How TikTok Can Make (or Break) L.A.’s Restaurants
On Aug. 23, food content creator Kevin Noparvar (known by his handle @how.kev.eats) posted a review of the newly opened Danny Boy’s Pizza in Westwood, chowing down on cheese and pepperoni slices in his car while calling it “some of the best pizza I’ve had in L.A.” The video racked up (as of press time) 2.2 million views on TikTok and another 1 million on Instagram.
Cut to two weeks later, Noparvar says, “and the owner [chef Daniel Holzman] was like, ‘Dude, I had to hire more people. I could not keep up; there isn’t enough space to make as many pizzas as the orders we’re getting in.’ ” The creator adds, “I have story upon story upon story of these.”
Food influencers are changing the way Hollywood eats, determining the next hot reservation or must-have bite with the post of a single video. Noparvar — who has 3.4 million TikTok followers — joins Rick Lox and Jack’s Dining Room as some of L.A.’s top social media foodie accounts, all of which are having a profound impact on the city’s dining scene.
Jack Goldburg — who is the face of @jacksdiningroom with more than a million followers on both TikTok and Instagram — has plenty of his own stories about restaurants exploding in popularity after his posts, including Larchmont’s Le Coupe (“They literally had to hire three new people and stay two hours later”), Santa Monica’s Layla Bagels and beloved West L.A. taco stand Brothers Cousins.
“It’s a win-win,” Goldburg says. “They’re super stoked to have us come in and try their food, and they love to see the content that we make. And then after the content goes up, they’re always swarmed.” He also emphasizes that “one thing that’s important to me in the end is we never promote negativity. If we don’t like something, we won’t post it,” particularly when it comes to smaller establishments.
This crop of creators largely rejects the title of food critic, though Noparvar and Rick Lox both score restaurants on a 1-to-10 scale. Noparvar says he refuses to accept free food or have any conversations with an owner before a review so he can remain objective. Adam Alper — the creator behind the @ricklox account, with more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and 200,000 on TikTok — says he usually pays, but if they insist, “I tell the restaurant ahead of time that even though this is comped, I’m going to give my 100 percent honest opinion on things. If you guys are not OK with that, then I’ll kindly pass on coming in.”
Alper doesn’t claim to have the food background to be considered a critic “in the way of Jonathan Gold at the L.A. Times or Pete Wells at The New York Times,” but “I think people are turning more so to the food content creators, as opposed to the actual food writers, to steer their food decisions.”
And how do the city’s restaurateurs feel about the success of their business being subject to a 60-second social media video? That’s a more complicated answer.
Chef Dom Crisp, who is behind The Lonely Oyster in Echo Park, admits he was previously “with the whole crowd of, ‘Oh, I think food influencers are silly; they’re just kind of benefiting from the restaurants without doing any of the work,’ ” but after meeting some of them, he jokes, “Consider me a changed man.”
The chef, who says he’s willing to work with creators to trade comped meals for posts, credits them for their ability to “create that kind of longing to be here.”
Other restaurateurs are quicker to point out the downsides of going viral. Even — or especially — when reviews are positive, businesses often aren’t prepared for the rush that follows. Explains chef Johnny Ray Zone of influencer-favored Howlin’ Rays (which has locations in Chinatown and Pasadena), “It can be hard for the mom-and-pop restaurants who are serving let’s say 60 customers a day, and then all of a sudden they have a line of like 1,000 people.”
Apollonia’s Pizzeria in Mid-City has been a prime example of that, as content creators — including Barstool’s pizza czar Dave Portnoy — repeatedly have lauded it as a top L.A. slice.
“They say be careful what you ask for; right now we’re dealing with that,” chef and co-owner Justin De Leon says. “Some people think it’s a slow pizzeria that can kill you. For us, our busiest moments have had my staff on edge: ‘Enough is enough.’ There’s no end in sight, and when you’re too busy, that can also have people reevaluate what they really want to do.”
For years, Apollonia’s operated as a local pizzeria, but after going viral on multiple occasions, De Leon says, “Unfortunately, we’ve lost a lot of our neighborhood customers because of the power of a review,” with lines often down the block. He’s also had lots of creators ask for free meals in exchange for posting, which he’s firmly against.
“There are some who like to reach out and use the word ‘collab,’ but from where I’m standing, there’s nothing collab about it,” De Leon adds. “It’s more about a free meal … especially in L.A., you don’t know who can be a serious critic.”
Either way, their impact cannot be denied, and food influencers (like mega influencer Keith Lee) don’t appear to be slowing down. Says Goldburg — who launched his Yes Chef food festival in NYC this summer and plans to bring it to L.A. in 2025 — “Obviously there are places that are institutions with or without content creators, but there are plenty of places that haven’t been heard of. You have the right content creator or influencer coming in to do a video, and it becomes like the new spot. Videos can reach millions of people in 24 hours — magazines, TV, any other form of advertising would never be able to deliver the impact that these apps and people have overnight.”
This story appeared in the Oct. 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
