“What are those rusted spots on my plate?”, I wondered. It took me a while, after careful examination and thorough survey of my fellow tables at the restaurant, before i could conclude that these were designer plates. Designs that resembled dirty, disorderly, rusted looking reddish-brown stain-like spots, to be precise. These ‘spotted’ ceramic plates were proudly served at a fancy restaurant while I was waiting for my order to be served; waiting with stained plates for my food to be served.
‘Spotted’ plate
I am not an expert but merely a person who can identify and applaud a creative piece when I see one. But, this was completely baffling. This was a major design faux pas passed off as something fancy in an attempt to look refreshing. It did not intrigue me and it looked extremely silly. I may be sounding brutal with the choice of crockery this restaurant had, but in actuality, I am surprised at how restaurants can misinterpret their logic of trendy designs resulting in absurd concepts. However, I have this weird hunch that these are here to stay.
Restaurant designs and visual merchandising have evolved with time. From simple restaurants where seating and food mattered more than their visual designs we are at a point where restaurants invest heavily in decor, design and anything that enhances their visual appeal. They use expensive art, installations, flowers (real and plastic) and fancy layouts which are no doubt impressive but, when they overdo it ,or try real hard to look different, that they miss the target. The restaurant that I dined in was a typical old American themed one where the lighting, roof and music was in sync but then came those plates. I even wondered, if those spotted plates were in-line with some theme of yesteryear with actual rusted plates being served!
Restaurant interior
As a customer, I think it’s definitely fun to play around with designs but I wish these designs didn’t overpower the taste of food they had to offer. After all, a restaurant is reviewed for their food and dining experience and design takes a second preference. Frankly, I visited that restaurant for their food which was good but all I wanted to talk about were their weird plates! I had the urge to take a tissue and wipe those plates because, let’s face it, we like our plates spotless clean. Don’t we?
