According to this article in the New York Times restaurant owners are more and more often changing how those who like to record their meals for posterity are allowed to do so, if at all. While it’s up to the owner of the establishment to do set what is and is not permitted in their respective business, arbitrarily banning something–as long as it does not interrupt others around them–seems harsh and short-sighted.
From the article:
When it comes to people taking photographs of their meals, the chef David Bouley has seen it all. There are the foreign tourists who, despite their big cameras, tend to be very discreet. There are those who use a flash and annoy everyone around them. There are those who come equipped with gorillapods — those small, flexible tripods to use on their tables.
There are even those who stand on their chairs to shoot their plates from above.
But rather than tell people they can’t shoot their food — the food they are so proud to eat that they need to share it immediately with everyone they know — he simply takes them back into his kitchen to shoot as the plates come out. “We’ll say, ‘That shot will look so much better on the marble table in our kitchen,’ ” Mr. Bouley said. “It’s like, here’s the sauce, here’s the plate. Snap it. We make it like an adventure for them instead of telling them no.”
While Bouley is obviously incredibly accommodating to their foodie patrons, other restaurants noted in the article just outright ban photography with some people feeling embarrassed or surprised believing the actions to be possibly illegal (they are neither). However, if a restaurant wants to ban photography they should make their intentions clear from before patrons walk in the door so people, like myself, know to spend my money elsewhere.
While the ridiculous examples quoted above are certainly inappropriate and flashes can definitely be annoying, aside from the occasional moments of forgetting to turn off the flash before taking a shot, most of the time I have seen people be very decent about taking photos of their food and I would expect that restaurant owners would mostly appreciate the attention it can potentially bring their business. Take, for example, Gai Gai Thai’s beautiful photo of Palace’s Pizza’s Laab. The 373 likes that photo received and the various comments saying they had to check the place out will likely bring much needed attention to such a worthy place. It may be different for high-end restaurants in NYC, but still, the restaurant business is tough, welcoming any attention should be welcomed, right?
What do you think about this one? Aside from the crazies standing on chairs and using flashes, do you think people taking photos of their food is something that should be banned by restaurants? Have you ever been asked not to take photos in a restaurant? Have you ever gone to a restaurant solely because you saw someone else’s photo of the food on social media or a blog? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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January 25th, 2013 at 8:10 am
Should not be banned! Photos of food are memories, too. For me, it helps me to remember what I liked or didn’t like, too, if I write about them. It’s funny how restaurants often think it’s all about them, but my photos of food are all about ME! They are for my enjoyment.
January 25th, 2013 at 8:35 am
If photography were not allowed in restaurants, I wouldn’t have my best picture of me ever taken. That would be a travesty.
One of my favorite parts about reading restaurant reviews is the photography. This could be from professional reviewers, bloggers like this one or just someone who sent me a text from their phone with a picture to make me jealous of the fact they are somewhere I am not (which more often than not seem to be from The Nook).
I am much more compelled to go to a place that I have seen pictures of and been impressed by. I guess I can understand why places like Steak America and The Lone Oak Grill would not want photos because their food looks like dung (I still am upset we didn’t get a picture of the grease pool underneath the fried bacon at that shit hole), but for places with fancy presentation that usually taste even better than they look, it is free advertising.
I say bring on the tripods (and I am not just talking about me personally).
January 25th, 2013 at 8:44 am
You wouldn’t need a dog to pick up chicks if that applied to you.
January 25th, 2013 at 9:17 am
Here is what restaurants need to do. When taking an order the customer can request pictures be taken before bringing the food out. Then when the food is done the wait person or server runs the food through a little photo booth setup in the kitchen area. They snap some pictures and then you have your food.
Now there would be some method for identifying your food, and the images would immediately be made available via some service. Could be existing like tumblr or flickr, or could be an app where you subscribe to the restaurants “feed” and get your photos that way.
It’s an idea at least. They kinda do this at the big car shows. When you drive in you can get a picture of your car taken. You grab a ticket which is different color based on the general time of day, and drive a different route than the other cars. They snap your picture, and you move along. Later you can go to their website and find the picture based on day and approximate time (color of ticket) and order a print if you want.
January 25th, 2013 at 10:19 am
I grab iPhone pics of my food from time to time. Usually my reason for doing so is simply to send to someone that I know will be envious of whatever I’m eating. Occasionally I’ll post a restaurant photo to twitter or Facebook, but I can’t recall ever posting anything that wasn’t positive.
Example: Here is a photo of the “Fried Chicken” at Borough from Wednesday evening.
January 25th, 2013 at 10:21 am
Oops, let’s try that again.
January 25th, 2013 at 10:27 am
Dave,
How did you like Borough? Been there for a drink, still not tried the food (though it looks quite interesting).
lefty
January 25th, 2013 at 10:36 am
I can’t say anything bad about the food at Borough. The fried chicken that I posted above got mixed reviews at our table, but I thought it was delicious. The chicken is pressed into a cube like shape with a layer of chicken sausage in the middle. The fried egg on top of the mashed potatoes was a nice addition as well.
Their burger is easily on my top 5 burgers of all time list and might be the best bargain on the menu at $11. The scallops are expensive – $16 for two smallish scallops – but it’s worth every penny to me.
I’d recommend it to people that I know enjoy good food.
January 25th, 2013 at 10:36 am
Mikeh, you clearly haven’t worked in a restaurant kitchen or you’d know how chaotic it is and how dumb that idea was. Besides that….sure, let’s let some photo establishment butt rape us for copies of photos we can easily take ourselves (much better quality) for free. This idea reminds me of the youth sports racket…you either pay $17 for the single 5×8 team print, or you have to jump up to a $50 package that requires you to get 650,000 wallet sized copies of your kid when you only want 2.
No, I’m not going to pay $17 on some web site for a photo of my burger at the Nook and I guarantee the guys working in the kitchen would rather have someone stab them in the throat repeatedly than have to run 500 plates per day through some photo machine.
As for the topic at hand, camera-phones EVERYWHERE are just another element that has become ubiquitous in society (for better or worse, mostly worse in the case of Instagram). The business owner should be cognizant and communicate a policy and the patrons should use discretion/common sense just like a bunch of other policies (dress code, mandatory gratuities, etc.). Kudos to DB for enhancing the experience (not that it’s a surprise). Hopefully patrons won’t abuse the privilege and start bringing light boxes and stuff and overstaying their welcome.
January 25th, 2013 at 7:20 pm
The same article was listed as a topic on a debate board I’m part of. A couple of the posts I made there sum up what I think.
Post 1: What’s the debate? Is it do we think restaurants chefs who prevent customers from quietly and without standing on chairs grabbing a photo of their plate patronizing control freaks? Or is it whether we think some snap-happy photogs need their heads banged together?
Chefs might want to be careful; an embittered photographer might wait till the next day to take and post a picture of what they ate the night before.
Post 2: Yes, I read the article.
I eat out frequently at all kinds of restaurants, and have for many years. I’ve never seen anyone standing on a chair or moving around a table to get a better angle for a food photo. Occasionally a neighboring table might get too loud, but in my experience people generally modulate their conversation and behavior to match the general tone of the restaurant. The only time I can remember being annoyed by a bunch of flashes was a group rowdily celebrating someone’s birthday or some such occasion, and that was at a mid range, certainly not quiet, place.
Looks to me like the issue is with celebrity chefs. It’s hilarious that the celebrity chef rush has apparently now spawned its own paparazzi problem. If the situation at Momofuku Ko went down as described, I’m disappointed. Have you ever been to Ko? It’s not exactly a buttoned up place. Sounds to me like this woman was completely unobtrusive and discreet, and Chang has maybe forgotten that the comfort and gracious hosting of his customers is as important as the food he puts out.
As long as there’s no flash and people don’t make a production out of it, I don’t see the problem. I’m usually enjoying my own food and dinner companions too much to even notice what some dork is doing at another table. I’m not buying the need for wholesale bans to protect the ambiance. I think it’s more about not wanting crappy pictures of their food out there on the internet, cause the truth is, most food on a plate shot by a nonprofessional looks pretty crappy.
Post 2:
January 26th, 2013 at 9:05 am
Pictures help to make a memory. Plus I love looking at pictures of food ( not certain what that says about me :) ).
January 27th, 2013 at 6:38 pm
Dave,
Agree on the scallops at Borough. I had a top notch meal there over the weekend. The Cauliflower, the Brussel Sprouts, Pork Belly all were tremendous and I thought a pretty great value as well. All that plus an amazing pasta dish and 3 cocktails (for two people) clocked in at less than $90 including tax before tip.
Beats the crap out of Bachelor Farmer/Marvel for a Restaurant/downstairs speakeasy-cocktail bar concept in both quality as well as price. It’s the next big deal downtown I suspect. Service was absolutely perfect as well.
We also took pictures of our food, but my iPhone 3G didn’t really do it justice.
lefty
January 28th, 2013 at 8:53 am
Glad you enjoyed it Lefty. I have been there twice, and although our server was a turd on our second visit, the food made up for it.
January 28th, 2013 at 1:50 pm
MSPD: Hit Backspace and look at the post directly below this one under the recent comments part of the main page.
Get it?
lefty
January 28th, 2013 at 3:15 pm
Yeah, lefty, that kind of shit happens all the time.
And outside of about 6 people, nobody has any idea what the hell we’re talking about.