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Instagram graphic by Delaney Royer
Cookie-cutter restaurant design trends spread visual echoes from city to city, creating a "look, we're hip" template ripe for ridicule.
Delaney Royer, a 24-year-old Nashville artist and photographer, mocks the copycat styles with a collage of five images familiar to patrons of places with exposed brick, craft cocktails and a "casual fine dining" vibe.
The graphic, displayed at her @bytheselights page on Instagram, crosses seamlessly from Music City to Motor City, where a Redditor calling himself SteveJB313 posts it late Monday with her headline as the title. It's as popular as a fully booked farm-to-table hotspot, attracting more than 570 "upvotes" and about 80 comments in less than a day.
"This looks like most of the new restaurants opened in Detroit recently," one reaction says. "It's so tired at this point."
Other commenters suggest enlarging the collage with these mainstays of the genre:
- Don't forget the "noun & noun" restaurant name.
- Mineral water in a large clear bottle with a German-style flip cap.
- Communal cafeteria-style seating.
- Deafening crowd noise.
- Vegan burgers and kale slaw.
- A chalkboard beer menu.
- Subway tile.
More reactions:
- See Lumen, San Morello, Folk, Albena, Besa, SheWolf, Marrow, etc. (I know, I know -- I'm reaching on a couple of these).
- This is Joebar in Hazel Park.
- It’s trickled down to the chains. Chili’s and others use this as their current design template, so now we know it's dead. It feels dated already.
- This looks like every Qdoba.
- +1 for hanging hipster lights.
- Gentrification starter pack.
- Closed in 18 months.
- Is this [from] Ferndale?
-- Alan Stamm
