Ethos ATX is the #1 restaurant in Austin, according to its Instagram bio–and with some 73,000 followers and thousands of commenters, that seems like a plausible enough claim. It's the kind of place where you need a reservation to get a seat, but where reservations are so popular that they're only made available starting at 4:30am on the first Monday of every month. (The restaurant recommends using multiple devices to secure your reservation, since they go so quickly.) You can even buy official Ethos merchandise.
The only problem is, it doesn't exist.
As Taylor Lorenz reports in UserMag:
When you look closer, every single thing from the photos of the food, to the venue, is AI generated. The posts from the restaurant get thousands of likes and shares, many from people who don't seem to realize it's all fake. "These are so cute! Tiny greens with big flavor," a business account for a micro greens company commented on a recent post of AI generated micro greens.
"This is some amazing food photography, everything looks impeccable," another user commented on an AI generated photo of scallops.
Technically speaking, Ethos is violating the terms of service on Instagram by not clearly labeling its posts as AI-generated content. But even if they were adhering to the proper rules…what is the point? It feels like a strangely elaborate exercise just for the lulz. And it's definitely for the lulz: if you actually try to place a reservation, you get redirected to eelslap.com, a website comprising nothing more than a GIF of a man getting slapped by an eel. The restaurant's copy frequently boasts about its "unreal flavors." Even some of the merchandise cleverly winks at the restaurant's top ingredient being "creativity."
But who is this for? If it was designed as viral marketing for a pop-up restaurant, or a startup, I could maybe understand. But a fake restaurant that exists for its own sake? Even some Redditors have tried to get to the bottom, and can't figure out if it's delusion or scam—and if it is a scam, what the endgame could possibly be.
I guess we'll have to wait and find out, since reservations are apparently booked up through 2027.
(The Black Ant Charcoal Activated Ice Cream did make me laugh though)
The '#1 restaurant in Austin' doesn't exist [Taylor Lorenz / UserMag]
