Foodies vs. Hipsters

I do not like being labeled a “foodie”. I don’t really like to be labeled anything but I dislike it as much, if not more, than being called a “hipster”. Although (waaay back when) I’ve hung out at some notorious Hollywood haunts where some notorious DJs spun notorious anthems, I am far from being a hipster, as my disturbingly hip friends would absolutely agree.

Both of the terms have a lot in common. Both enjoyed a period where they stood for a blissful affirmation of one’s lifestyle, like a club that you never knew you joined but that you didn’t mind being a part of. As with all clubs that don’t require a membership fee, yet enjoy benefits, everyone wants to join. But that group soon became the punchline of every tight-jeaned, deep-v’ed, fixed-geared, what-you’ve-never-heard-of-this-band-?! joke around, and it looks like the term “foodie” is heading that way too (no not the tight jeans thing, the punchline thing). Food people are quickly attracting the mockery of individulas who, for some reason, hate good food or people who like good food or something (I call them, “haters”) and they’re using the word “foodie” to do it.

Newton figured it out a long time ago. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I think sociology people call it backlash or something. The basic premise seems to be that there’s always the “anti” faction, the group that takes it upon themselves to regulate the shelf life of every “fad”. I know, I know, I’ve been using a lot of “quotation marks” in this post but bear with me (those last two were just to annoy you, my dear reader, sorry). Yes, men wearing women’s jeans is a fad (face it dude, you don’t have the hips for it) and souffles were a food fad (albeit a delicious one), v-necks that allow you to show off your belly button lint is was a fad (hopefully to no one’s surprise), and korean flavored mexican food is a fad (mogos ≠ kogi, in fact mogos kogi and kogi > mogos, gasp! Sorry San Jose, it’s the sad truth).

But fashion and good food aren’t fads in and of themselves. There will always be a contingent of people in every generation that dress a certain way and eat a certain way and society will undoubtedly want to label them. There will also be those who hate on things as soon as they crossover from countercultural cult status into popular consciousness, regardless of its quality (love old No Doubt stuff? hate Gwen Stefani?), haters.

There are definitely people who, innocently enough, still use “foodie” with no intended malice (unlike “hipster”). And sure, if you wikipedia “foodie” you get a rather innocuous definition: “foodies want to learn everything about food, both the best and the ordinary, and about the science, industry, and personalities surrounding food”. There are people in the food world who use it all the time, but I’m just not one of them.

No, we are not snobs at The Wooden Table, just the opposite. We welcome food enthusiasts of all kinds. We realize that you don’t get opentable or yelp elite points for dining with us and we know that we’re not in any danger of being mistaken for a Michelin kitchen (or zagat rated or AAA or etc etc) but we love interesting food. We love making it, talking about it, serving it, and eating it. If you’re reading this, you probably do too and we love you for it.

Cheers to us and those like us!

. . . and to all the haters, we are your friends, you’ll never be alone again, just please don’t label us. Oh yeah, and thanks for paying attention. I wish our Google analytics could track you, our hater count would tell us more about our success than our hits from Japan (こんにちは!).

Leave a Comment