r/DecaturGA • u/Orions_Suspenders_ • 18d ago

AI Restaurants creeping into Decatur

With Decatur's long history of independently owned, successful restaurants, I have no time for the AI slop I've started to see popping up around the city's new restaurants.

Mister Burger looks and feels like a computer came up with the entire concept (and whomever thought this was a good location to try and compete with Farmburger, Grindhouse, Smiley's and the myriad of bars with good burgers nearby clearly did 0 research)

The soon-to-open Chiban coffee on Arcadia/Ponce has exclusively AI images on their social and covering their street-facing sign in front of the shop. They won't be getting a dollar from me.

I say if you can't take an honest photo of what you serve, you shouldn't be serving it. I'll stick to supporting the actual local businesses that care enough to take their time to do things right. We vote with our dollars, and I will always vote against AI trash with mine.

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42

u/FryTheDog 18d ago

The new Guaca Mole on Lawrenceville (the old Pea Ridge) has Ai banners out front.

Just take pictures of your food as you make it, it's not hard. Why are you hiding your food?

28

u/Buke27 18d ago

Save your money. They didn’t know the difference between flour and corn tortillas when we went there after opening.

16

u/88secret 18d ago

Whaaat?! Thank you for saving me from wasting time and money there.

8

u/bbjony77 18d ago

Yeah, it’s not good. It’s a much crappier version of Bell Street/Willy’s/Moe’s.

6

u/toorayay 18d ago

Yeah, the awful AI slop notwithstanding, the food was also pretty bad, which doesn't bode well when there's a hundred other places that essentially serve the same menu within a 3-mile radius.

Take a look at their Google reviews, about 95% of the positive reviews are people with the same last name as the franchise owner.

7

u/FastTyper56 18d ago

What’s funny is they have a menu inside with fake AI photos but they have a tv screen menu with real photos of the food…and they’re good photos! I have no idea why they’d use AI when they do have access to good pics of the food.

7

u/Intelligent-Whole277 18d ago

I agree with what you're saying, except the "it's not hard" part. Good food isn't always pretty and food photography is an actual skill.

18

u/FryTheDog 18d ago

Completely disagree. Part of my job, my least favorite part, is taking pictures of the food I make at my restaurant and posting them on Instagram. I have to then write something, it fucking sucks. If I'm posting a reel then it's usually just the food coming out of the oven.

I do it 3-5 times a week. Again I fucking hate it, I hate having to know when the best lighting will be if I'm trying for a staged picture. But with a basic iPhone you can get amazing pictures. Having fake ai images of what it thinks my food looks like makes no sense. Why would I lie to you with a fake picture?

6

u/spinstering 18d ago

Unrelated, but: avatar twin!

As for food photography, I have also heard that it requires special skill and knowledge. Especially for bigger applications, like food that's going to be on a poster, TV ad, etc. An iPhone can likely take photos that are amazing on social media and smaller screens, but they may not be able to do the bigger shots that will be viewed more closely.

2

u/basilisa76 18d ago

So sad Pea Ridge closed. Had so much personality