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[entremet]

https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/20/...nt-interior-design-photo-friendly-media-noche

When it came time to design their first restaurant, Media Noche, San Francisco entrepreneurs Madelyn Markoe and Jessie Barker found themselves lacking inspiration. Their designer had asked them for ideas and they felt like ”deer in headlights." Ultimately, Markoe says, they came up with a single instruction: ”We wanted to be Instagrammable."

For years now, Instagram has sat at the center of trends in food and beverages. Rainbow-colored ”unicorn foods" are often designed with Instagram in mind, and entrepreneurs responsible for popular treats like the galaxy donut and Sugar Factory milkshake often see lines around the block after images of their products go viral. Firms like Paperwhite Studio specialize in turning restaurants into Instagram bait by designing twee sugar packets, menus, and coasters bearing slogans like ”hello, my sweet" and ”hug more."

Now some entrepreneurs are taking the idea a step further, designing their physical spaces in the hopes of inspiring the maximum number of photos. They're commissioning neon signs bearing modestly sly double entendres, painting elaborate murals of tropical wildlife, and embedding floor tiles with branded greetings — all in the hopes that their guests will post them.

”That's how you know millennials are starting to open restaurants," says Hannah Collins, the San Francisco designer charged with bringing Media Noche to life. Collins' firm has been responsible for some of the city's most Instagram-friendly designs in recent years, including Roman-style pizzeria Delarosa (featuring striking pendant lights), airy pasta bar Barzotto (bathroom wallpaper that recalls an Italian village), and local burger chain Super Duper (bright-white interiors punctuated with neon).

Interesting. Kinda nuts really.

 

[enzo_gt]

I definitely know a ton of people who use Instagram to scoop out the next places they want to go to eat, and how the restaurant looks definitely factors into everyone's decisions on whether to go or not. The visual component of things is something we all consider, and it's just more information to work off of than just an oral/textual recommendation of what the food is like.

Went to lunch at this place a friend initially wanted to go to only because they saw the tiling designs they had on the inside on a local instagram page.

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

 

[WedgeX]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

Atmosphere and foot traffic, friend.

 

[Makonero]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

Hear hear! I can eat my $30 Italian meal at home, who cares what the place looks like?

 

[rec0ded1]

So this won't go out of style until instagrammers have kids and that generation thinks it's lame as hell right?

 

[DBT85]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

S'ok. We can go eat at the places with great food in peace while everyone else takes photos of the floor in their fave restaurant toilet.

 

[Maximo]

Geez and here I am meal prepping for the whole week, restaurant design is the furthest thing from my mind as a millennial usually its *whats cheap and decent*.

 

[enzo_gt]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

#ItsAVibe

 

[MikeHattsu]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

As long as they serve avocado toast they should be fine.

 

[overcast]

Coffee places kill on this too

 

[Mr. F]

They look so fun and free

 

[AlexMeloche]

We laugh about that but a "pretty" place is a way better environment to live, eat, socialize, etc.

 

[Unit 33]

Definitely noticed this in the illustration business. Everyone wants murals and things for people to stand in front of right now.

 

[Apple Turnover]

I can understand why they're taking that approach; it's important to cater to your target demographic. And if making your business Instragrammable is the way to go right now, good luck to them

Spoiler

until the world moves on to the next flash in the pan, and they're forced to evolve to survive

That being said, on a personal level, I can't roll my eyes hard enough. Now get off my damn lawn!

 

[cdyhybrid]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

Yeah, I can't believe Yelp died after Instagram launched.

 

[AlexMeloche]

I can understand why they're taking that approach; it's important to cater to your target demographic. And if making your business Instragrammable is the way to go right now, good luck to them

Spoiler

until the world moves on to the next flash in the pan, and they're forced to evolve to survive

That being said, on a personal level, I can't roll my eyes hard enough. Now get off my damn lawn!

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.

 

[ponpo]

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.

 

[TheSkullPrince]

Quality of food is the #1 reason I go to a restaurant, but there's nothing wrong about sprucing up the place.

 

[gatling]

Its keeping up with the times. Honestly, I think its a good free advertising strategy, but hopefully its good free advertising for companies that are especially worth a shit with its services. Lifestyle instagram posters with high traffic are scouted and given endorsements because its a platform with such high visibility. Why wouldn't I want to cash in on that. As long as it doesn't interfere with the in-house dining experience of others...

 

[h1nch]

I definitely know a ton of people who use Instagram to scoop out the next places they want to go to eat, and how the restaurant looks definitely factors into everyone's decisions on whether to go or not. The visual component of things is something we all consider, and it's just more information to work off of than just an oral/textual recommendation of what the food is like.

Went to lunch at this place a friend initially wanted to go to only because they saw the tiling designs they had on the inside on a local instagram page.

Am I the only one who finds this behavior incredibly silly? Like why would that shit be a primary motivating factor? I get choosing a place with a cooler decor when all things are equal, but whether or not a venue is more instagram-friendly could not be further from my mind when deciding on a place to eat. Quality of food/service/dining experience is more what I'm going for.

Ok I'm done yelling at clouds now

 

[Apathy]

So...umm, yeah that champagne bottle position... Umm OK.
Anyway, damn this generation. Food is to be eaten and to be good, just go to a good restaurant not one that has some stupid shit on the wall.

 

[Hierophant]

I mean the food/dessert/drink has to be at least good for me to want to Insta it and show people I've been there

 

[Lesath]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

That's what delivery options like DoorDash and UberEats is for.

 

[Bronx-Man]

It's all about the a e s t h e t i c

 

[MechDX]

Call me old but this is dumb.

Give me a dive somewhere that has mind blowing great food instead every day

 

[Rktk]

The aesthetic is part of the experience don't discount it entirely.

 

[Earthbound64]

https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/20/...nt-interior-design-photo-friendly-media-noche

[...]For years now, Instagram has sat at the center of trends in food and beverages.[...]

Has it really?

The aesthetic is part of the experience don't discount it entirely.

"Part of the experience" != "at the center of trends."

 

[shira]

Hear hear! I can eat my $30 Italian meal at home, who cares what the place looks like?

Has evilore eaten the $30 Italian meal?

That's some srs retweet material

 

[h1nch]

The aesthetic is part of the experience don't discount it entirely.

I get that. Even with dive places, the dumpiness is sometimes a part of the experience.

What blows my mind is how someone would potentially choose a place with less good food over another, primarily because the location has more instagram-friendly views.

It's like ppl saying "I'm not interested in this place unless I can show it off to my followers" which seems totally stupid to me.

 

[The Technomancer]

The "twee craft" aesthetic is the worst. First it started infecting our antique malls with "distressed" furniture. Now its coming for our eateries.

 

[jwk94]

We laugh about that but a "pretty" place is a way better environment to live, eat, socialize, etc.

Yeah this was a thing before Instagram.

 

[Hilbert]

I get that. Even with dive places, the dumpiness is sometimes a part of the experience.

What blows my mind is how someone would potentially choose a place with less good food over another, primarily because the location has more instagram-friendly views.

It's like ppl saying "I'm not interested in this place unless I can show it off to my followers" which seems totally stupid to me.

Who is doing that?

 

[Haly]

As long as they leave the a e s t h e t i c s out of the food I'm okay with this.

 

[Andrew Korenchkin]

Fine by me. I want to eat at a venue not just for the food.

 

[Lombax]

What's going to happen to the tech industry when someone does a deep dive into 'social' and realizes it's not worth the trouble?

 

[gatling]

So...umm, yeah that champagne bottle position... Umm OK.

Oh wow, I didn't notice this. Perv game is no longer strong. I'm wiling to bet there was a version with a stream before this that was nixed.

 

[Rktk]

I get that. Even with dive places, the dumpiness is sometimes a part of the experience.

What blows my mind is how someone would potentially choose a place with less good food over another, primarily because the location has more instagram-friendly views.

It's like ppl saying "I'm not interested in this place unless I can show it off to my followers" which seems totally stupid to me.

I agree with you and I'm sure people do decide to go to places based on their popularity on Instagram at the same time a place could not get away serving bad food and have people come away thinking it was a great place to eat again.

This whole thing does remind me of a scene from Black Mirror where the nicely presented coffee works well for a post but tastes awful.

 

[LinkAndEpona]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

If the surroundings look ghastly, chances are the food quality will be just as bad.

 

[victreeb3l]

I have no problem with more well designed restaurants. I'd rather eat good food at a nice place than at a shitty looking one.

 

[gatling]

If the surroundings look ghastly, chances are the food quality will be just as bad.

I dunno hahaha. Theres some good hidden dives out there. Some of the best places I've eaten I should've had on a kevlar vest.

 

[cdyhybrid]

I have no problem with more well designed restaurants. I'd rather eat good food at a nice place than at a shitty looking one.

Yep. People in this thread seem to think those things are mutually exclusive, though.

 

[Haly]

If the surroundings look ghastly, chances are the food quality will be just as bad.

Nah, man.

 

[LosDaddie]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

The real money is made on alcohol sales.

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

Hear hear! I can eat my $30 Italian meal at home, who cares what the place looks like?

Anyone who thinks the large premium you pay over the cost of the food itself should have some value in it? ;p

 

[whitemex88]

When are Applebees and Chili's gonna start doing this?

 

[Sober6809]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

No one cares about how good mozz sticks are, except for how well they photograph 🤔

 

[Zoe]

If this means more lighting, then I'm all for it.

 

[Luminaire]

Here I thought restaurants were about the quality of the food.

Lol, you actually eat at a restaurant? Why not just take pictures of the food and post it on your instagram like normal people?

 

[CeruleanSilver]

I have no problem with more well designed restaurants. I'd rather eat good food at a nice place than at a shitty looking one.

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.