I once dined at an obscure little restaurant in an old red-light district that was known for using organic produce. My fish pie was, for some curious reason, wrapped in a brown bag. An accompanying salad was served in a mixing bowl, with a separate dropper of dressing to allow me, in the words of the waitress, ‘to dress your salad as you please’.
I was left wondering if I was meant to eat the salad there and then take the pie to go. Looking around, it seemed like I was the only one confused by the mixed messages (organic food + pin-up girl waitress + Euro sex club music + DIY salad). Everyone else looked perfectly comfortable, as if everything that was mindf***ing me was just everyday life to them.
That was back in 2004, when most of us had never even heard of the word ‘hipster’. Hipsters back then didn’t even know that they were hipsters. They were just self-styled dudes and chicks who aspired to things the majority didn’t. Fast-forward to today, and the ‘H’ word is bandied about much more loosely. So how do we tell if a restaurant/café is really ‘hipster’? Could it have anything to do with the following?
• Hard-to-find entrance
• Exposed pipes/bricks
• Wallpaper and Monocle
• Artisanal food and coffee menus
• Deconstructed desserts
• Fresh juice, preferably slow-pressed
• Repurposed/vintage items
• Low-hanging Edison light bulbs
• Staff in leather aprons
If you’re now nodding in agreement that these traits earn cafés/restaurants a spot in the hipster hall of fame, sorry, I may have misled you. The fact that every other new café/ restaurant sports these things means they are simply the new norm. Real hipsterism can be found in the example that I gave at the start of this article. It’s time to stop mislabelling places that are just trying to stay up to date with trends. Suggesting that restaurants/cafés with industrial decor and kimchi hotdogs are hipster is like suggesting that all guys who sport thick-rimmed glasses and skinny jeans are hipster, too. It’s not a compliment, and neither is it an insult. It’s just inaccurate.