And outside of about 6 people, nobody has any idea what the hell we’re talking about.

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Get it?

lefty

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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

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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:

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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.

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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.

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How did you like Borough? Been there for a drink, still not tried the food (though it looks quite interesting).

lefty

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Example: Here is a photo of the “Fried Chicken” at Borough from Wednesday evening.

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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.

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I say bring on the tripods (and I am not just talking about me personally).

You wouldn’t need a dog to pick up chicks if that applied to you.

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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).

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