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Keith Lee at Taqueria Tlaxcalli in Parkchester, New York
By Paola Ortega
When TikTok restaurant influencer Keith Lee ordered a birria taco at Taqueria Tlaxcalli in Parkchester, New York, no one behind the counter — including long-time Chef Johnny Bautista —realized who they were serving.
And then things took a very unexpected turn!
Lee, who boasts more than 16 million followers and selects mom-and-pop restaurants based on followers’ suggestions, “blessed” this neighborhood restaurant in The Bronx with a January 19 post in which he praised the taco as one of the best he’d had in a long time.
“It was a crazy first two weeks when it happened,” manager Rosa Gomez recalls. “We had birria on the menu when birria started trending, but we didn’t really make it as much because it was something that wasn't selling, but after that video — because that was the food he spoke about — we had to quadruple our portions just so that we could keep up with the demand that was coming off of that.”
And if you wonder how much mileage a restaurant really gets from a single TikTok post, consider this: after Lee’s post, Taqueria Tlaxcalli’s follower count on TikTok surged from 20 to over a thousand, and enjoyed a boost from local press coverage, including a feature on News12.
A similar situation unfolded when he “blessed” Tacotlán in the Hermosa neighborhood on Chicago’s northwest side, with a rave review of the quesabirrias in July. Sales doubled daily, and the restaurant’s follower count skyrocketed from 27,000 to 33,000.
Jessica Perjes, co-founder of Tacotlán, says the impact from what’s been dubbed the “Keith Lee Effect,” was crucial for exposure.
“It was important in the sense that we needed to tell other people that maybe did not know about us that we’re even there in Chicago,” she says.
It’s clear that TikTok is a social media platform that Mexican restaurants should consider adding to their arsenal of promotional tools.
“The game has changed 100 percent,” says Perjes. “It’s not, ‘Should I do it?’ No, it’s, ‘You have to do it.’ You need to be everywhere that a customer is at.”
Tacotlan co-owners Jessica Perjes and her dad, Everardo Macias
Free Advertising
While other social media platforms charge marketing fees to reach a broader audience, TikTok doesn’t. Its algorithm ensures that your content is spread far and wide, making brand awareness and connecting with your target audience quite easy.
“It can be overwhelming for clients when they look at the menu,” Gomez explains. “If they're able to see the different foods that you have through social media, they can be like, ‘Oh, I want that,’ so that boosts sales for different food items.”
Sometimes it is easy to tell that someone is dining for the first time based on a TikTok post because they mention they found your restaurant on the platform, Gomez says. Other times, there might be clues that they’re not regulars.
“I feel like we could identify them by the fact that they don’t know the process or are looking around like they don’t know how to order,” Perjes says.
Simple Content Works
On TikTok, non-salesy and authentic content is essential for engaging existing customers and helping to attract new ones.
The process can be as simple as using your phone to film behind-the-scenes content and editing the video within the app, Perjes explains.
“I post my feelings, the food that we’re serving,” says Perjes. “I post specials, I post how busy we are at certain events, what events we’re being a part of; collaborating with other restaurants, what specials we have together. I’m constantly posting anything that happens on a daily basis.”
While being on the platform is important, Perjes emphasizes that it shouldn't be too time-consuming.
“I don’t overthink it at all,” she says. “I feel like if it looks good, if it makes me hungry and makes me want to come into the restaurant, then that’s what I post.”
Creating unfussy videos and participating in trends can help restaurants reach more people, but Gomez and Perjes believe that telling the story behind your business is what makes them stay.
“It’s still something very new to us and something we’re still trying to figure out,” shares Gomez. “Even though it can be a lot of work, I do think it's very important to use that platform to your advantage.”
Taqueria Tlaxcalli TikTok
“After Keith Lee came, my sister talked about her experience, how we were going to improve, anything that people were liking about how we handled our process, and that got over 300,000 views,” says Perjes. “The effect afterwards—people walking in through the door—that also got another 300,000 views.”
“There's so many of us, and in a way we’re all the same,” says Gomez. “But in the same way we’re also different. [TikTok] lets you showcase the kinds of qualities that make you stand out.”
And what if your first TikTok post doesn’t generate much buzz? Is it time to to call it a day?
Gomez stresses that an ongoing commitment to the platform is essential for success
“Like anything in life, you have to be very consistent and persistent,” says Gomez, who notes that it could be “one out of the million videos that you put out” that “will literally blow up!”
Paola Ortega is a Chicago-based writer and frequent contributor to el Restaurante.
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