A new restaurant and cafe that opened on Haight Street in the former Citrus Club spot, which closed in April after three decades, received backlash over the “slop” food images featured on its AI-generated storefront menu.
As we first noted in Sunday links, Grind & Unwind owners AJ and Lyndsey Lozano, a Marin couple who opened the cafe in May, said they were blindsided after AI-generated photos of sandwiches, pastries, and coffee drinks displayed in their front window became the subjects of a widely shared Reddit thread mocking the images as unappetizing “AI slop,” as SFGate reports.
Commenters compared the uncanny-appearing food to everything from loofahs and lungs to the cordyceps mushrooms from The Last of Us, while others questioned why a new business on Haight Street didn't research the neighborhood a little more.
Lozano told NBC Bay Area the display was meant to be temporary while the owners focused on opening the business and caring for their three young children.
“It’s a touristy area, we thought let’s put some pictures up, let’s put signs up so they know what we have, it as just a temporary sign, to kind of let everyone know we are here,” she said. “... but it did not get the response we were expecting.”
The backlash escalated earlier this month when the Lozanos arrived to find their awning tagged with red graffiti that appeared to read "seriously," prompting them to remove the AI images a few days later and repaint the facade at an estimated cost of more than $700.
SFGate notes that Grind & Unwind replaced Citrus Club, a Haight Street fixture for roughly three decades, which closed abruptly this spring, with many locals still lamenting its closure.
"We kind of jumped on the opportunity when the space became available," Lyndsey Lozano told SFGate. "It was a very, very fast turnaround, so people were like, 'What happened to the Citrus Club?'"
The owners have since replaced the AI posters with pastry displays and window lighting, and they reportedly plan to host community events such as pasta-making classes and paint-and-sip nights.
Image: Grizzizzle/Reddit
