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How Instagram is affecting restaurant design.

Haunted

Member
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on point
 

Delio

Member
For one of the most egregious offenders of this, may I present a relatively new ice cream joint near me in DTLA called "Little Damage".

It's a soft serve ice cream spot that makes their cones black through activated charcoal which adds to the whole goth-ish vibe of the place and the whole design of the place, as well as the look of the food, is done with Instagram in mind. Just look at all of the shots in that link.

They charge SEVEN DOLLARS for a soft serve ice cream cone and the place routinely has an insane line, it's been this busy ever since Buzzfeed did a piece on it.

Not going to lie this is pretty cool. Seven dollars tho i dunno :/
 

Sandoval

Member
For one of the most egregious offenders of this, may I present a relatively new ice cream joint near me in DTLA called "Little Damage".

It's a soft serve ice cream spot that makes their cones black through activated charcoal which adds to the whole goth-ish vibe of the place and the whole design of the place, as well as the look of the food, is done with Instagram in mind. Just look at all of the shots in that link.

They charge SEVEN DOLLARS for a soft serve ice cream cone and the place routinely has an insane line, it's been this busy ever since Buzzfeed did a piece on it.

I don't get it, but I do want to try throwing some Fruity Pebbles on some ice cream one of these days. Fuck me if I'm going to pay $7 for a soft serve cone.
 

beelzebozo

Jealous Bastard
so glad i was slightly too old to get sucked into instagram. it guiding my life decisions and tastes seems like a major tail wagging the dog scenario.
 

GHG

Gold Member
Lol. The Japanese people around here are nuts about selfies/photos. We'll watch them spend 30 minutes of their meal just taking pictures of it. "Here, you pretend you're taking a bite... no no don't actually take one. Ok now, its my turn to pretend to take a bite." I take my kids to a lot of pools too, and there's always three or four groups around who spend literally hours just photographing themselves.

So people photograph their food until it's cold and then eat it?

But why...
 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
so glad i was slightly too old to get sucked into instagram. it guiding my life decisions and tastes seems like a major tail wagging the dog scenario.

Deleted my account like two years ago because this was happening. Would go out of my way or spend money to go somewhere / buy something / eat something literally just to have something seemingly interesting to post.

On the one hand it did make me do stuff I sometimes enjoyed that I would have probably not have done otherwise, but still felt stupid.
 
Agreed! This is nothing new, atmosphere and novelty has always been important for restaurants. Same thing with the aesthetics of food presentation. If you plate something that looks awesome I'm probably going to enjoy the experience and food more, even if I never post a damn thing to Instagram.

There's really nothing particularly newsworthy here. The article title should be something like: restaurants continue to try to be unique, just like they've always done.

I'm sure the author is preparing their scathing self reflective piece entitled "Online news sites bend over backwards changing how they write and title stories to get more clicks". Any day now.
 

RedHill

Banned
You guys know that you can make your restaurant look nice AND have good food right? Because some of these comments seem to think it's one or the other.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Thing is, it's always been this way. Restaurants, coffee shops, etc. always tried to have good looking designs / architecture. It's just that now people use Instagram to show it to the world.

Eh, everything has tried to have good-looking designs/architecture. That's different from marketing solely on presentation (which wasn't invented to cater to shallow millennials, but just seems to have gained traction in the social media age.)

I'm sure the author is preparing their scathing self reflective piece entitled "Online news sites bend over backwards changing how they write and title stories to get more clicks". Any day now.

I mean, that trend is shit too, so....
 

jph139

Member
I originally thought this is dumb, but I realized my issue isn't with the focus on atmosphere, it's with the aesthetic. Instagram cutesy artsy style just makes me roll my eyes.

I like my food made by a fat dude in an understaffed kitchen, eating off of tables that haven't been updated since the 90s.
 

shoelacer

Banned
I feel like the title should be "How Instagram is affecting restaurant design in San Francisco" since this doesn't seem to be affecting the real world yet
 
My friend has a casual eatery with yellow walls and a blue/yellow/red neon sign - his restaurant is not food instagram friendly and we talk about it and he deeply regrets going that route as he doesn't get many people sharing their food pics and when they do, its all horrible looking due to the way the space is lit.

It matters in this day and age.
 

MUnited83

For you.
I feel like the title should be "How Instagram is affecting restaurant design in San Francisco" since this doesn't seem to be affecting the real world yet
Visuals/aesthetics to make a place stand out is now a new thing. It's something that has been in the "real world" for decades before any social media even existed to begin with.
 

Kreed

Member
Corny as hell photos, damn.

The restaurant design is irrelevant imo anyway. What's more annoying are places that have harder to eat food because the food is presumably meant to look better in photos. Enormous sandwiches or burgers come to mind.

I never understood restaurants that waste so much food with large portion sizes most people don't finish (having to help your SO, family, etc... finish food). Now it makes sense.
 

LosDaddie

Banned
The last plate of food I Grammed was a fresh plate of chicken & waffles.

i also clapped after I finished it....and thanked the chef
 

Amikami

Banned
Image is quite a lot and something perceived as interesting and different in a positive sense is going to positively impact "perceptions" of the food even if unconsciously.

Instagram isn't a lot different from yelp. On yelp, you had a bunch of people describing how good the food was. You had a bunch of reviews, some of which you suspected were a bit over the top and other disgruntled and you had to judge. With Instagram, there is a huge visual aspect to it and it's at the center of the medium. But at the end of the day, the social aspect is still important. How many likes does it have? 12? 100? 117,381? This combination of things still positively impacts perceptions of food.

Then of course, like most of you are thinking, you can share that instagrammable moment with all your followers. People, especially young people, like to fit in. Nothing has changed. We just find more ways to socially fit.

Speaking from a millennial's perspective, it makes sense to me, although I'm not personally enamored by instagram. Seems like smart business sense. You change with the people you are interested in serving.
 

Izayoi

Banned
God, I fucking hate what the internet has become. I know I sound like a bitter old man, but fuck off with this.

Can we burn it all down and start over?

Instagram, Facebook, and social media writ large is a cancer on society.

Can't we just wipe out millennials?
All of them, each and every one.
This is an alternative that I'm willing to consider, even though I am one as well.
 
God, I fucking hate what the internet has become. I know I sound like a bitter old man, but fuck off with this.

Can we burn it all down and start over?

Don't worry grandpa, you can still go to Applebees
before Instagram millennials finish killing off that brand.
 

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
personally i love a good hole in the wall restaurant that looks like shit but the food is awesome. I've seen far too many of these "pretty places" go out of business, because their food is shit.
 

MUnited83

For you.
Street vendors = Godtier food. Fuck this instagram restaurant design, spend that money on the food instead.
,
Do you realize how common is people recording and sharing street food vendors making food? There are literally entire channels on YouTube around that very concept with millions of views per video.
 
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