COMMUNITY : FORUMS : FOOD


Please join the Instructables Restaurant.

I will open an open-source restaurant that is completely made of, and only serves food based on the original instructables all the members on instructables.com have made or will make.

I mean, every chair, dishwasher, menucard, light etc. and all the food, will together be the restaurant. And I would like to ask you guys for your brilliant, funny, original ideas concerning all aspects restauranty. Inside the restaurant everything will be presented with the original instruction and accreditation to the maker. I have been involved in several pilot and concept restaurants in the past like Food Facility, a restaurant based on take-out restaurants by Catalonian designer Marti Guixe, and The Micro-Green Restaurant by Debra Solomon of culiblog.org. Both at Mediamatic in Amsterdam, where I was at the time working as an exhibition maker. I would appreciate it so much if you'd get involved in this and share your ideas with me to make it into an incredible creative place for adventurous diners, and maybe the first open source restaurant ever created (but i'm not sure about that and I guess it doesn't really matter anyway). In some restaurants you can buy the stuff you see, in this restaurant you'll go home knowing how to re-create what you just enjoyed, be it the food or the chair you sat on.

If you like it, please join the group about this: http://www.instructables.com/group/instructables-restaurant/

Instructable restaurant.png
sort by: active | newest | oldest
arne hendriks (author) says: Dec 18, 2009. 8:11 AM
It's open!

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-an-Instructables-Restaurant/

Now let's work some of the great ideas that have been posted some time ago into it.
Or even better, make one yourself!
Spl1nt3rC3ll says: Aug 22, 2008. 3:23 PM
Awesome idea! I'd love to see this place built!

One of the desserts could be LED Jigglies in a dark, LED themed room. Or you could have a dog washing station out back to attract the local pet owners, along with some of the doggy treats on this site. You could also serve Roy Rogers and Shirley Temples.
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 4:06 PM
I think LED will be an essential part of this for sure. About the local pet owners, give me a minute to think about it. Thanks for this. I'd love to hear more!
Spl1nt3rC3ll says: Oct 21, 2008. 8:45 PM
A Time Fountain would be a great piece for the LED theme.
arne hendriks (author) says: Oct 28, 2008. 1:46 PM
A LED themed event, is a great idea. Please keep adding ideas on this.
whatsisface says: Aug 22, 2008. 3:34 PM
Or you could serve SPAM

<snicker>
technick29 says: Aug 26, 2008. 6:59 PM
Sounds delicious! Keep us updated on your progress, and best of luck.
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 28, 2008. 4:13 PM
Will do.
shammallamaman says: Aug 24, 2008. 7:45 PM
Just did
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 24, 2008. 10:32 PM
Thanks and welcome. I'm looking forward to your ideas for the restaurant.
whatsisface says: Aug 22, 2008. 7:35 AM
Probably best to put in a link to the group as well for people to join:

http://www.instructables.com/group/instructables-restaurant/
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 12:02 PM
Done! Please join if you like.
Kiteman says: Aug 22, 2008. 2:33 PM
I've joined.
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 2:38 PM
I think maybe at some later stage the group will start to serve its purpose but right now I'm not sure how to use it yet. Inexperience I guess.
Kiteman says: Aug 23, 2008. 7:34 AM
It's people who are interested in your idea, so are probably the first people who will allow you to use pre-existing projects, or even create projects especially for you. You can add projects to the group (even if they are already in other groups), and use that as your "library" or "recipe book" - it will make it easier to point people to your source material in future.
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 23, 2008. 10:13 AM
Thanks Kiteman, it makes sense to me now. We could have different topics about let's say, food, furniture, fun, clothes, kitchen etc. And the people that are for real can stay in touch that way. Perfect. I've put the same entry in the craft forum but it hardly got any replies.
Kiteman says: Aug 22, 2008. 4:30 AM
I know nothing about the restaurant trade, but this sounds like a great idea!

Do you have a location yet, or is this still at the idea stage?

Kiteman brainstorms...

  • Pictures of Robot everywhere. If you have a Kids menu, the back is the template to make Smart's Paper Robot.
  • Copies of The Book for sale at the door.
  • Screwdrivers with the handles removed could be cool chopsticks
  • There's a "creative quarter" in Amsterdam? Put your cafe there.
  • Have a Making space - make the floor above or below the restaurant a workshop with several small workbenches with sets of tools so that people can make things from the site, whilst eating cake and drinking coffee that they put on an invisible bookshelf above the bench.
  • Dress waiting staff like this
  • Have making evenings (talk to Star about Miters evenings)
  • Have a Swap Night once a month - people can bring in things they have made, and either swap with each other, or barter with you for food and drink. Bartered items would then go on sale in the restaurant, displayed on shelves around the room (like other restaurants sell paintings).
=SMART= says: Aug 22, 2008. 5:20 PM
Cool ideas!! thanks for the mention :P
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 12:11 PM
Hi Kiteman, I love the kidsmenu idea: I guess what we need to find instructables for 1. A delicious kids menu. And 2. An outline for a paper robot. Put it together and bingo. The books could be complimentary reading in the lounge area. Screwdrivers: I have to see this. it would be great if there are instrcutables for making cutlery. Good point but I'd also like it to be right in the middle of the regular Amsterdam crowd, not just the overtly creatives. This way it might reach a more diverse public making space: DONE. Dressing the staff with clothes designed from instrcutables would be fun. making evenings: Absolutley! The SWAP Night: DONE. I'd love to hear more ideas about this. Do you have experience with something like it? Anyhow, you already have to be on our WALL of DIY Fame.
=SMART= says: Aug 22, 2008. 5:18 PM
Here is the robot outline and a picture of the final product
SNC11469.JPG
caitlinsdad says: Aug 22, 2008. 5:11 PM
I thought Kiteman would have chose my robohoodie but preferred the mad-scientist look. I guess that would be in souvenir section with the other t-shirts like "I ate with GorillazMiko".

Definitely have graph-paper paper tablecloths and napkins and crayon/pencils/IKEA tape measures for people to scribble their ideas while waiting for their meal and to keep kids occupied.

Just click on my username to see my Instructables Robot themed projects. Have a robognome-greeter at the door or to page people when their table is ready. Good luck. Sounds like a fun idea.
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 23, 2008. 10:19 AM
Hi dad of caitlin,

Souvenir shop = great! and graph paper table cloth, how do you guys come up with this stuff. It's great. I see a whole line of tablecloth possibilities. Would you care to make an instructable for at least one of them?

Goodhart says: Aug 23, 2008. 5:47 PM
how do you guys come up with this stuff

I have been looking at the new science of convergence here of late and to be honest, the "collective mind" is greater then the individual parts it seems: individually we are great idea makers, but put us together and we really shine :-) Synergy.
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 24, 2008. 10:30 PM
Is there any suggested reading for me to do on that subject? I'm left with quite a few questions on how this would work out for the individual.
Goodhart says: Aug 25, 2008. 4:06 AM
I haven't come across any (BTW: I mistakenly said convergence and I meant Emergence), but there is a set of a few radio broadcasts done by WNYC RadioLab that help with it a lot. You will need a few hours time to listen to the podcasts though. Still, I found them Fascinating :-)

Link to th WNYC RadioLab Podcasts on Emergence...
Goodhart says: Aug 25, 2008. 4:51 AM
I checked it out, and yes, there is a book called EMERGENCE:
Kiteman says: Aug 25, 2008. 9:19 AM
...Emergence...

That would be a good name for the restaurant, or maybe Gestalt (which roughly means "a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts").
Goodhart says: Aug 25, 2008. 3:57 PM
Hmm, or maybe E-mergence ? :-)
Kiteman says: Aug 25, 2008. 4:19 PM
Oh, no, now that I think about it, it's a little too close to Emergency...
Goodhart says: Aug 25, 2008. 4:24 PM
I had considered that too...but as a trade name, it could be "misspelled" anyways ....something like: E-merg-eats (or is that too corny ?)
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 25, 2008. 4:17 PM
I was thinking that, especially for non-english speakers. What's in a name...
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 25, 2008. 4:23 PM
Well if you consider that merg in Dutch actually means bone marrow.
Kiteman says: Aug 26, 2008. 3:30 AM
Well, nobody said it had to be a vegetarian restaurant...

(Although, in the UK, it is easier to meet food handling regulations if you are a purely vegetarian establishment)
Kiteman says: Aug 26, 2008. 3:32 AM
Hey! If you're not going to call it Instructables (for the reasons Eric gave), pinch a part of the site - call it Zeitgeist (unless that is too close to the Dutch for "maggot ridden residue"?)

Since the project will be an emergent function of a group process, I think that fits quite well.

arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 26, 2008. 8:07 AM
Nice.
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 26, 2008. 8:08 AM
Nicegeist
caitlinsdad says: Aug 26, 2008. 11:21 AM
Nicegeist finish first... before Goodhart gets to it, you'll understand later :)
Goodhart says: Aug 26, 2008. 6:53 PM
its not true that only nice guys finish last ;-) Hmm, we could refer to the Restaurant as the Mis’adah :-)
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 26, 2008. 12:37 PM
-World of Foodcraft-
caitlinsdad says: Aug 23, 2008. 6:21 PM
Do you have to cross your eyes when you look at the new science of convergence?

  • have mini-terminals at each table to chat with other tables. Video-cams for those into that thing.
  • have a stand-up comic/pun master do their act in the entertainment corner...
caitlinsdad says: Aug 23, 2008. 6:34 PM
  • Have tele-dining. If a person can't make it to your table, they can video-conference in and join the table. But still charge the person for sharing...
Goodhart says: Aug 23, 2008. 6:36 PM
Sorry, not convergence but rather Emergence.....
caitlinsdad says: Aug 23, 2008. 3:53 PM
There are a lot of graphic artists out there that could probably do a better job. Ideas are free for the asking.
Kiteman says: Aug 23, 2008. 7:36 AM
Love the graph-paper idea.

Possibly Dremels for (ahem) carving the turkey at Christmas?
caitlinsdad says: Aug 23, 2008. 8:44 AM
There is laser-cutter laser cut meat somewhere...
Kiteman says: Aug 23, 2008. 11:09 AM
Isn't that somebody's arm...?
caitlinsdad says: Aug 23, 2008. 3:50 PM
That was self-inflicted but this one wanted to incur the wrath of the vegan-ninjas.
Kiteman says: Aug 23, 2008. 3:56 PM
Those comments are funny even though they are missing!
caitlinsdad says: Aug 22, 2008. 5:32 PM
If you have a Brazilian-Portuguese Churrascaria bbq-grill type eatery, you can use the robognome standing up to signal you are full and stand it on its head to attract attention of the waiter.
DSCF1239.JPGDSCF1153.JPGDSCF0984.JPG
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 23, 2008. 10:54 AM
We'll need to make an Instrcutable for all the protocols inside the restaurant.
Kiteman says: Aug 25, 2008. 9:23 AM
I think that will be your job.

  • "How to clean a kitchen"
  • "How to plan a menu"
  • "How to wait on tables"
  • "How to cook for dozens"
  • "How to run a restaurant"
  • "How to get licenses for a restaurant"
etc.
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 25, 2008. 4:14 PM
I know. I'm thinking of starting relatively small. Possibly doing a pilot project within Platform21, a foundation for innovation, art and design. I'm a creative producer there and they might be interested in supporting the idea. This way it could be almost like a try-out.
Kiteman says: Aug 22, 2008. 2:30 PM
The paper robot is already done (link) - just ask SMART if you can use it.

I've never done anything like the restaurant, or a swap evening, I was just brainstorming. Feel free to use the ideas, though.

Cutlery... we have a few projects on making knives, but not forks (I think I could whittle one, but that's not hygienic). It tends to be things made from cutlery. Maybe a spanner could be re-made into a spoon?

(If I ever get to Amsterdam, I'll be sure to drop in to see my wall...)
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 6:14 AM
Wow Kiteman, these are some great ideas. The making space is a must, as are the evenings about making stuff and the swap night. I want to go into your remarks in more detail when I have some time later. Did you check out the Micro-green restaurant we did with Debra Solomon at Mediamatic? It served 30 different kinds of sprouts with mashed potato and sausage but it was also a robot soldering station at the same time so people were eating and their neighbours were soldering. It was beautiful, fun and inspiring.
whatsisface says: Aug 22, 2008. 7:33 AM
That other restaurant is fabulous! I love it. I think this is a really cool idea, I can imagine tennis ball chairs everywhere :D
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 2:49 PM
Look what happened in this place. It was cross-fertilization all night long:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arnehendriks/295261615/
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 12:14 PM
I believe we can make something incredible if this open source way of finding participation finds enough interested people. Please send me the link on the tennisballs and we put that one on the list. I'd also like to imagine that every single chair is based on a different instructable.
whatsisface says: Aug 22, 2008. 12:14 PM
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 12:34 PM
Nice. I thought you might have meant this one.
http://www.nuacco.com/2007/07/27/ball-games-for-the-lazy/
Goodhart says: Aug 22, 2008. 4:56 AM
Dress waiting staff like this

LOL Don't ask me why, but I thought, for just a moment, you might have linked to another place. Thanks for renewing my respect for your taste ;-)

arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 6:16 AM
Were you referring to IKEA? That's why we hack it. Your proposal is hilarious.
Goodhart says: Aug 22, 2008. 7:12 AM
no, Kiteman got my meaning LOL *sorry*
Kiteman says: Aug 22, 2008. 5:32 AM
Well, it is Amsterdam. There is a dress code to uphold...
Goodhart says: Aug 22, 2008. 7:13 AM
Oh well, must be my mid-life crisis turning my brain to mush *sigh*
ewilhelm says: Aug 22, 2008. 2:03 PM
Go for it! When it's open, I'll come and eat the Venison Asparagus. Seriously though, I think the Instructables name probably isn't a good choice because it won't intrinsically attract people local to the restaurant. However, everything else about your idea sounds great, and if you attribute the logo and robot properly, you're free to use them. I would definitely call it "The World's First Open-Source Restaurant" -- who could dispute you!?
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 2:20 PM
Thanks, good point about the name, I'm actually looking forward to involving all members in coming up with a name. Looking forward to sharing some Venison with you.
gmjhowe says: Aug 22, 2008. 4:01 AM
Is this serious? sound like a major risk to me! But then it would also be exceedingly cool. the main problem i can see, if how far apart the members are. Also, i think you need to talk to the people who own instructables first. Get them to sort it properly, not to mention any copyright issues.
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 12:18 PM
Yes it's serious. As you can hopefully see in the other projects I did we do actually try to make it happen. Thanks for your advice, if you like please stay involved and spread the word. As for your remarks: I'm interested in the copyright issue of course and will speak to the people at Instructables about this but it seems to me that the ideas people upload are their ideas and if they want to get involved they can. In the end I don't think the name will be Instructables Restaurant since this could be confusing. But who knows? Todays way is very much determined by the willingness and actual desire of people to work together, with everybody getting the credit they deserve. i think this last point is very important. About your first remark. The distance is no problem since it will be the instructables that travel, not the instructors (with some possible exeptions according to degree of difficulty to make the instructable here).
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 4:20 AM
(removed by author or community request)
zachninme says: Aug 22, 2008. 6:31 AM
Wow, this is amazing!

The default license for an instructable is Creative Commons' Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (also known as "cc by-nc-sa")
Since this would be commercial, you'll need to ask people's permission to either change the license, or just license it to you in a different way.
I'd highly suggest using cc by-sa. I think it enforces the whole sharing thing.

I think it would be really awesome if you released some restaurant how-to's under a permissive license. :-)

I'm really looking forward to seeing this turn out. It sounds like a really cool idea.
zachninme says: Aug 22, 2008. 12:29 PM
The comment to which I replied previously is marked as "(removed by community request)". Although I do not remember the comment exactly, I can't recall anything that arne hendricks said that would be not nice/inappropriate.

I know its normally bad to ask this, but may someone please enlighten me to why his comment was removed?
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 2:25 PM
I think i might have done it myself because I doubled up on something. Oops.
whatsisface says: Aug 22, 2008. 2:09 PM
I've noticed that a lot, many comments keep getting removed that don't have anything offensive in them, for seemingly no reason. It's not even like the user is deleting them, because that would be (Removed by poster). Glitch maybe?
arne hendriks (author) says: Aug 22, 2008. 12:21 PM
Hi Zachninme, Thanks for the advice. You obviously know a lot about it. I'd love it if you keep an eye on the way this thing goes and if you see any problems or if you have more of that valuable advice to let me know. I appreciate it a lot.
Kiteman says: Aug 22, 2008. 4:35 AM
Many ibles are posted with a very free licence - if you're not recreating them to sell, you don't actually need their permission. It would be polite to ask, though.

You'll need to ask Eric about using the Robot image or the Instructables name, but I can't imagine it would be a major problem, especially if things you made had a link to the original ible on them (say a tag hanging off a chair, a small plate embedded in a table-top, and posters on the wall about the cutlery), or you start a group here and include all the related ibles into it, and then display a sign, "all recipes, as well as how we made the furniture, can be found at (say) http://www.instructables.com/group/Arnes_Place/*

The worst he can do is say "no" to Robot being visible, but the use of particular ibles is entirely down to the authors.

*(yes, I know the link doesn't work properly)
Pro

Get More Out of Instructables

Already have an Account?

close

PDF Downloads
As a Pro member, you will gain access to download any Instructable in the PDF format. You also have the ability to customize your PDF download.

Upgrade to Pro today!