Top row: Morris Ramen, El Grito, Macha Tea Company. Bottom row: Casetta Kitchen and Counter, Bassett Street Brunch Club, Sujeo.
I am not an Instagram influencer. My dog, frankly, has a higher profile than I do. But she doesn’t get to go to the restaurants of Madison, and I do. I may not be the influencer she is, but I know what kind of restaurant Instagrams I want to follow. And some Madison restaurants are doing a great job. This is what makes one a favorite for me.
Instagram is a casual environment. I want to see some laughing faces. Some cool Boomerangs of bubbling pots and drizzling sauces. Give me a meme every now and then, even. The timeline shouldn’t just be portraits of menu items, but include exterior shots of the restaurant, as well as interior scenes with depth of focus and smart filter work. Instagram users should be able to get a good feel for the vibe of the restaurant space from scrolling its timeline. But yeah, also some good old food photography.
It makes perfect sense that a restaurant opened by a couple should feature a lot of family on its timeline. Morris Ramen features kids, parents, spouses, friends, collaborators — the full roll call. There’s also a strong sense of humor, with co-owner Francesca Hong unleashing just enough charming self-deprecation and goofiness. If you want noodles, there’s definitely noodles, but also those smiling faces.
With all the editing tools available on the Instagram app, it’s easy to pretend that good natural light doesn’t matter. The photos from Crescendo and Madison Sourdough rely on their broad, glassy facades to reveal just how warm and welcoming their respective cafes are. Crescendo’s mix of coffee and food with excellent depth of focus and occasional grayscale is balanced by Madison Sourdough’s decadent pastry shots and buttery sunlight.
Some restaurant IGs couldn’t run from their central identity if they wanted to, and thank goodness they don’t want to. I love seeing all the ways the vibrant green of matcha tea powder shows up in Macha Tea Company’s posts. And my goodness, the sandwich cross-sections of Casetta Kitchen and Counter — I can’t scroll through all that delicious geology without wanting a B.E.C. (bacon egg and cheese on a kaiser roll) immediately. Wine pics and take-home dinners broaden your understanding of Casetta’s offerings, but it’s the sandwiches I follow for.
One drawback to Instagram is its algorithm that can result in a “timeline” that is anything but a straight line through time. This makes it precarious for a restaurant to depend on Instagram to tout its nightly specials, but some restaurants embrace it for that purpose anyway. In addition to fun, colorful portraits, Tory Miller announces his #latenightnoodlebar specials at Sujeo via Instagram, including a bit of personal detail as the caption for each dish. Sean Pharr does the same at Mint Mark, posting a mix of team profiles and weekend specials with aplomb.
I like the El Grito cart’s paper plate-heavy Instagram account for the ideal application of overhead food photography, but also for its excellent crowd photos. These are essential for understanding what you’re getting into if you attend an El Grito pop-up. And does any restaurant’s timeline capture the riot of color inside the restaurant better than Bassett Street Brunch Club’s? I’d bet robots to doughnuts you can’t find a better example.
All that said, sometimes an account appeals to a person on an unquantifiable level. It has some humor, some filters, some videos and some smiling faces. Is Underground Butcher just a butcher shop? No. It is a butcher shop, but one that captures its essence on the ’grams, and ultimately that’s all I ask for.
