Welcome to In the Weeds, a publication highlighting stories from the independent restaurant industry. Today, we're discussing how restaurants are getting a little more real online.
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Instagram posts from Nautical Bowls, Whiskey Kitchen, and Society Kitchen
Restaurants are giving diners a peek inside the kitchen, letting them in on the struggles of restaurant life, and nudging them to be better diners. It’s all done with a bit of humor and generous use of memes through their social media accounts.
“I think that we’ve been kind of conditioned to keep the curtains up. Don't show everyone how the sausage is made,” Chris Brennan, the operations manager of Whiskey Kitchen in Raleigh, North Carolina, told me. But, recently, “I think a lot of restaurants gained more confidence to just speak frankly to their customers.”
I first spotted Chris on Whiskey Kitchen’s Instagram. One Reel shows him accepting a check holder with the text: “When a large table says, ‘All on one check.’” The video cuts to a close-up shot of a dancing "Jon Hamm Turn the Lights Off" meme.
Whiskey Kitchen’s Instagram feed still posts gorgeous drink and food shots, but these glimpses into restaurant life have sparked a lot of engagement, Chris said. There was some hesitation on the owners’ part at first, but once they saw how well these restaurant life videos were doing, they gave Chris free rein. He develops the posts with a former Whiskey Kitchen server turned social media marketer.
Chris has seen an uptick in the trend across the industry, particularly at bars and cafés that “take themselves a little less seriously,” he said.
“Obviously, we’re providing a service, and there needs to be expectations on us,” he said. “But I think that, for a while, nobody was really acknowledging the expectations that restaurants have of the guests, and I think that [these posts] playfully communicate some of them.”
Through their social media posts, other restaurants are trying to communicate that there’s only so much the kitchen can do when guests ask for their food quickly. And let your server know who ordered the spaghetti when she comes to the table with hot, heavy plates. Also, please don’t get chatty when you call to order takeout during a rush.
Some restaurants call out their own shortcomings or highlight the annoying quirks of restaurant kitchen equipment.
Chefs on social media are sometimes more direct. I caught up with Matthew Adler, the chef at DC’s Cucina Morini and Caruso’s Grocery, after he posted detailed insight into the cost of non-alcoholic cocktails on his social media accounts, including X. He was hoping to start a discussion about something that’s “a real pain point for people,” he said. And he did. While there were some negative comments, most were supportive and informed, and Matt responded to questions. A civilized discourse on X. (I know, I was surprised, too.)
These conversations are “something I’ve been trying to do for a couple of years using social media,” Matt said. “I’ve been in the industry 25 years. I grew up working in restaurants. It’s more challenging to operate a restaurant now than certainly any point in my lifetime—and I want to talk about some of the challenges I’m seeing.”
Anything that can help the dining public better understand how restaurants work is a good thing, Erika Polmar, the executive director of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, told me.
“I think for years and years and years, we have always been the ducks swimming gracefully across the pond, right? You just see us floating,” she said. “You don’t see our little legs paddling like hell. And I think restaurants are just so pushed to the edge right now that they’re willing to show what the paddling looks like. And I think consumers, generally, appreciate knowing what’s going on rather than just one day seeing the announcement that their favorite restaurant is closing.”
Thank you, Chris, Matt, and Erika, for sharing your thoughts.
Side Dishes:
Some real talk about rats in restaurants. “Before people go directly to the health department or publicly flame a restaurant on Yelp, Reddit, or TikTok, they should take a beat. Most well-operated restaurants deserve the benefit of the doubt; they’re doing their best to keep the vermin at bay. The rodent war they are waging is almost unwinnable.”
It was impossible to ignore the backlash bubbling up online over Noma these past few weeks, in the lead-up to the Copenhagen restaurant’s $1,500-a-seat residency in Los Angeles. Jason Ignacio White, who previously ran Noma’s fermentation program, is organizing a protest and using Instagram and a new website to share stories of alleged physical and verbal abuse at Noma. These stories have reignited conversations over the ethics of unpaid internships.
What happened to wine-by-the-glass? Are diners turned off by drastic markups? More interested in creative cocktails? Confused by esoteric lists that stray from the classics? Looking for boozier beverages? Lots of good questions and some great theories on the VinePair Podcast.
In the second installment of So You Want to Open a Restaurant, Cherry Bomb tackles restaurant financing with a ton of crowd-sourced stories from independents across the country.
For the Extra Serving Podcast on Nation’s Restaurant News, I spoke to chef and fellow Long Island native Marc Spitzer about ditching the commute to New York City and opening a restaurant in the ‘burbs. Okaru, his sleek Japanese spot in Roslyn, is helping change the restaurant scene in Long Island.
Front of House:
I made a quick visit to Cincinnati last month and went to the wine-and-pasta spot Pepp & Dolores. Not knowing much about the restaurant when I walked in, I soon realized we were lucky to snag seats at the small side bar facing the street. Those seats gave us a great view of the host stand and the wide range of behavior, from lawless to deferential, that would-be diners resorted to in their pursuit of a seat. A woman who snagged the last seat at the bar insisted that her child was fine on her lap despite the wary looks from the host stand. Other hopeful diners responded to long wait times with an enthusiastic, “We’ll sit anywhere.”
It’s all fairly typical diner behavior at a hot new restaurant. But Pepp & Dolores opened in 2019.
(Here I am rejoicing in the arrival of the Pain d'épi at Pepp & Dolores.)
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—gloria