From October 2022
Thanin Viriyaki is a photographer with an unusual hobby: he visits mom-and-pop restaurants, takes professional-quality photographs of his meal, and gives the pictures to the restaurant owners. In the photo above, he stares down a feast at Luang Prabang Market, a Lao kitchen in Euless that is one of his favorite spots. It’s obvious why Viriyaki loves to eat where he does, but donating the pics? That’s another story.
Viriyaki grew up in restaurants. His first job was at a Chinese takeaway in Fort Worth owned by his Thai mother and Chinese Thai father. That experience stuck with him as he ventured into a career as a photographer, shooting destination weddings and ads for brands such as Toni & Guy and DFW Airport.
When he’s not working, Viriyaki is visiting small, family-run restaurants in the Dallas area, ordering meals, and uploading the pictures to services like Yelp and Facebook. He has uploaded more than 3,000 photos to Google Maps, where they have been viewed, in total, 75 million times. If the restaurateurs ask, he’ll give them his pictures, free of charge.
Recently, Viriyaki and I met to eat lunch (and take photos, of course). He explained how his hobby started and why he gives his work away.
How did your upbringing in your family’s restaurants affect what you do now? My dad opened up a Chinese takeout place in downtown Fort Worth. That’s where I had my first job, age 16, cooking, cleaning, and doing a little bit of everything there. I was there for almost 10 years. [Takeout] is an interesting industry because your main clientele are either in a bad mood, or they could easily be in a bad mood. They’re like, “I need fuel. I need to eat, I gotta eat this fast.” They’re in this transactional mood of consuming food more than, say, a fine dining place.
I like the fact that I went through all that because I’m prepared when I go to these places and shoot them. It lets me relate to them and be sympathetic to them carving out their niche in this world.
There’s a part of me that wants to help people similar to my own background, people coming over and putting all their hopes and dreams into these places. Whenever I see some new place pop up, I want to go out there, buy some food, snap a few pics, throw them online, and hope they push the needle for some people who are on the fence about eating there.
Most [restaurant owners] come over, especially the first-generation ones, and all they know is, “I know I like this food. I know I need four walls and a ceiling. I’m going to open a place.” They don’t think about things like logos or marketing.
But that’s also great because they aren’t making food to cater to anyone but their own, which makes the food have that particular authentic taste. Whereas some of the other places have to appeal to the larger demographic to survive. Something my dad always touched on was, “We gotta make it sweeter for the Western palate.” Widest demographic, right?
Going in and shooting these mom-and-pop places, I want to help them out because we want that unadulterated taste to survive in the community. My father has passed away now, but I really wish he could see the evolution of the American palate.
What’s your process? It’s me going in and eating. I shoot quickly. I’m just ordering my food and taking a few quick shots. Then I’ll post images online. I don’t push my services. I don’t even have a business card. Sometimes businesses notice the photos online, and they’ll reach out and say, “Hey, can I get those images?” I’ll say, yeah, take them. I don’t mind. Use them for whatever. Sometimes I’ll send them the whole folder, full res, no watermarks. If they come back later and hire me to do paid work, that’s great. If they don’t, that’s fine, too.
How do you support this hobby? I shoot weddings and advertising. I make my money doing photos, to the point where I can be giving. Shooting food for a living, too, you get fed already. That takes out one thing you’ve got to spend money on. Recently I ran out of room in my fridge. My fridge turned into a morgue, where the food would sit in there for five days and I finally, emotionally, was like, okay, I can let go of those two chicken wings I thought I would finish.
Have you ever had negative pushback, like a business say they don’t want you taking pictures? Only one time. Town Hearth on my birthday. They said, “there’s no photography allowed with a professional camera.” They have rules, cool, so I used my crappy cell phone and took dark grainy photos. If you look on Yelp, they’re all dark grainy photos. Horrible. Straight-on flash. But they’re making so much money they don’t care, and hey, those are their rules and I respect it.
Eating is great. But why spend so much time taking pictures of your food? Food is art, right? That sounds pretentious if a McRib is sitting in front of me, but someone still designed that look.
What’s cool about food photography is that I get to translate their art with my art. Their art, the chef’s art, is a fleeting moment. To enjoy their art form is to destroy it. To document it, I think that’s pretty interesting.
I try to surround myself with delicious food, good people, beautiful photos, and fast wifi. That’s it. Just those four things. The most drama I have in my life is: What am I going to eat today? That’s a pretty nice life.
Five Great Under-the-Radar Restaurants
We asked Thanin Viriyaki to recommend some favorite restaurants that don’t invest in traditional marketing. He pointed us to these gems.
Quoc Bao Bakery
3419 W. Walnut St., Ste. 104, Garland
“I bought 12 bánh mìs one time in anticipation of a snowstorm. I had set up my living room to shoot jewelry, so I had this infinity wall–type white background. My test shot was a pyramid of bánh mìs.”
Asiannights Lao Thai Cuisine & Bar
2905 N. Beach St., Haltom City
“That place is so good. I rank it up there with Luang Prabang Market in terms of quality of food. The outside looks very unassuming, but I don’t know a single person who loves Asian food who has not been impressed.”
Soju 101
11445 Emerald St., Ste. 101
DanSungSa
11407 Emerald St., Ste. 121
“Those Soju 101 pizzas are underrated. They’re in this unfortunate situation where they’re in Old Koreatown, and the new Koreatown is newer, nicer. Old Koreatown doesn’t get enough love. The place next to it definitely needs more love: the original DanSungSa. The one in Carrollton is not the same vibe. There’s no other place that has this vibe.”
Orchid City Fusion Cafe
2135 Southeast Pkwy., Ste. 101, Arlington
“It’s got that odd Asian mom-and-pop, funky/quirky decor, but the food is great. They’re known for their bò né, a Vietnamese breakfast dish [steak and eggs].”