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Bay Area Restaurants Are Vetting Your Social Media Before You Even Walk In (sfgate.com) 101

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Bay Area Michelin-starred restaurants are conducting extensive background research on diners before they arrive, mining social media profiles and maintaining detailed guest databases to personalize dining experiences. Lazy Bear maintains records on 115,000 people and employs a guest services coordinator who creates weekly reports by researching publicly available social media information.

Staff study color-coded Google documents containing guest data before each service. SingleThread's reservation team researches social media, Google, and LinkedIn profiles for guests, where meals cost over $500 on weekends. General manager Akeel Shah told SFGate the information helps "tailor the experience and make it memorable." Acquerello has collected guest data for 36 years, initially handwritten in books. Co-owner Giancarlo Paterlini said their director of operations reviews each reservation for dining history and wine preferences to customize service.

Bay Area Restaurants Are Vetting Your Social Media Before You Even Walk In More | Reply

Bay Area Restaurants Are Vetting Your Social Media Before You Even Walk In

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  • Why???!?? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Monday July 14, 2025 @10:47AM (#65519376) Homepage

    This sounds like a dystopian horror film.

    Is there actually any benefit to the experience or is this some gen Z (sidenote, will we go to Gen A next?) idiot that thinks spying on people is required for good business?

    Yes, having a waiter who knows you and is friendly makes for a better experience, but only if you know just about them.

    I am so glad that my only real social media is slashdot.

    • Yup this is creepy as shit....

      Makes me happy, however, that I've never been on social media nor had SM accounts.

      The importance of "not being seen" [youtu.be].

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by znrt ( 2424692 )

        Yup this is creepy as shit....

        it's just a bit creepy, social media posting is public record, that's exactly why people post in the first place, to be seen. i'm free to build a profile about anyone's public activity for my personal use if i so wish. there might be some concern about the specific use of that information or the exposure of those profiles, but i'm doing nothing wrong collecting that public information. this restaurant processing it in this way is just an optimization of their service. i'd figure that these customers even li

    • See the Black Mirror episode "Nosedive" (S3E01). Apparently China has also implemented a Social Credit System that has been compared to this episode.

    • This sounds like a dystopian horror film.

      Is there actually any benefit to the experience or is this some gen Z (sidenote, will we go to Gen A next?) idiot that thinks spying on people is required for good business?

      Yes, having a waiter who knows you and is friendly makes for a better experience, but only if you know just about them.

      I am so glad that my only real social media is slashdot.

      Per TFA,, the restaurant has been keeping notes on guests to better cater to them since pencil and paper days; this is just an expansion of that process. This is a higher end restaurant whose clientele is likely to expect personalized service, just as when they shop at a boutique that caters to their tastes; and the boutique no doubt keeps a notebook on their high value clients as well to better serve them and keep them happy and opening their wallet.. We are at the point where if you don't want people loo

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by q_e_t ( 5104099 )

        the restaurant has been keeping notes on guests to better cater to them since pencil and paper days; this is just an expansion of that process.

        In what way is what I post on X, Facebook or Slashdot and a restaurant harvesting likely to enhance my dining experience? In fact if I knew they were doing it, it would do the opposite. It would also be the last time I went there.

        the boutique no doubt keeps a notebook on their high value clients as well to better serve them and keep them happy and opening their wallet

        Related to what they've been doing in the restaurant, not on social media. And even then, in many countries, it might be dubious on GDPR grounds.

        We are at the point where if you don't want people looking you up, stay off of social media under your real name.

        Sorry, but a restaurant still has no business checking my social media.

        • Sorry, but a restaurant still has no business checking my social media.

          They want to see if you're a dick or annoying or a whiner or anything else which might interfere with their restaurant ambiance.

          Would you want someone who posts how often they get drunk at restaurants at a place which charges $500/meal?

          But as the article also relates, they want to tailor your experience with them. If they see you've announced you're on a diet, they won't suggest the high fat stuff but instead something the

        • "In what way is what I post on X, Facebook or Slashdot and a restaurant harvesting likely to enhance my dining experience?"

          Nobody can speak to that without doing what this restaurant is doing. But one very obvious potential example is looking at what you save said about other dining and entertainment experiences so they can get an idea of what you do or don't like.

      • >>Per TFA,, the restaurant has been keeping notes on guests to better cater to them since pencil and paper days; this is just an expansion of that process. This is a higher end restaurant whose clientele is likely to expect personalized service, just as when they shop at a boutique that caters to their tastes; and the boutique no doubt keeps a notebook on their high value clients as well to better serve them and keep them happy and opening their wallet.

        Yes, all businesses that cater to serving the 'un

    • This sounds like a dystopian horror film.

      Is there actually any benefit to the experience or is this some gen Z (sidenote, will we go to Gen A next?) idiot that thinks spying on people is required for good business?

      Let’s just clarify something first. For the decades of targeted sales and marketing that existed before social media junkies started bitching about how their addiction to narcissism makes them unfairly vulnerable, this practice was simply called “data mining”. Or “intelligence”.

      Only in the nonsensical era of social media mass addiction do we assume a rabid narcissist who simply can’t stop talking about themselves online could somehow be labeled as a victim of “spy

    • Personally if I owned a restaurant I would want to keep out anyone who takes pictures of their food and posts on instagram. There's a big difference between customers who have influence and self-styled "influencers"; both expect special treatment but there's nothing to be gained by giving it to the latter.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by taustin ( 171655 )

        Real influencers don't expect special treatment. In fact, they usually go out of their way to be as anonymous as possible so they don't get special treatment. That's the stereotype of the restaurant critic, and it's based on reality.

        There mere fact that someone tells you they're an influencer pretty much proves they're not.

      • Personally if I owned a restaurant I would want to keep out anyone who takes pictures of their food and posts on instagram

        One of your top responsibilities as the owner is to know what your customers think about you. Unfortunately, people today are much more likely to share their opinion on their social media than to tell you directly. So, if you want to know what your customers think of you, you have to go there.

    • This is not about personalizing the experience. Theyre just spinning it that way. This is for their own protection. Michelin starred restaurants are basically celebrities, and theyre gonna be targets for malicious actors who want to cause reputational damage for their own benefit. The last person a Michelin starred restaurant wants as a customer is Johnny Somali, and theyre within their rights to refuse service.

    • Re:You could have at least (Score:5, Informative)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Monday July 14, 2025 @11:55AM (#65519594)

      Read the whopping two paragraphs.

      Acquerello has collected guest data for 36 years, initially handwritten in books

      So nothing new except for knee jerk social media=bad.

    • If this is expected and those coming to the restaurant know this, then it's okay. There's a particular level of service expected in fine dining. This elevates new customers to the same level of old time regulars.

    • This sounds like a dystopian horror film.

      Is there actually any benefit to the experience or is this some gen Z (sidenote, will we go to Gen A next?) idiot that thinks spying on people is required for good business?

      You're paying for an indulgence. Just how bouncers let in hot women and keep out loser-looking guys to create the desired atmosphere, this is a means of doing that as well. The clientele matters as much as the food. You want sophisticated, well-dressed and polite diners...not a rowdy family reunion.

      Even at those prices, the restaurant is a very difficult and competitive business and they're constantly going under. Think of it as a math problem.

      For simplicity sake, imagine you have seating for 100 pe

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by RobinH ( 124750 )
      It seems a bit creepy, but the further you go back in history, the more everyone in town knows all your business. Walking into a restaurant and knowing the names of everyone in there, and the waitress knowing how you like your food cooked used to be the norm. This is just a matter of perspective.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      > Is there actually any benefit to the experience

      Presumably these are the sorts of exclusive restaurants that cater to the wealthy and celebrities, where you need a reservation in order to get in at all. (Otherwise, they'd have no way to predict who is going to arrive, in order to research them in advance.) The benefit, presumably, would be keeping out hoi polloi and, probably more important, paparazzi.

    • The rich always had gated communities and clubs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hadlock ( 143607 )

      They want to know if you're a CEO or commercial real estate broker, who is likely to come back here 10 times in the next two years on the company dime, or if you're a mom of five getting a 10th anniversary dinner from her husband who can barely afford to do this once a year. It's not rocket science. If you're a software engineer taking your wife or friend out for their birthday you also fall into the second group. A possible third group would be someone like city council member, federal level congress/sena

    • After Gen Z comes Gen Alpha, apparently.

    • sidenote, will we go to Gen A next

      Seriously? You're not keeping up, not only is Gen Alpha (yes it's A) a thing that exists, but it's also already been superseded, anyone born this year is already Gen Beta (the jokes will write themselves about which is the better generation).

      The Alphas even have better Wikipedia entries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • No thanks (Score:3)

    by bagofbeans ( 567926 ) on Monday July 14, 2025 @10:47AM (#65519380)

    It's still surveillance and analysis. No thanks.

    • Why have social media that you don't expect people to look at?

      • You mean the social media that's locked down for friends and family only?

        • Privacy is an illusion at best. Your data is already public. Already exposed.

          That nobody cares about you enough to DOX you ... yet isn't "privacy" it is obscurity.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Sique ( 173459 )
            That's the same argument as "If you did not want me to break into your house, you would have moved in a underground bunker." Just because taking is easy, it still might be stealing.

            • That's one hell of a false analogy. Social media data that isn't kept behind privacy walls is literally publicly published information. They are not breaking into anything.

              If you decide to walk down the street with a sign that has your phone number on it, you can't get mad if someone writes it down.

              • The problem here is that people cannot seem to understand that "private" and "privacy" are related but not the same thing. Private is what happens in my house that nobody outside should be privy to. Privacy is the illusion that everything we do is private. I liken this to being photographed and filmed in public and the Karen's crying "don't video me". No Karen, I can and WILL video you in public and there is nothing you can do to stop me.

                One has no expectation of privacy in public. None. Social Media IS pub

  • Like many of the denizens of this site, I don't have "social media", so good luck with that.

    Besides which, I always make reservations with a fake name, so doubly so.

  • Sensationalism reporting (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TWX ( 665546 ) on Monday July 14, 2025 @11:01AM (#65519416)

    This is sensationalism reporting. I would be very surprised if anyone who buys a $500-a-plate meal even reads this site.

    When you're paying what's frankly ridiculous money for a meal then it's not the meal you're paying for, it's the whole experience from the moment you enter their establishment until you're walking out. It makes sense that a business catering to that sort of 'experience' is keeping records, you're their cash-cow, you're spending unnecessary money on a luxury experience and they want to do whatever they can to give you the experience sufficient for you to come back, and that means personalizing it for you, both to cater to what they know you want from dining, plus making it fit in to your greater life.

    It sounds like the majority of what they're doing here is transitioning from paper records to electronic records, and cross-referencing to that which you as a customer are already vanity-publishing.

    • Quite frankly, I do believe this is sensationalism that has in fact gone wrong. The sensationalism of narcissism.

      If Michelin-rated restaurants didn’t have to do this in the past and they now feel obligated to, then it’s likely more a move to filter out certain unfavorable clientele they don’t wish to deal with.

      The Michelin star, is what should be filling seats. If it IS and you’re forced as an owner/operator to do this extra step, then we know what the hell the real story is. They

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by TWX ( 665546 )

        I have no doubt that the restaurants that cater to the wealthy and basically only the wealthy have always done this, following "the social pages" and the Who's Who [wikipedia.org] books, and the sorts of other documentation about rich and/or famous people. They want those rich customers to feel known, to feel welcome, so they spend more money.

        The only difference here is that they're acknowledging their sources now include a wider array of Internet sources, not just the complications put together and maintained by others

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by taustin ( 171655 )

      Exactly. Morton's [gizmodo.com] has always kept a similar level of info on their customers, for the specific purpose (which they achieve) of providing the smoothest service possible.

      A former coworker is a regular at a local Morton's. When he was travelling, hundreds of miles from home, he and his wife stopped in at a location there, and were chatting with the hostess about being regulars at another location. Then he turned around, and the manager was standing there, with his favorite cocktail, and told him appetizers (th

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      In that price range, there's also a significant amount of vetting, to keep out hoi polloi (and, in locations where there are a lot of celebrities, paparazzi). You're paying partly for exclusivity.

  • Having read the actual article, I would totally game their approach by making a fake social media profile and manipulating them to the greatest degree possible, for the purpose of getting the cost-free special treatment that they seem to want to provide.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      Obviously giving away that kind of service to some 'deserving' clients is a pure marketing move. Its not like they are keeping it a secret they did that. In fact it would not surprise me if some agent of theirs put the idea for the article in the reporters ear and said and you know such and such would have good anecdote to fit into it. That is how the sausage is made in the hospitality industry.

      You might get away with scamming them but, it would also be nice click bait story for some dining rag to bust y

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Targon ( 17348 )

      There is nothing free about the meals, but if people post about their experiences when going out for a meal, including how good or bad the service was, what mistakes were made, that the food was "bland" as a reason for giving a lower review, then it makes sense that those providing a high end dining experience will want to know about this stuff to provide the best possible experience. For a $500 meal, you'd expect nothing less than EVERYTHING being superb, and that means making sure that things that bothe

      • There is nothing free about the meals...

        Read the article. They gave meals for free to some teachers who planned to eat there, to surprise them.

    • Having read the actual article, I would totally game their approach by making a fake social media profile and manipulating them to the greatest degree possible, for the purpose of getting the cost-free special treatment that they seem to want to provide.

      I suspect, given they have been doing this for years, they are smart enough to weed out those trying to game the system; and if you drop enough money not really care because their system is working, i.e. getting you to spend lots of money at their restaurant. Case in point. I had a friend complain that some customers were gaming the loyalty system to get extra rewards points. When I asked him how much did that cost him per year, and he said a few hundred dollars; and how much has their spend gone up sinc

    • ... Edouard Michelin

  • The Bear (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dan Posluns ( 794424 ) on Monday July 14, 2025 @11:15AM (#65519464) Homepage

    This is a big thing in the Hulu show The Bear, not necessarily the social media aspect, but finding ways to treat your customers with surprises that make the dining experience more personal and memorable. They even have a "surprise budget" for exactly this kind of thing. It's shown in a very positive light; people LOVE being surprised with an experience the staff overheard them expressing they regretted not having. I wouldn't be surprised if the show is what gave the idea to some of these restauranteurs.

    Personally I don't see what the fuss is. This isn't government surveillance, it isn't Orwellian, it's people who work at a small business looking at the social media YOU chose to make public, to try and differentiate themselves from your other dining experiences. If you don't like it, you've got a bevy of options, from locking down your social media, to maybe telling them in advance if you know they do this sort of thing and don't want it for yourself, to reviewing them poorly if you feel creeped out by what they do (although then you're probably in for backlash from people who think you're in the wrong for complaining about something you opened yourself up for), and of course the easiest solution: to not giving those restaurants your business.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pjt33 ( 739471 )

      it's people who work at a small business looking at the social media YOU chose to make public

      Or the social media that someone with a similar name chose to make public. Whether or not it's Orwellian for a company to process personal data about me which I didn't provide directly to that company, it's objectionable because receiving the data from the subject is the strongest guarantee that it's actually data about that subject, and searches based on nothing more than the name can be a strong guarantee of error

      • Is there any evidence that's ever been a problem? The Michelin-star restaurants that do this kind of thing are already sending questionnaires to their customers ahead of their reservation, tracking them over years of visitations, and being extremely precious with their reputation. You think they are just googling a person's name and then spending tons of effort and money on something they gleaned from the profile picture of the wrong person? I can't think of a more embarrassing outcome for that restaurant;

    • One of the reasons The Bear is such a great show is because it pretty accurately represents a lot of the struggles restaurants, that are trying to be excellent, go through to give their diners a great experience. I won't post spoilers, but there are a few notable examples from this season that I can think of.

      It should also be noted that the cast of the show were all trained in culinary arts to some degree for the show, and a few of the cast members are actual professional chefs and/or restaurateurs.

      When I r

  • I could be wrong, but this seems to touch on the larger issue of 'let's do it because we can, not because we should'.

    This seems to be a mindset that is rampant these days. Someone comes up with a clever idea and everyone just leaps on it. (ChatGPT, 'filters', AI companions, deep and wide data mining, etc.) Seems to me a mindset that comes from greed, fear of being left behind, fascination with the newest shiny object, a search for self reassurance, etc. None of those seem like motivations that lead to a mor

  • I assume they aren't asking soccer mom Karen how her kids game went. But more scoping for who has money and providing preferential treatment to those who do.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TWX ( 665546 )

      I assume they aren't asking soccer mom Karen how her kids game went.

      No, they aren't.

      But if say, Madonna's daughter comes in, they might well ask her about how the 'season' is going, as she spends time in various parts of the world that nepotism has granted her access to, or if one of Bill Gates' offspring comes in, to ask how things are with the foundation that their now-divorced parents ran, or they might use what they've read to specifically steer-clear of topics that could cause offense.

  • IF your properly secure your socials they have no access. If your just an ass and give negative reviews for like maybe you dont need to eat at these restrauants. Note sure how they are going to even know who I am, I cant say I have had more than 1 or 2 reservations in the last 40 years.

  • shit tipper mark spit in food!

  • I used to go to a certain Starbucks regularly on my way to work (I know... sue me). One morning I walked in, and when I got to the counter, I was given my regular order, before I could even say anything.

    Of course, they weren't reading my social media (it didn't exist at the time). But what's happening here is really just good customer service.

    • The old guard socializing. You are a regular and they recognize you.

      Bank tellers used to know their customers by face too. Now it seems the teller's face changes faster than the customers...

    • When my wife and I were first married (also before social media), we would eat pretty frequently at a particular Mexican restaurant. It got to where the waiter would already have our usual "super nachos" in hand the first time he arrived at our table.

      I imagine if you're a restaurant charging $500 for a meal, you want to do everything you can to make your service stand out.

  • looking forward to reliving the rich text email versus plain text flame wars with the waiter!

    Yum!

  • ..or do you also find this creepy as fuck and would actively avoid any places that you knew were doing this?

  • This probably started off as a way to figure out who the critics are, so that when they come in you can make sure everything is perfect. Then it turned into keeping track of who talks shit on yelp and the self-proclaimed foodie critics. Now this has expanded into tiktok and instagram.
  • How will they interpret that?
  • I guess I'll be having air soup for dinner.

  • "Lazy Bear"?
    Is this a restaurant, or an APT?

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