AFCO
Consulting & Associates

The Restaurant Strategy Canvas 2.0

From Concept to Table — A Framework to Build, Articulate and Improve Your Business Strategy
Strategy = A coherent and actionable theory of business
Being a strategist is like being a Chef, not just a Cook.
Mission + Ingredients + Recipe + Dish + Pricing + Review = Winning Strategy
🍽️
The Restaurant
Your Business
👨‍🍳
The Chef
The Strategist (you)
🥩
The Ingredients
Resources & Capabilities
📖
The Recipe
Your Business Model
🍴
The Signature Dish
Your Value Proposition
The Review
Learning & Improvement
Block 1
🍽️ The Restaurant's Reason to Exist
Kitchen Mission
Why does your restaurant exist — and who are you cooking for?
Purpose (The Infinite Game)
What problem do you exist to solve in the world?
Why would the world be worse without your business?
The Diner (Your Customer)
Who are you cooking for? Be specific — not "everyone"
What job is your customer trying to get done? (Jobs to be Done)
What frustrates them with current alternatives?
The Playing Field
Where do you choose to compete — and where do you choose NOT to?
🧑‍🍳 A great chef knows exactly who they're cooking for. A strategy without a clear customer is a kitchen without a menu.
Block 2
🥩 What You Have to Cook With
The Ingredients
What unique assets do you bring to the kitchen that others don't have?
Tangible Resources
What physical, financial, or technological assets do you own?
Which of these are difficult for competitors to replicate?
Capabilities (The Secret Sauce)
What do you do better than anyone else?
What knowledge, processes or culture creates your edge?
Is your advantage based on speed, quality, cost, relationships, or data?
Honest Gaps
What ingredients are you missing? What do you need to acquire or build?
🧑‍🍳 You can't cook what you don't have. Know your pantry — and be honest about what's missing.
Block 3
📖 How You Create Value
The Recipe
How do you combine your ingredients to create something people want?
Key Activities (The Cooking Process)
What are the 3–5 activities that create the most value for your customer?
Which activities must you own vs. outsource?
Value Chain
How does value flow from your inputs to your customer's outcome?
Where in the chain do you add the most differentiated value?
Strategic Choices
What tradeoffs have you made? What will you NOT do?
Are your activities mutually reinforcing — or disconnected?
🧑‍🍳 A recipe is a set of integrated choices. Change one ingredient and the whole dish changes. Strategy works the same way.
Block 4
🍴 What You Put on the Table
The Signature Dish
What do customers experience — and why would they come back and recommend you?
Value Proposition
What specific outcome do you deliver for your customer?
How is your dish different from every other option on the market?
Differentiation
Why would a customer choose you over a cheaper or more familiar alternative?
What would your best customer say about you to a friend?
The Experience
What does the full experience feel like — before, during, and after?
What is the one thing customers remember long after they leave?
🧑‍🍳 Your signature dish is your promise. It must be distinctive, consistent, and worth coming back for.
Block 5
💰 How You Capture Value
The Menu & Pricing
How do you capture a fair share of the value you create?
Revenue Model
How do you charge? (subscription, transaction, licensing, freemium...)
Does your pricing model align with the value you deliver?
Pricing Strategy
Are you competing on price — or on value? (you can't do both)
What is your customer willing to pay — and why?
Are you leaving money on the table by underpricing?
Customer Segments
Do different diners get different menus? How do you segment?
Which segment is most profitable and most strategic?
🧑‍🍳 A great dish that is poorly priced is a poorly run restaurant. Value creation without value capture is charity.
Block 6
⭐ How You Get Better
The Review & Next Season
How do you taste your own dish, learn from feedback, and improve the recipe?
The Feedback Loop
How do you gather honest feedback from your customers?
What metrics tell you if the dish is actually working?
Learning & Experimentation
What assumptions are you testing right now?
How do you run low-cost experiments before changing the full menu?
What did you learn from your last failure — and what did you change?
The Infinite Game
How does your strategy evolve as the market changes?
What does the next season of your restaurant look like?
🧑‍🍳 The best chefs taste their dishes constantly. Strategy without feedback is a kitchen without quality control.
From Concept to Table — and Back to the Kitchen
The Strategy Loop
A strategy is never finished. Like a great restaurant, it evolves every season.
⚡ The Key Strategic Question
How does your business create value for customers in a way that is differentiated, sustainable, and profitable?
Can you articulate your strategy in one clear sentence?
Is every block of this canvas coherent and mutually reinforcing?
🔁 The Coherence Test
Do your ingredients (Block 2) support your recipe (Block 3)?
Does your recipe (Block 3) deliver your signature dish (Block 4)?
Does your pricing (Block 5) reflect the value of your dish (Block 4)?
Is your review system (Block 6) improving all of the above?
♾️ The Infinite Game Reminder
Strategy is not a plan. It is a theory of how your business creates, delivers, and captures value — under uncertainty, competition, and constant change.
The goal is not to win a single meal. It is to build a restaurant worth returning to — forever.