Food Photography for Minneapolis Restaurants

Minneapolis has one of the most impressive restaurant scenes in the Midwest — a city that has punched far above its weight in national food recognition, with multiple James Beard Award winners and a dining public that takes food seriously. The city's winters are brutal, which means indoor dining and delivery both thrive for much of the year. DoorDash and Uber Eats have strong Minneapolis penetration, and the delivery market grows substantially from November through March when residents avoid going out in the cold. For restaurants in neighborhoods like Northeast, Whittier, and North Loop, delivery platform photography directly influences revenue during the long winter season.

Minneapolis also has extraordinary Somali, Hmong, Mexican, and Ethiopian food communities — the Twin Cities have the largest Somali diaspora outside of Somalia, and the food culture that comes with that is unlike anything else in the Midwest. For restaurants serving these cuisines, strong food photography is an opportunity to bring new customers to cuisines they might not be familiar with. A compelling photo of injera with tibs or a bowl of suqaar can spark curiosity in a potential customer who's browsing delivery apps and encountering Ethiopian food for the first time.