In the Age of AI, the Analog Restaurant Feels Radical

What spoke to me the most about the Instagram announcement for the new Manhattan restaurant Somssi was the fact that it was done in such an unexpected manner. In the photo, a hand holds a piece of lace against the shiny backdrop of a powder blue car. The lace, custom-made, is about the size of a postcard, bearing the restaurant’s name in looping swirls of white thread, its address and opening date sewn in blockier letters beneath it. Sunlight streams through the lace, casting shadows of the curlicues that border the piece’s scalloped edges. The scene looks tangible, like a moment that really existed. It stopped me in my scroll.