As Restaurants Ban Photos, Some Worry About The End Of Food Porn

Is This The End Of 'Food Porn'?

Have you ever snuck a snap of a sumptuous cupcake or stolen a shot of an exquisitely plated entree? If you have, we've got bad news for you: Your "foodstagramming" days may be numbered.

In the aftermath of a recent New York Times report, entitled "Restaurants Turn Camera Shy," food porn enthusiasts everywhere have begun to cower in fearful anticipation of the potential demise of "foodstagram." According to the report, which quoted several New York City chefs, some restaurants around town are banning customers from taking photos of their meals and uploading the pics to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Rules discouraging restaurant patrons from foodstagramming may soon become the norm, some social media lovers fear. Mashable's Stan Schroeder, for one, laments such standards as the "Death of Foodstagram."

But photography bans in restaurants are not a new phenomena. In 2008, New York magazine's Grub Street blog noted that famed chef David Chang had enacted a no-photography policy at his hotspot NYC restaurant, Momofuku Ko. The Times report notes that the likes of New York chef Daniel Boulud and high-end London restaurant Fat Duck have long discouraged the practice, as well.

Nevertheless, some netizens have taken to Twitter to express their horror.

NOOOOOOO!!! | Death of Foodstagram? Restaurants Ban Customers From Taking Food Pics mashable.com/2013/01/24/dea… via @mashable

— Jaclyn Goldsborough (@JaclynGolds) January 24, 2013

What? No! Restaurants Ban Customers From Taking Food Pics zite.to/Wwh51k via @zite #instagram

— Community (@CommunityAgency) January 24, 2013

But...that's all I love to do on instagram RT @mashable: Restaurants Ban Customers From Taking Food Pics | mashable.com/2013/01/24/dea…

— Phillip Jerez (@philtr0n) January 24, 2013

Others, meanwhile, are celebrating what they consider to be the chiming of the foodstagram death knell.

Great call, this should be illegal! Death of Foodstagram? Restaurants Ban Customers From Taking Food Pics! #pethate on.mash.to/XyOneq

— Alex Cullen (@Alex89Cullen) January 24, 2013

YES! This! RT @mashable: Death of Foodstagram? Restaurants Ban Customers From Taking Food Pics - on.mash.to/VuCA2M

— Mike Augustyniak (@MorningWXGuy) January 24, 2013

Are all these reactions premature? Maybe.

With restaurants and customers are divided on the issue, the polarizing foodstagram debate isn't likely to end anytime soon.

As an earlier report by The Huffington Post notes, some restaurants out there that have welcomed the food porn era with open arms. Comodo, a Latin American eatery in New York's SoHo neighborhood, for example, jumped at the chance for free marketing by creating an "Instagram menu," compiled from photos of meals uploaded by customers and tagged with the hashtag #comodomenu.

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