Debunking the Popularity Myth / some Coffee Bar Notes

When max Popularity in Restaurant City was 50, it was all the craze to be a 50 Popularity layout. Now its much higher, folks are still spending huge amounts of coins on Popularity Items, and talking about "oh my 95 Popularity Layout" like its a very important thing to get.
Question is - is it really doing YOU Any Good?

This post assumes that what you ultimately want from Popularity is Coins.

1) 10 Popularity = 3 Customers Entering per Minute

So at level 40, you have 80 Popularity, you get 24 Customers Per Minute.

"Awesome! 24 Customers every minute!"
Hold your horses. The next question to be asking is :

2) How Many Customers Can I Serve?

That's "Serve". Not "Entertain", as customers using Arcades, Bowling Alleys etc, don't give you any Coins now.

3) But my Popularity is Max! It shows I'm handling Most of my Customers and Need more Popularity!

Well, having Max Popularity only means only means that you are Upsetting Less Customers than you are Serving
ie. for each 1 Customer giving a thumb down, you have at least 1 Customer that gives you a thumbs up.
You could have just 1-2 seats, 1-2 stoves, 1 Waiter and lots of Arcade Machines & Janitors. No Thumbs-down = Max Popularity
Hence, Popularity keeps going higher and is eventually Maxed.
BUT - are you making as Many Coins as you could?

4) So, How can I Make More Coins / Serve More Customers?

As long as your Max Popularity is above 70, and you apply variations of the Layout here with the Relevant Tips, you should be doing fine.

If you have Customers that can't find a Seat, use your "Servables" first, meaning your Lounge Bar (if you have a spare worker) and your Sushi Bar.
After that, toss on the entertaining functionals like Bowling Alley and get a few Arcades off the side

Edit on 25 Sep 10 : Inserted the above portion in Bold, realised I forgot to mention them. They're obvious, but also easy to miss out when you've been making a lot of design adjustments for too long lol

And yes, that means you Never Have to Buy ANY Popularity Items, which have terrible Return-On-Investment.

For those who aren't familiar with the ROI term, it means
Popularity Items (Soups, Obelisks) Cost FAR MORE Coins than they will help you Earn.

Note that I may be making a separate, very technical post on Efficiency & Popularity that is really just for personal interest's sake.

PS : as of 25 Sep 2010, found out that Popularity actually does help you make more Coins when the Restaurant is not open / offline.
The increase in coins is probably minimal, making ROI still pretty much horrible, but I would like to get more concrete data before closing the case :) will update in future with a separate post when data is in!
Cheers!

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Bonus : Coffee Bar Capacity

It isn't really related, but oh well just going to post here :)

The Coffee Bar can handle 4 Seats efficiently, if
- fully upgraded (as of 22 Sep 2010)
- Waiter can only move 2 squares : 1 square at the Coffee Machine, and 1 square to serve some tables. Just like this...

Note there's 5 chairs but only 4 can be used to eat, and 2 of the usable seats do not require the Waiter to move at all.

Otherwise, stick to 3 Seats, meaning the Waiter should/can always remain in 1 square.

Update : Posted pic up :)