There’s an awkward, skinny breakfast eatery called Louisa’s Place in San Luis Obispo. The restaurant seats 50 people. Like tropical fish in an aquarium, uniformed women with splashy makeup bob to and fro within the waitress station service island, which bisects the length of this long and narrow eating place. If the cheap dishware clinked less loudly, every waitress would be within easy hollering distance from any table.
The diner does one thing exceptionally well: Louisa’s Place does breakfasts. Louisa’s gastronomical evolution has produced a singularly focused harmony of eggs, bacon, biscuits, pancakes and potatoes that has won the county’s “Best Breakfast” award for three years running.
An astonishing 27 varieties of omelets crowd the menu. Conscience-searing breakfasts are so cholesterol-laden that the blood thickens whenever a waitress passes by. The stomach, fearful of being conquered by the massive portions, discharges hydrochloric acid. The heart churns into overdrive, pumping liters of blood while it can still flow. Intestines groan and belch, attempting to advance their contents before the inevitable caloric onslaught. But the nose and tongue hold the trump cards here, silencing all cautions that other organs attempt to send to the brain.
Louisa’s Place successfully maneuvers to fill a niche market that separates it from its rivals. It’s a thin slice. Competitors are on nearly every corner.
So why does Louisa’s flourish? Perhaps it’s the aquarium-like waitress station, unlike any other restaurant layout. Maybe it’s the targeted menu that rewards the desire in each of us to indulgently break our sleep-induced fast after a good night’s slumber.
There are many things that Louisa’s place is not. But that’s what makes it so very good at what it is.
It’s all in discovering and knowing the niche, the microscopic differential that separates one niche from another.
The niche is the thing. A good niche, well done, is a perfect fit.
Succeeding in our life’s journey is all about finding our own niche, discovering the appropriate fit for our nuances, traits, and the singular quirks that will turn us, uniquely and successfully, into our own version of Louisa’s Place: a place unlike any other, where friends come, enjoy camaraderie, and leave, happy to have indulged. And they’ll be back.
Who could ask for more?