The first group headed straight to the leaderboard and scoffed (albeit jovially) at the fact that someone had overtaken their position. I introduced myself as the ‘nerd who gets to make those puzzles and they told me they really enjoyed the game. As they were waiting for their food, another couple came in, and one of them pointed to the leaderboard and said, “see, that’s me in 4th!” The first group heard this and then all 4 started talking together. It’s still early days, and I’m still trying to work out what this all means. For now, all I can tell you is that watching people come together in real life around a new feature takes the cake when it comes to software engineering success metrics. Shoutout to my partner on this project Carrie Shaw - if I had a collaborator leaderboard, you'd be at the top.