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Smile! This Restaurant’s Two-Way Mirror Is Filming You Taking Selfies.

One New York City restaurant catches passersby taking selfies with its two-way mirror. (Photo: Instagram)
One New York City restaurant catches passersby taking selfies with its two-way mirror. (Photo: Instagram)

The Instagram-obsessed generation will do anything to get the perfect selfie. One New York City restaurant is intent on capturing just that — and the results are hysterical.

Le Turtle, a Lower East Side French eatery, is currently showcasing an Instagram series — dubbed #MirrorMonday — in which they upload videos of unsuspecting passersby who take advantage of the restaurant’s two-way mirror for selfies.

????consider this our gift to you #themegamix #leturtlemirror #mirrormonday ????

A post shared by Le Turtle (@leturtlenyc) on Dec 26, 2016 at 1:00pm PST

The mirror catches everything from teens perfecting their poses to people photographing their looks.

While the concept might embarrass those captured, the eatery does attach positive captions to some of the videos it posts. “It’s #mirrormonday and this weeks winner is extra on-brand with his pink sneakers. It takes a real man to wear #leturtlepink we salute you #leturtlemirror,” Le Turtle added to a video of a man caught sneaking pictures of his bright footwear.

The brain behind the concept is none other than Emma Swanson, a former server at the restaurant who currently posts social media content for the eatery.

“I started posting videos I took from the mirror on my personal account while I was a waitress there, and eventually one of the owners approached me about doing social media for the restaurant, largely because of those mirror videos,” she tells Yahoo Style. “I post a lot of other content for them, but the mirror videos are definitely the most fun — and what got me the job. I have tons of videos saved on my phone, plus sometimes current servers will send me pics of people they catch in the mirror, as I’m in L.A. now.”

The location of the restaurant largely influences the people that stop to check out the mirror.

“The corner where Le Turtle is located has a really crazy cross-section of people walking by, so we get a lot of characters. There are certain mirror “regulars” we would see often — this teenage boy who would stop to adjust his clothes and fix his hair in the mirror… to this odd man who appeared to come to practice monologues in the mirror,” she says.

2 way mirror selfies. She was at it for minutes. @taavosomer @leturtlenyc #leturtlemirror

A post shared by Tungsten Partners (@tungstenpartners) on Apr 8, 2016 at 2:43pm PDT

“Of course, a large number of people used the mirror to take selfies — not just to look at themselves,” Swanson shares. “The first video I posted for Le Turtle was this young woman, who was admittedly quite beautiful, taking really sultry selfies last winter. Instagram has a one-minute limit, so I couldn’t post the entire duration — but I have probably five minutes of footage of her taking a selfie.”

In fact, many passersby take more than a quick glance, spending a few minutes in front of the mirror gazing at their reflection.

“I would try to stick around to video someone’s entire time at the mirror, but sometimes people would spend so long I’d give up and leave before they did — after all, I was working at the restaurant too,” she shares.

The restaurant’s videos might make patrons think twice before checking themselves out in the mirror.

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