In an interview on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, Anthony Bourdain said that cynical and ironic food is never good, that to make good food you have to be a romantic.
I don't know if this goes under the label ironic or not, but I remember about 20 years ago there was a theme Italian restaurant in Bakersfield in which the waiters dressed up as Bugs Malone gangsters, talked in a tough-guy accent and photographed you with people in costumes before asking if you wanted to buy a Polaroid for $15, which could be added to your tab.
To put it bluntly, the experience was disgusting and I was gratified to see the restaurant shut down after several months. Perhaps I hated it so much because it was both cynical and miserably feeble in its attempt at irony.
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