By Durk Price
These days there are so many people that consider themselves to be foodies. If the criteria are eating out a couple times a week, checking out a lot of new places, and enjoying some amazing chef creations (along with some fantastic wine) then, I too, am a foodie.
Not only have innovative chefs changed the dining landscape but I believe that it’s also the food coupled with social media that has contributed to the foodie craze and changed the dining experience.
Back about 5 years ago, some diners would tweet about their food, post pictures on sites like Food Porn and share on Facebook. But not all restaurants embraced that kind of social behavior. Many felt it tainted the dining experience – especially when it happened at the table. I liken it to chefs who refuse to put salt and pepper on the table because in their opinion the food is perfectly seasoned when it arrives. Many restaurants frowned on the hoopla (and disruption) created by of taking photos of plates or even having a cell phone on the table. Now it s de rigueur.
My personal dining experience has also evolved with the trends and typically goes something like this:
I find a place to dine on Open Table (yes, I am an Open Table addict). I send emails to my dining partners from the Open Table app alerting them to the reservation. We arrive at the restaurant and everyone puts their cell phones on the table. My dining companions often take pictures of food and immediately share them on Facebook or Twitter. We settle in and get some great conversation going where inevitably we have to use our phones to look up something we are chatting out. There are pictures taken of wine bottles and uploaded it to a wine app (so I can remember it). Most times during dinner we talk about when we are going to get together again. Then we check our calendars on our smartphones. That’s usually followed by making another dinner reservation right then and there using Open Table.
Many of the clients I tend to go out with are young and very tech savvy and it’s just part of the meal to take out their phone and text, check email and check into places on Foursquare. I’m right there with them and I love it.
I don’t consider this to be rude. In fact, it’s just part of the experience and I found that it also tends to park some great conversations that have led to business deals, lively discussions (we can also settle bets by Googling) and even spawns blog posts – like this one.
Restaurants seem to be more accepting as well. On a recent dining experience, our server put down our plates then asked me if she should arrange the food on the table so I could take a picture. I wasn’t even reaching for my phone at the time. She later returned with another bottle of wine and asked if I needed to snap photo of the label. Just five years ago that wouldn’t have been the case. But then again, this restaurant didn’t even exist back then.
On another recent trip to restaurant, I checked in on Foursquare at the beginning of the meal and by the time I went to pay for the bill with my corporate credit card, I was pushed an offer on my smartphone by another of my credit cards letting me know that if I paid with that card I would received a discount on the meal credited back to me. I had previously opted-in to their rewards program.
Nowadays restaurant seems to have a keener understanding of how to use social media to their own advantage. There are hundreds of examples of places that have started up and developed a nearly cult-like following through Facebook and Twitter. And restaurants are also getting better at not just leveraging social media to push out their message, but letting users generate content and buzz for them in the form of checking in, tweets, and Facebook status updates. I think they understand that part of the current dining experience is sharing and that means more than eaters going home and posting a review on Yelp.
I’m just waiting for the day when there are electrical plugs at every table so I can make sure I am fully charged for dinner.
{ 0 comments… add one now }