Creating the Restaurant Experience: The White Dog Café and Pod, Philadelphia
How is one's experience of a space created? This thesis explores two restaurants in University City, Philadelphia: The White Dog Café and Pod. Both restaurants consciously construct specific, unique experiences for their patrons. These experiences include cuisine, but also reflect expectations that are socially constructed within the restaurant. Restaurants are thus spaces defined by their physical structure and the strictures of behavior within them. The total experience is the product of the participant's expectations and experience in the setting. By examining self-presentation in the form of design, press releases, and reviews, and comparing them to the subsequent experience of a site visit, I will show how social constructions are experienced in space to create one's overall experience. By understanding the physical and social shape of a restaurant experience, we will understand how the experience of space influences our use of it. |
