Pay attention to deviations from mainstream incentives
> “Oh,” my dad said, waving his hand dismissively at the small army, “Everyone knows this coffee shop is owned by loan sharks. It’s probably a money laundering operation.”A long time ago, I went to a Czech restaurant in San Francisco (I am always interested in finding Czech food, as it is somewhat rare in the US anywhere but where I'm originally from: near Chicago, aka Czech-ago ;P). The food my friend got seemed to be literally microwaved (he said half of it was very cold while the other half of it was very hot), and they were entirely out of at least fruit dumplings I remember for sure but I also think there were a couple other things missing. I definitely remember someone commenting that it felt a bit like a money laundering scheme more so than a restaurant.Years later (still a while ago... maybe a decade?) I was again in San Francisco, and I went to the same restaurant--I mean, at least it is Czech food, right?! ;P--and now it was in a different much fancier dining area (though I also remember being somewhat difficult to find and sort of almost in a basement; it was just furnished almost ridiculously fancy). I was the only person there, however. This time, their menu didn't have a bunch of options they could be out of: they had exactly three dishes.There was, however, multiple wait staff at the restaurant, all just kind of doing nothing. I ordered a goulash I think, and it was OK. I mean, I was coming into this expecting it might just be them microwaving frozen scoops of food, and didn't care as, again, "at least it is Czech food". It was tasty enough that I went back the next day for the svickova.Again, no one was there. They also seemed so confused by how I was there. Now twice in a row. Ordering food off of their menu of only three options ;P. At the end of the dinner, I asked them "do you ever have... fruit dumplings?" and suddenly the guy--who maybe thought I was a cop casing the joint ;P--suddenly had a realization: "are you... Czech?!".I did not return for a third day ;P. I remember checking and a number of the reviews on whatever review site I was using at this point were also people who stumbled into this restaurant and started to think "how is this even a restaurant? are we sure this isn't a money laundering front?!". That said, it also isn't clear to me how money laundering can work if everyone suspects it at your business!