This past weekend, my best friend since the second grade who is probably the best friend you could ask for and aren’t you jealous? sent me a picture from a restaurant in Pittsburgh, where she was visiting, with a note that said, “Thought you would love this!”

And wasn’t she right.

I did love it.

Because most businesses would be afraid to declare something so potentially off-putting.

But smart businesses, on the other hand, don’t avoid being off-putting—THEY STRIVE FOR IT.

Because for every one person who said, “Ugh, not my kind of place,” there were 5 other people who thought, “Now, this is my kind of place.”

And the only way both parties could tell?

Is because the business wasn’t afraid to tell them.