A couple of years ago I ate at Emeril's Del Monico Restaurant in New Orleans, a five Star Chef's five star restaurant. While I was there, one set of visitors I saw had to take multiple photos of the table setting, which is NOT what the diners will eat on, had the waiter take a photo of all of them standing behind the table, had another patron take another photo with them AND the waiter, take photos of the menu, then they took pictures of each of them seated at the table, took photos of the busboy taking the fancy place sets away, took photos of the wine being poured—even asking the sommelier to halt the pour in mid-pour and then being upset that the wine stopped coming out of the bottle for the picture(!)—then snapped the wine label, then when the beautiful food was brought, they took photos of how it was served, what the beautifully dressed plate looked like, and THEN took pictures of each of them taking their first bites. This was repeated with each course and desserts. . . Flash and no flash, with multiple phones. It looked like a summer storm, there was so much lightening at their table. They even requested that Emeril come out and pose with them. They couldn't understand that he wasn't back in the kitchen cooking. . . and hadn't even been in the restaurant in months.
It was painfully obvious this was their first and, probably, last in a lifetime, visit to a restaurant of this quality. . . and in between bites, they were MMS messaging the photos to friends and family, relaying the juicier returned comments to the others at the table!
The waiter was quite professional, but each time he left their table, I could see him rolling his eyes. . . same for the busboys and girls.
I suspect the NYC restaurant is one like that. . . upscale enough to draw wanna-be epicureans who feel the need to memorialize the visit. It's akin to the tourist who can only remember his vacation by reviewing the videos of places he never saw because he couldn't put down the video camera long enough to look at the scenery with his own eyes!
It's not really ALL the fault of the smartphone. You don't see such behavior in average restaurants. Chalk a lot of what was described up to the cooking Channel and the lionization of celebrity Chefs such as Emeril, Ramsey, Irvine, and others who have become household names.
It's not even a new phenomenon. Thirty years ago I was a member of a lodge. At one meeting the evening's program was a slide show on the lodge's Chairman's and his wife's two week vacation to Hawaii. During a ONE hour presentation, Metmom, there was one slide (1), that showed a palm tree! Every single other slide was showing pictures of the lodge chairman and his wife at either a bar or a restaurant. The one that showed a palm tree? The tree was growing in a pot on stage while the inebriated wife attempted a hula! Not one beach, no shots of Diamond Head, no oceans. Lots of food, drinks, tables, and two drunks in Hawaiian shirts and leis! They thought is was a GREAT vacation and a great presentation on how wonderful Hawaii is to visit. LOL!
Best meal I ever had was at Emiril’s DelMonico. Unforgettable. And by chance, Emiril actually was there. His wife had recently had a baby and he was treating her OB-Gyn to a meal. He even waited on them. Naturally it was a big hit with all the other patrons. He was a friendly guy and even consented to pose with our table. But it was back in 2003 or 4, so the camera wasn’t in the phone. Wish it had been, it was a low-res digital. The camera in the iPhone is so much better than that today.
I’m not convinced that the numbers in the article are entirely due to people on their phones, though it is possible.
I don’t have a huge problem with people documenting the stories in their life. It is a good think and think how cool it would be to have pix of our great grandparents doing something other than a stiff and out of focus pose beside the covered wagon. Anthropolgists and archaeologists are going to have a lot more visual imagery to work with in the future. Even if it is sometimes just a close-up of tonight’s entree.
However, if I went to Hawaii, I can assure you my pictures (shot with my trusty DSLR) would be more of the beach and Diamond Head than drunken sales units in leis.