Restaurants and hospitality
Social media videos and content for Long Island restaurants
Quick answer
Core Media Co., a photography and video studio at 523 Lake Avenue in Saint James, NY, makes monthly social media videos and photos for restaurants across Long Island: plates shot the way the kitchen sends them out, the line during service, the room, and the people who run it. Guests appear only with a signed release. Plans run $1,500 to $4,000 per month with a six-month minimum.
Updated
People choose a restaurant on their phone before they choose it on the street, and what decides it is the food, the room, and whether it looks like somewhere they want to be on a Friday night. We film your plates as they leave the pass, the kitchen at full speed, the bar, the room with the lights down, and the people who make it work, and hand over a month of Reels, photos, and captions cut for each platform.
We plan around service, not through it. Hero plates and the empty room are shot before doors open; the line, the bar, and the room in motion are shot during service without making a guest part of your advertising. You post the pieces, or hand them to whoever runs your accounts.
Who it is for
Who it is for
Any place where the food, the drinks, or the room is the reason people come.
Restaurants
New menus, the kitchen, the room, and the dishes people come back for.
Bars and wine bars
Cocktails, pours, and the room at night, inside the State Liquor Authority's rules on drink specials.
Cafes and bakeries
The morning bake, the pastry case, and the counter, filmed before the first customer.
Breweries, wineries, and tasting rooms
The brewhouse, the vineyard, and the tasting room, with the federal social media advertising rules for producers.
Caterers and food trucks
Tastings, setups, and the truck on the road, filmed with the host's and the venue's OK.
By kind of place
A page for each kind of place
The year each one follows, how we film that kind of place, a month on each tier, and the rules that apply to it.
- Bars and wine barsCocktails, pours, and the room at night, with drink specials worded inside the State Liquor Authority's rules and no one under 21 near a drink.
- Cafes and bakeriesThe morning bake, the pastry case, and latte art, filmed before the first customer, with claims like gluten-free used the way the FDA defines them.
- Breweries, wineries, and tasting roomsThe brewhouse, the vineyard through the season, and the tasting room, with the federal rules that make a producer's posts advertising.
- Caterers and food trucksTastings, setups filmed before the guests arrive, and the truck on the road, with the host's and the venue's OK first.
Through the year
A restaurant year, in content
Menus change, patios open, and holidays fill the book. The calendar puts each piece out ahead of the night it is for.
Restaurant Week
Long Island Restaurant Week, by its organizer's account, runs three times a year: fall since 2006, spring since April 2011, and winter since January 2016. The organizer lists the fall 2026 edition as November 1 to November 8, 2026. Prix fixe pieces are filmed ahead of each edition.
Spring
The new menu, Mother's Day, and the first warm nights on the patio.
Summer
Patios, outdoor bars, and the dishes people drive out east for, filmed in the evening light.
Fall and the holidays
The fall menu, private parties and holiday bookings, gift cards, and New Year's Eve, posted weeks ahead.
Winter
Comfort dishes, the bar on a slow night, and the kitchen team, while the book is quieter.
The work
What we make for a restaurant
Pieces that make someone hungry and show them who is cooking.
The plate, as it leaves the pass
Hero shots and slow pours of the dishes people order most, plated by your kitchen the way they go to the table.
The line during service
Flames, plating, and the expo calling tickets, filmed from where the chef puts us.
The chef or owner on a dish
Where an ingredient comes from and why it is cooked that way, a minute at a time.
The room
The space empty and lit before doors, and in motion during service with no guest made recognizable.
The team
Servers, bartenders, cooks, and dishwashers, one at a time, with a signed release. It doubles as hiring content.
Menus and specials
A new menu, Restaurant Week, or a holiday prix fixe, cut as a carousel and a short Reel, with prices only as you write them.
On site
How we film a restaurant
Your guests came to eat, not to be in an ad. These are the terms.
- Hero plates and the empty room are shot before service, so nobody waits on a camera.
- During service, guests are kept unrecognizable: backs, hands, soft focus, or out of frame. Anyone who is recognizable signs a release first.
- Staff appear only with a signed release, and anyone who does not want to be on camera is not.
- In the kitchen we stand where the chef puts us, stay off the line, and follow the kitchen's hair and hygiene rules.
- Every dish is plated by your kitchen as it is served. No props, no ingredients the dish does not have, and no grade that changes the color of the food.
- Children in the dining room are never filmed recognizably without a parent's written consent.
A content month
What a month looks like
Examples of how each tier tends to fill for a restaurant. The content calendar sets the real mix around your menu and your book.
Partner
$1,500 per month
One content day, usually the afternoon before service into the first hour of it. Four to six finished pieces, for example two plate Reels, a line-during-service piece, a chef explainer, and a carousel of the menu, delivered within 5 business days.
Partner+
$2,750 per month
Two content days, one on food and one on the room and the team during service. One long form video of 5 to 10 minutes, such as the chef walking through a new menu, ten short form pieces, and three to four static or carousel posts. 3 business day turnaround.
Flagship
$4,000 per month
A weekly presence through the year, with event coverage included, such as a wine dinner, a menu launch, or New Year's Eve: 16+ finished pieces a month and 48 hour turnaround.
Pricing
Monthly partnership pricing
The same three tiers every business pays, whatever the trade. Partner is $1,500, Partner+ is $2,750, and Flagship is $4,000 per month, each with a six-month minimum term, then month to month.
Partner
$1,500per month- 1 content day per month
- 4 to 6 finished pieces per month
- Your office or our studio
- Monthly content calendar
- 5 business day turnaround
- Event coverage as an add-on
- Strategy session at onboarding
Partner+
Recommended$2,750per month- 2 content days per month
- 1 long form video of 5 to 10 minutes, 10 short form pieces, and 3 to 4 static or carousel posts per month
- Your office or our studio
- Monthly content calendar
- 3 business day turnaround
- Event coverage as an add-on
- Strategy session at onboarding
Flagship
$4,000per month- Weekly presence
- 16+ finished pieces per month
- Your office and our studio, plus events
- Monthly content calendar
- 48 hour turnaround
- Event coverage included
- Quarterly strategy session
| Tier | What is included | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Partner |
| $1,500per month |
| Partner+Recommended |
| $2,750per month |
| Flagship |
| $4,000per month |
Every tier includes shooting, editing, captions, platform cuts, and a shared delivery folder. You own the finished work, with no usage restrictions. Six-month minimum term, then month to month.
Your side
What your restaurant provides
We do the planning, filming, editing, and captions. These stay with you.
- The dishes for each content day, plated by your kitchen as they are served.
- A window before service, and a heads up on menu changes and events.
- Staff willing to be on camera, and a signed release from each of them.
- Prices and menu wording exactly as you want them published.
- Someone to post the finished pieces and answer the comments and messages they bring in.
Rules
Rules that shape restaurant content
What the food in an ad has to be, who can appear in one, reviews, and music.
The plate shown is the plate served
New York's General Business Law section 350 declares false advertising in the conduct of any business unlawful, and section 350-a defines it as advertising that is misleading in a material respect, judged by representations made by statement, word, design, device, sound, or any combination of them. A plate styled with something the kitchen does not serve, or a portion bigger than the one on the menu, is that kind of representation. We film the dish as your kitchen sends it out.
Guests and staff on camera
New York's Civil Rights Law section 50 makes it a misdemeanor to use a living person's name, portrait, picture, likeness, or voice for advertising or trade without their written consent, and section 51 lets that person sue to stop the use and recover damages. A diner at the next table is covered as much as your staff, so anyone recognizable in a piece has signed a release, and everyone else is kept unrecognizable.
Comped meals and reviews
The FTC's rule on fake reviews and testimonials, announced August 14, 2024, bans fake reviews, rewards conditioned on a positive review, and undisclosed reviews from your own staff. A guest who speaks on camera does so unpaid and unscripted, and a meal comped for a creator is never conditioned on what they say.
Music needs a license for business use
Meta's Music Guidelines, which apply on Instagram and Facebook, say that using music for commercial or non-personal purposes is prohibited unless you have the appropriate licenses. We cut every piece to music licensed for it, or to none.
- Source: Meta, Music Guidelines
A plain reading of each rule with its source, not legal advice. We are not your compliance department, and we do not pretend to be. Your compliance team or counsel has the final word on every piece.
Questions
Questions restaurants ask us
- Who makes social media videos for restaurants on Long Island?
- Core Media Co., a photography and video studio at 523 Lake Avenue in Saint James, NY. We film plates, the kitchen, the room, and the team at restaurants across Suffolk and Nassau County, and hand over a month of finished Reels, photos, and captions. Plans run $1,500 to $4,000 per month with a six-month minimum.
- How much does social media content cost for a restaurant?
- Partner is $1,500, Partner+ is $2,750, and Flagship is $4,000 per month, each with a six-month minimum term, then month to month. Partner is 1 content day and 4 to 6 finished pieces a month. Partner+ is 2 content days, 1 long form video of 5 to 10 minutes, 10 short form pieces, and 3 to 4 static or carousel posts. Flagship is a weekly presence with 16+ pieces and event coverage included. The tiers are the same for a restaurant as for any other business.
- Can you film during service without bothering our guests?
- Yes. Hero plates and the empty room are shot before doors open. During service we film the line, the bar, and the room with guests kept unrecognizable, and anyone who is recognizable signs a release first, which New York's Civil Rights Law section 50 requires for advertising use.
- Do you style the food?
- Your kitchen plates every dish the way it is served, and we light and frame it. We add nothing the dish does not have and do not change its color in the edit, because a plate that looks different from the one a guest receives is the kind of representation New York's false advertising law covers.
- What should a restaurant post before Restaurant Week?
- The prix fixe menu as a carousel, the two or three dishes on it that photograph best as short Reels, and the room, filmed a week or two ahead. Long Island Restaurant Week's organizer lists the fall 2026 edition as November 1 to November 8, 2026.
- Do you post to our accounts or run our ads?
- No. We make the content and hand it over ready to post: the finished files and their captions, cut for each platform, in a shared folder. You post them, or pass them to whoever runs your accounts. We do not post, boost posts, or run ads, and we do not promise follower numbers.
Keep reading
- Business Instagram contentWhat we make, what you still do, and what it takes to build a business Instagram.
- Event coverageAn opening, a seminar, or a community event, on a three hour base.
- For BusinessThe monthly partnership in full, and how the work is structured for compliance review.
- PricingEvery package and plan in one place, with the minimums stated.
Book a call
Book a 20-minute call.
Tell us what you are trying to do. If it is a fit, we send an agreement and pick a date.
Prefer to write? Send us a note at studio@thecoremedia.co
Saint James, NY 11780studio@thecoremedia.co
Based in Saint James. Working across Smithtown, Huntington, Port Jefferson, and all of Suffolk and Nassau County.