evolution of the restaurant experience
When I was younger my mother told me that inviting a girl (woman) on a date to a restaurant was serious business. She told me that eating with another person is a very intimate thing. NOW I am not sure if this is something that she was telling me, JUST to be telling me so I could keep my mind focused on the right stuff (I was about 15 when she told me this... Go figure), however; whatever the motive, something that she said in the brief exchange has aways stuck with me...
Dining with another person is an intimate thing...
I told that little story because over the last two years I have been seeing a shift in how we view this "intimate" time as humans. When I go out to eat, I am always looking at my environment and taking note of what exactly is going on. I have always been amazed by Wait Staff, in particular the ones that can take whole orders and never write anything down. That has always amazed me. Beyond the Wit Staff, I am always intrigued by the presentation of food... "Sizzling dishes", amazing design on plates and special side-dishes... All of it... The entire production absolutely blows me away. BUT this is not what this blog post is about. It's about a shift, a change in how we view this experience.
About two years ago, I was sitting in an Outback Steak House in Albany, Georgia. As I sat there I noticed a young lady about two booths "over and back" from me take a picture of the work of art that was delivered in-front of her by her Wait Staff... The Gentleman that was with her, did not flinch, growl, or make a peep... He was totally comfortable with the intrusion of the "intimate time" that he and the young lady were sharing. I had NO clue of why should would be taking the picture or even why she felt compelled to do it... ALL I knew was, she did it.
Later that evening I jumped online and I started noticing something that I had never paid any attention to before... In Twitter, I started seeing pictures show up that people were posting of... You guessed it... Food. The stuff they were eating at restaurants, at home, and even in their cars. SO instantly I reflected on the couple I had "spied" on earlier. When she took the picture she took... She had instantly, OR quite "possibly" instantly invited everyone she was connected to in Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or any other Social Network she belonged to the dinner she was having with the young man. The idea of that blew me away....
Fast forward...
It's not uncommon for patrons of restaurants to share their views and dining experiences with their social networks. In-fact, I DO IT, and it's totally natural. AND what's amazing, is the responses that I get from some of my post and SOME post get NO response at all, there is no science to it, but what if there was? What if somehow we could turn the "dining experience" into something more meaningful to the global dining community? Does it have importance? Don't know... BUT I would like to know. I wonder how many Restaurateurs would be interesting in knowing...



