Less than a day after reporting about the opening of Narrative Eating, we now have to announce its closing. The premise of the restaurant was that each animal had a bio before you ate it. Freddy the chicken, for example, had a love of flying kites.
The restaurant owners, Hana Baxter and her husband, claim that they have run out of animals with stories to tell. But we confirmed with online booking platforms that no one wanted to go to the restaurant.
“People want to know their food,” Baxter protested. “We just have to find better ways to provide that experience.”
We have yet to find anyone who agrees that they want to know more about their food.
While it appeared that the personal, touching stories were turning people off, a post online on Wednesday seemed to doom the restaurant. A duck named Harold was not a cherished part of the menu.
The story about the duck was posted with a lot of comments: Harold was a horrid duck—no nice things to say. He caused so much property damage. We couldn’t wait to get rid of him, and he deserved his fate.
Someone commented on the post that Harold was a good duck to eat. But that user had to delete the post because he received so much hate.
Baxter still believes that the restaurant was a huge success. “We brought people closer to their food, what more can you ask for?”
In this case, just the check and not another animal story.