3 ms·

Does every restaurant have to appeal to the Instagram generation now?

tyleo 7y ago
This restaurant appeals to me and I am not in the Instagram generation. Restaurants are extremely competitive. I’m not surprised that they go to great lengths to differentiate.
dragontamer 7y ago
Are all restaurants doing this? I'm pretty sure the Italian cafe down my street is still doing their own thing (serving good food at good prices). If its not your cup of tea to visit a place like this, the solution is simple. Visit somewhere else for food. Otherwise, there are all sorts of inventive restaraunts through the ages, from Benihana's (at least in the 70s when it was fresh-and-cool), to "Blind Restaurants" to sports-bars, and now apparently this 2D-cafe drawing style. No, these restaurants don't necessarily serve the best food (in my experience anyway). But that's also not the point... the point of Benihana's / Blind Cafes / Cat Cafes / Sports Bars / 2D Cafes / etc. etc. is to provide a new experience beyond just food and drink.
nexuist 7y ago
Taking pictures and sharing them with friends is not a generational thing. It has been a cornerstone of human culture since the concept of photography was invented. Are we not allowed to enjoy what we see anymore?
- guptaneil 7y ago
  Even before photography, we were painting portraits of our food (https://twitter.com/neilgupta/status/1183559136467922951 https://twitter.com/neilgupta/status/1183559136467922951). This is not remotely new behavior, humans like to tell stories.
- astrobe_ 7y ago
  However sometimes it feels like it is being hijacked. Sometimes it feel that the main experience is "sharing a picture", rather than having an experience (view, sound, smell, all senses plus emotions) and then trying to share it with pictures. Sometimes it feels that people are too focused on being the directors of their lives rather being the (ad-lib) actors. The gamification and addiction-inducing practices of certain social media probably has something to do with this trend. This, I think, is the generational thing.
  - setr 7y ago
    I doubt it; people have been going on vacation, and selecting places based on non-self-interest reasons for ages. In my own family, every vacation turns into a question of how many tours and points-of-interest we can fit, and the whole thing is just stressful. And at those PoIs, the only real interest is getting a good picture with $thing in the background, and visiting the next thing. And it's common enough behavior that whole industries revolve around it, which we call tourism. And of course, those tourist hotspots are natural places for locals to avoid, because they cater very directly to those tourists. Instagram is a very direct extension of the model, but with a much tighter feedback loop, and much more advanced strategies and competition. Boomer-style tourism is just as culturally dumb (and profitable) as instragram-tourism, but implementation-wise, instagram-tourism is simply on a different level of technical proficiency.
    - astrobe_ 7y ago
      Well... You are unfortunately correct.
  - nexuist 7y ago
    >Sometimes it feel that the main experience is "sharing a picture", rather than having an experience (view, sound, smell, all senses plus emotions) and then trying to share it with pictures. Sure, I can agree with this! But whether you allow the experience to be hijacked is entirely up to you. You and your family/friends can simply put your phones away and look for yourself. Fighting smartphone addiction is better with friends.
retSava 7y ago
Do we have to assume that they do it to satisfy an IG crowd, or can we simply allow them doing it for the sake of the experience? Another take, is it that bad though if they did? It would be free marketing. Hopefully it would bring actual customers and not just selfie-photographers :)
treve 7y ago
"I don't like it, and therefore others should not like it either"
__s 7y ago
I believe you mean any instead of every I'm amazed by the number of restaurants I walk by in Vancouver. That you happen to see the internet photo worthy more often than the straight forward venues is a side effect of the internet photo worthy restaurant essentially self selecting itself to be shared online
newnewpdro 7y ago
This seems entirely consistent with long-standing Japanese quirky fun, established well before IG and FB existed.
ken 7y ago
Japan raised comics to an art form long before Instagram. Akira volume 1 was published before Instagram's founders were even born. This isn't generational.
Legogris 7y ago
Only the ones you see trending in feeds.

This restaurant appeals to me and I am not in the Instagram generation. Restaurants are extremely competitive. I’m not surprised that they go to great lengths to differentiate.

dragontamer 7y ago

Are all restaurants doing this? I'm pretty sure the Italian cafe down my street is still doing their own thing (serving good food at good prices). If its not your cup of tea to visit a place like this, the solution is simple. Visit somewhere else for food. Otherwise, there are all sorts of inventive restaraunts through the ages, from Benihana's (at least in the 70s when it was fresh-and-cool), to "Blind Restaurants" to sports-bars, and now apparently this 2D-cafe drawing style. No, these restaurants don't necessarily serve the best food (in my experience anyway). But that's also not the point... the point of Benihana's / Blind Cafes / Cat Cafes / Sports Bars / 2D Cafes / etc. etc. is to provide a new experience beyond just food and drink.

nexuist 7y ago

Taking pictures and sharing them with friends is not a generational thing. It has been a cornerstone of human culture since the concept of photography was invented. Are we not allowed to enjoy what we see anymore?

guptaneil 7y ago
Even before photography, we were painting portraits of our food (https://twitter.com/neilgupta/status/1183559136467922951 https://twitter.com/neilgupta/status/1183559136467922951). This is not remotely new behavior, humans like to tell stories.
astrobe_ 7y ago
However sometimes it feels like it is being hijacked. Sometimes it feel that the main experience is "sharing a picture", rather than having an experience (view, sound, smell, all senses plus emotions) and then trying to share it with pictures. Sometimes it feels that people are too focused on being the directors of their lives rather being the (ad-lib) actors. The gamification and addiction-inducing practices of certain social media probably has something to do with this trend. This, I think, is the generational thing.
- setr 7y ago
  I doubt it; people have been going on vacation, and selecting places based on non-self-interest reasons for ages. In my own family, every vacation turns into a question of how many tours and points-of-interest we can fit, and the whole thing is just stressful. And at those PoIs, the only real interest is getting a good picture with $thing in the background, and visiting the next thing. And it's common enough behavior that whole industries revolve around it, which we call tourism. And of course, those tourist hotspots are natural places for locals to avoid, because they cater very directly to those tourists. Instagram is a very direct extension of the model, but with a much tighter feedback loop, and much more advanced strategies and competition. Boomer-style tourism is just as culturally dumb (and profitable) as instragram-tourism, but implementation-wise, instagram-tourism is simply on a different level of technical proficiency.
  - astrobe_ 7y ago
    Well... You are unfortunately correct.
- nexuist 7y ago
  >Sometimes it feel that the main experience is "sharing a picture", rather than having an experience (view, sound, smell, all senses plus emotions) and then trying to share it with pictures. Sure, I can agree with this! But whether you allow the experience to be hijacked is entirely up to you. You and your family/friends can simply put your phones away and look for yourself. Fighting smartphone addiction is better with friends.

retSava 7y ago

Do we have to assume that they do it to satisfy an IG crowd, or can we simply allow them doing it for the sake of the experience? Another take, is it that bad though if they did? It would be free marketing. Hopefully it would bring actual customers and not just selfie-photographers :)

treve 7y ago

"I don't like it, and therefore others should not like it either"

__s 7y ago

I believe you mean any instead of every I'm amazed by the number of restaurants I walk by in Vancouver. That you happen to see the internet photo worthy more often than the straight forward venues is a side effect of the internet photo worthy restaurant essentially self selecting itself to be shared online

newnewpdro 7y ago

This seems entirely consistent with long-standing Japanese quirky fun, established well before IG and FB existed.

ken 7y ago

Japan raised comics to an art form long before Instagram. Akira volume 1 was published before Instagram's founders were even born. This isn't generational.

Legogris 7y ago

Only the ones you see trending in feeds.