in every "trendy" restaurant/cocktail bar/tapas joint ever

cross stitch or other etsy creation in the bathroom that says "please don't do coke in the bathroom"

burger and fries served on a little mini sheet pan w/ wax paper

Server explaining what a "tapas" is and how you must order several to feel satisfied.

a small record collection and turntable behind the bar that hasn't been touched by anybody in eight months

Drinks with celebrity and pop culture references in the names. (Thinking e.g. of this, which is to be fair delicious.)

Olives on the menu.

And pickles. (Also a cocktail with pickle brine.)

Uncomfortable leather seat

$20 glass of sangria, $40 a pitcher, which = two sangrias

Alfred otm. Never the slightest acknowledgement that you may have been in a tapas bar before.

Sangria cocktail.

menu formatted in all lowercase and prices never have a dollar sign or decimals:

house burger 17
bread + butter pickles, garlic aioli, brioche bun

bonus points if restaurant name is noun + noun #onethread

Abstract noun + abstract noun

A classic example of that near where I live is Runner & Stone. It's good food but WTF does that name mean?

We have one here called Fire & Salt, which cracks me up. Wait you use fire and salt? Wait til the other restaurants hear.

“Runner & Stone” refers to the two stones used to grind grain in a traditional mill, the runner stone and the base stone. The traditional mill is an important icon to us because it symbolizes our philosophy while grounding us in our neighborhood.

That's great, Runner & Stone, but you are boring us to death. Also your neighborhood is Gowanus, Brooklyn, which no one cares about.

should be called Runner & Base

We at "Runner & Stone" picked this obscure name because the owner liked it and now we're stuck with it, so we decided we had to explain it in small print here on the menu, because otherwise nobody would know what the fuck it meant.

ha I was just talking to some friends about "thing & thing" the other day

"thing & thing"

my nomination:

one very expensive option for wine and/or shot

(as opposed to the other just-normally-expensive menu/drink items)

gentrifier gray

those fake tungsten filament bulbs hanging all alone from the ceiling without a light fixture

I feel like two things are being conflated here. There’s the self-consciously attitudinal hipster spot — which the first post about the cross-stitch no coke sign belongs to — and then there’s the generic chic places with lowercase letters and clean lines everywhere. Both fair targets, but different species.

glossy walls and ceiling that bounce harsh frequencies so if there are more than 10 people in the place your ears will hurt

one very expensive option for wine and/or shot

I've heard that restaurants mainly do that as a psychological effect. Everything else looks more reasonable in comparison.

glossy walls and ceiling that bounce harsh frequencies so if there are more than 10 people in the place your ears will hurt

As a budding old man restaurants are too damn loud

gildas

(I love gildas)

These places can be nice but take the below as examples of the bad ones or some cliches.

Two to three times the price for someone to open a tin of anchovies. Large hunks of unpleasant sourdough. Swirls of yoghurt or similar white gloop forming a basis of picky dishes. Gougeres. A part of the menu that says "snacks". Orange wine for the sake of it. Partida Creus vermouth.

Khruangbin playlist

Laughing at the fact American places are doing the noun plus noun thing. I think that's kinda faded in London but it was huge for a long time. Then as it drifted into normie/tourist places there was a place in Covent Garden called SCOFF AND BANTER

i think that trend may have peaked here too.

the annoying name of the new cool place in slc is MOTHER

needs an exclamation point

My friend DJs at a gay club night in Dublin called Mother.

I think London has drifted towards one word faintly meaningless faintly Mediterranean sounding names like Ombra or Ohla or Etto or whatever.

Old West shit: provisions, apothecary, concoctions, "est."

There’s a terrible restaurant in my previous hometown called “Hooch and Banter”.

Shudder

Old West shit: provisions, apothecary, concoctions, "est."

― the way out of (Eazy), Sunday, November 30, 2025 9:08 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is big in ski towns ime

"est. 2021"

our local 2-word is Crow & Cart, the one time I went there some guy was complaining to the bartender about cancel culture and they nodded along :(

that's the "annoying hipster patron" entry here

"smashed avo" on sourdough (actually I like this)

thee olde Rub & Tug

the annoying name of the new cool place in slc is MOTHER

lol we have a Mother Bar, and they just opened a second place called Daughter.

Want to try Mother Bar? Here's a taste of the Thanksgiving menu

Blueberry Cobbler cocktail, lined with Biscoff crumbles on the rim

Butterbeer Espresso Martini

Pickle Martini

Googling Mother/Daughter with safe search off

got resy at the EAT