How Austin eateries draw social media butterflies
Lindsay Vandygriff spends her Sunday mornings munching through plates of colorful tacos, pancakes and avocado toast at Austin's best brunch spots. Eating, however, is not her main objective.
“Millennials don't go to brunch to eat food,” she said. “We go to brunch for an experience, to enjoy our friends, and to publish photos from the event to show everyone how much fun it was.”
Vandygriff knows this better than most people, because when she says “everyone,” she means her 49,000 plus followers on her food Instagram account, @EatingATX. Each post receives hundreds of likes, and the account’s feed explodes with enough color and flavor to make even the pickiest foodie’s mouth water.
“We just started (EatingATX) as a fun hobby, without the intention of people following it,” she said. “We just wanted an excuse to try new food in Austin and decided to start documenting it. After a while, people started to follow the account and it grew to something we never expected.”
EatingATX and other food Instagram accounts have attracted a substantial fan base over the years, and some Austin restaurants are seizing on the opportunity to let diners advertise for them.
For designers, creating eateries irresistible to Instagrammers means building airy spaces with plenty of natural light, and design elements that are colorful, eye-catching and often slightly eclectic. Tongue-in-cheek neon signs are a plus, and indoor plants or bright wallpaper or floor tiles also draw eyes and cameras.
Irene's
506 W Ave., Austin
If you have an Instagram account and you live in Austin you have seen Irene’s. Their pink neon sign beckons Instagrammers through its glass doors for avocado toast, vanilla ice cream cones and $4 rosé. The interior transports you to a 1960s airplane, chic with no uncomfortable seatmates.
Photo Credit: Hayden Pigott
In downtown Austin, edged by a towering wall of ivy, Irene’s American Restaurant, Bar and Patio is an Instagram favorite. The restaurant’s neon sign, nestled among the vines, is a common fixture in the Instagram feeds of young Austinites.
“People know us even by the sign without even knowing what we actually are, which is kind of crazy,” said Gabby Phi, the social media coordinator for the restaurant’s management group.
Phi said the Irene’s sign -- and the overall aesthetic of the restaurant, which is designed to look like the inside of an airplane -- has undoubtedly had a hand the restaurant’s success. Irene’s gained over 12,000 Instagram followers after opening just over a year ago in May of 2016.
“Just looking at growth in terms of this restaurant compared to to other ones (owned by the ELM restaurant group) like Easy Tiger, it has grown exponentially faster,” Phi said.
Despite the sign’s popularity on Austin Instagrams, Irene’s’ designer, Veronica Koltuniak of VeroKolt Design, said that “Instagramability” was not the intention -- just a happy accident.
“As a designer, I don’t think, ‘Hey, this will be a great Instagram backdrop,’” Koltuniak said. “I prefer to create spaces that people gravitate to and enjoy, if it happens to become a thing, all the better!”
Wild Chix & Waffles
7718 Burnet Rd., Austin
After opening in 2016 as The Factory – Café with a Soul, Wild Chix and Waffles re-branded recently to create an Instagram splendor. The café is brimming with swings, murals and moving pictures reminiscent of Harry Potter’s living paintings. Not to mention, the blue and white china cups full of Matcha and picture perfect chicken ‘n’ waffles.
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Kris Swift, the interior designer of Grizzelda’s Mexican restaurant in Austin, took a different perspective.
“Social media is always in play with any great contemporary concept,” he said. “Dining is not only food and service, but also entertainment. We design our spaces for our guests enjoyment and seek to take bold risks in our designs.”
Swift’s aesthetic gambles are evident in Grizzelda’s modern design -- the restaurant is a loosely ordered chaos of patterns and textures, from palm frond wallpaper to a glowing pink bar to an eclectic mix of chairs. Since the restaurant opened in December 2016, it has gained nearly 3000 followers on Instagram, is tagged in around 30 posts per week and continues to delight and baffle food critics with its wild decor.
Hillside Farmacy
1209 E 11th St., Austin
Hillside Farmacy opened in the spring of 2012 in a former 1950s pharmacy in East Austin. It’s a mix of vintage furniture, original tile and old school drugstore paraphernalia. Fashionably dressed couples grab brunch on their outside patio every weekend, sipping on mimosas and slipping their dogs treats from the table.
Hillside Farmacy, an east Austin restaurant which specializes in oyster dishes, also enjoys Instagram attention.
Jade Place-Matthews, the owner and social media manager at Hillside, said the restaurant’s popularity is due in a large part to their carefully curated Instagram (@HillsideFarmacy). The account provides its 35.7k followers with frequent photos of fresh ingredients, favorite dishes and the occasional dog picture.
“I think Instagram is an amazing tool for us,” Place-Matthews said. “We don’t really advertise, but so many customers come in and say that they found us on Instagram and they have been following us for years, and they really want to try the pancakes or the fried egg sandwich.”
Place-Matthews said the platform has been essential to the growth of her business.
“These are people from all over the world,” she said. “Without Instagram, they wouldn’t have found us.”
Elizabeth Street Cafe
South 1st St., Austin
A French boulangerie meets a bánh mÌ stand with beautiful décor thrown in at Elizabeth Street Cafe. Upon entering the bright pink door you are greeted with a bakery case full of chocolate croissants and baguettes. The bright blue chairs bounce off the gleaming black and white diamond tile floor as patrons snack on pho.
Photo Credit: Hayden Pigott
Maybe her followers are drawn in by the delicious-looking food, but food Instagrammer Vandygriff said Instagram also serves to advertise another side of restaurants; the social side. Eateries serve as social hubs, she said -- places where people make memories of good conversations and good company. And when it comes to creating colorful recollections, setting is key.
“Taste is important and always will be to a restaurant,” Vandygriff said. “But perception is reality. If it looks appealing, customers will come.”