Stuck with the kids menu…
The phone eats first…and it only likes buttered noodles and chicken fingers.
Perhaps the most dispiriting part of influencer culture is that influencers do, in fact, hold a certain level of influence. Nowhere is this more apparent than in New York’s once-great restaurant scene.
Before I go any further, let me be perfectly clear: This is neither a critique of restaurants, nor the people that keep them running. Since nearly everyone reading this is blood related to me or has been friends with me for well over a decade, I don’t need to waste time outlining my food-obsessed youth and experience working in restaurants.
This is a critique of what social media has done to restaurants – and culture, more broadly.
One cheese pull at a time, TikTok ~content creators~ have created a feedback loop that incentivises a monotonous opulence over creativity and flavor. If Facebook was responsible for the fall of democracy, TikTok was responsible for the fall of the New York food scene.*
Historically, food critics have played (and still play) a valuable role in spotlighting great restaurants, so they can become relevant and hopefully stay in business. Today, food influencers spotlight themselves at great restaurants, so they can hopefully become relevant.
With a blackmarket for reservations, who needs a personality when you can impress your date by buying an 8:00 PM reservation at Carbone? In an attempt to live atop the social scene (and maybe get laid!), the Patrick Batemans of today have traded lines of cocaine for lines outside of bagel shops that keep a PR rep on retainer.
There was a moment in the not-too-distant past when New York appeared to be shifting toward a more democratized, diverse dining scene. But today’s dining scene is topped with shaved truffles and gives you the opportunity to “add a caviar bump” for $99.00…or you can opt for the monthly membership and a sommelier will spray you in the face with a Super Soaker filled with Dom Perignon.
At a time when movies, music, and politics use an obscene amount of money to create a dumbed-down product, why would restaurants be any different? I am not calling the restaurant industry (or any of the others) dumb. I am saying that the general public seems willing, if not eager, to consume a more hollow product.
Given the grim economics of the restaurant industry, it would be outrageous to expect that restaurants wouldn’t cater to people willing to stand in line to pay a premium for a riff on a McGriddle wrapped in a bearer bond.
But is it outrageous to ask the burgeoning influencer at the next table to refrain from using their professional-grade lighting rig to take a picture of their caviar-topped dino nugget?
Of course, this is not to say that there aren’t chefs making vibrant, exciting contributions to the city’s restaurant scene. Vijay Kumar and Semma introduced me to the explosive flavor and heat of Southern India – each bite was better than the last. I’m dying to try Paul Carmichael’s Caribbean menu at Kabawa and, to state the obvious, Kwame Onwuachi’s Afro-Caribbean-inspired menu at Tatiana…but I may have to take up coding and build a reservation bot to get a reservation.
TONE SHIFT: At a moment when immigrant communities in the US are under attack, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the restaurant industry exists because of immigrants. Removing immigrants from our country and expecting the economy to perform better is akin to removing the engine from a car and expecting it to go faster.
I’ve provided a list of organizations that do great work to support immigrant communities for you to consider supporting if you can. I encourage you to drop any others in the comments.
*Give them time, though. I’m sure that TikTok can bring down a democracy if they really set their mind to it (and if any remain at the time of this post’s publication).
I’ve known you for 5 months