Warning! Before you read any further, please note that I know many wonderful Karen’s (being a kid in the 70’s and 80’s) and I adore them all!  

I believe it’s a chain restaurant, and there’s a couple of them in Melbourne. 

We took my 11-year-old son there recently, because he begged us to go there for his 11th birthday.  

And oh, my goodness, like from the beginning, when you book, there’s all these warning signs about expect bad behavior.  

Because the name Karen, especially over COVID, became synonymous with obnoxious, entitled, you know, the kind of person that would call the manager. 

I feel sad for Karen’s because I know a lot of gorgeous Karen’s and they’re so not like this.  

But this whole restaurant is all the ‘anti’ of what you’d want to do if you want to be valuable. 

You know, when you order your drinks, they don’t actually bring them to you, they put them on another table, so you’ve got to actually get up and go and get your own drinks. 

When you ask for something, they just brush you off. 

They swear like troopers, and you are warned about this before you go. 

In the middle of you having a conversation, they’ll just come and sit at your table and start interrupting and talking.  

When they bring your meals, they just slap them down on the table and walk away.  

It was fascinating.  

And they encourage you to engage in the dialogue, obviously with warnings about not being inappropriate, and you’re not allowed to cross the line.  

But it was such a great example for someone who is so obsessed with value, and I’m writing a book on value, to see the anti of this.  

And they call it Karen, but it’s Karen’s Diner.  

And it’s all the things that you don’t do, if you want to be valuable, and you want to create a really gorgeous, delightful experience for your clients. 

Then do all the stuff they do, and you won’t achieve any of it. 

Quite fascinating that there’s a whole restaurant chain. 

How’s this though, we booked eight weeks in advance and the only table we could get was at 5.30pm on a Saturday night.  

So yeah, obviously a lot of people are paying to experience really bad service and (experience) really bad behavior. 

Kind of, it’s almost a bit like a theater restaurant, if you ask me.  

Don’t know that we’d go back again, because I guess the novelty factor has now past, but just such an example of what not to do. 

And I know none of you would ever behave like this.  

You would be extremely attentive and try to do as much for your clients as possible to try and you know, work with them and be their favorite person, not the opposite way around.  

Because even though Karen’s Diner was a beautiful example of what not to do, I know that that’s not who you are, because I know that You are valuable