How to use restaurant influencers

Social media has become an integral part of restaurants, both in terms of in-house content creation and general promotion. It’s a necessary evil and a powerful marketing tool. (It also might be ruining modern food media.) So, how should your restaurant be using it?

Before you raise your menu prices, we’ve got some expert tips on how to increase the cost without alienating your customer base.

Plus, can you guess the top skill hiring managers are looking for in new restaurant hires? 

Walk-ins welcome? Walk-in diners are the heartbeat of many restaurants, but often, because of the uncertainty involved, some restaurants don’t offer seats to anyone who doesn’t have a reservation. According to one NYC restaurateur, all the best restaurants accommodate walk-ins “because it’s really not in our nature to say no.”

Remote control. The line is beginning to blur between café and office, so why not turn your restaurant into a coworking space? The tables and private rooms are already there, and most importantly, so are the food and drinks. 

Bottle shock. Restaurants around the country are bracing for a potential 200% markup on European wine. President Trump argues his proposed tariff would incentivize American wine consumption, but that doesn't jive with one restaurateur: “When you want orange juice in the morning, and someone runs out of orange juice because it’s more expensive, you don’t just consume the same amount of apple juice.”

Going viral. Gone are the days of intermittently posting an impressively composed dish on Facebook. Today, many restaurants are feeling the stress of having to be full-time content creators. 

Wedding alterations. More couples are ditching wedding venues for restaurants. Who needs all the stress of catering, decorating and rentals when you can party (and eat great food!) in a charming (already furnished!) location? 

As more restaurants lean on influencers and content creators to promote their business, it’s important for restaurateurs to understand the nuances associated with collaborating with a social media heavyweight.

Conner Cayson, a.k.a. @findmeinseattle, is a content creator who has amassed more than 40,000 followers showcasing some of the city’s best spots, and that often includes restaurants.

If you’re thinking of reaching out to someone like him for promotional help, consider these tips. 

Does it make restaurants look desperate when they reach out to you?
I’d say almost every restaurant owner is feeling a little desperate right now. But the issue isn’t about them reaching out, rather how they ask and what they ask for. It's a smart business decision to collaborate with locals to promote their product.  

What should restaurants expect when they invite you in?
I prefer to experience the restaurant like a regular customer. Special treatment, especially when it comes to display and plating, is not encouraged. The last thing I want to do is set false expectations for a potential customer of what they will get. If the restaurant is comping the food, the best situation is to get a gift card and show up on my own schedule.

Where do restaurants go wrong with content creators?
Undervaluing their work, and not advertising/boosting the content afterwards.

What's the one piece of advice you have for restaurants considering inviting a content creator in for a meal?The number of followers is a horrible metric to judge someone on. The woman with 500 followers can drive just as much business as the guy with 50,000. 

Every week or month, invite someone in for a comped meal. Mix up the invite list. Yes, ask the big influencers in town, but the best value will be the “micro influencers.” Maybe it's the person with 400 followers, but they like all your posts, or they have 2,000 followers and are still early in their career as a creator. Those people will be so excited to receive that invite and will be more likely to promote your business. 

The No.1 skill hiring managers want in employees

Good news for restaurants: employment is higher than it’s been in years. In 2023, roughly 16.8 million people were employed in the hospitality industry in the U.S., according to Alice Cheng, CEO of Culinary Agents, a NYC-based hiring platform and recruiting firm. And she says early predictions expect 2025 to surpass pre-COVID levels.  

Cheng tells Radio Cherry Bombe the reason for that is pretty straight-forward. "Restaurants started focusing more on growth versus just recovery."  

She also gives insight into the top restaurant jobs currently in-demand—line cook for BOH, server for FOH—and the top skill most requested by hiring managers: communication.  

"You need to work in high pressure environments, in dangerous environments,” Cheng says. “In order to have good teamwork and get on the same page, you need to be able to communicate."  

The biggest change Cheng says she has seen since she launched her agency in 2012 is a professional evolution of the restaurant industry.

"We are seeing many more intentional career folks." Even just the enthusiastic way people talk about restaurants, Cheng says, is an indicator of the overall food scene shaping lifestyle and culture in a more robust way.

Why it Matters: Having data related to the job market not only makes it easier for restaurateurs to gauge the competition, it also allows industry job seekers an opportunity to understand the employment landscape and what hiring managers are looking for. "The more data that's available," says Cheng, "the more people can make decisions for themselves as to whether this is [the industry] for them or not." (Radio Cherry Bombe)

Dos and don’ts of raising menu prices

It’s a last resort for many restaurants, but raising menu prices is inevitable with today’s unstable economy. And there are ways to do it without alienating customers.

First, raising prices should be a last resort. “If you can’t back up the reason for the charge, people will consider it as potentially being dishonest or greedy,” says Hillary Holmes, senior partnership manager for restaurant commerce engine Olo. And make sure to be transparent about price hikes—that includes telling your customers and your team.

Next, make strategic changes. If you’re really paying attention, you can enact a price hike at the same time you update your menu. “People get excited about new offerings, and so it becomes less about the price and more about what’s new on the menu, and that can offset straight sticker shock,” says Holmes.

Finally, analyze sales data and customer feedback. “Any modern POS solution will enable you to look at daily sales reports for specific dishes to analyze the impact of raising restaurant menu prices,” says Back of House consultant Dan Durkin.Why it Matters: If you haven’t noticed, it’s more expensive than ever to run a restaurant. Food costs are on the rise, as are labor costs. And on top of that, restaurants have to deal with ongoing threats of crippling tariffs. Higher menu prices are a symptom of an uncertain economic outlook, but there is a balance to be struck between raising prices and keeping customer loyalty. (Back of House)

Is social media ruining food culture?

Back when Food Network, not TikTok, was spawning the next celebrity chef, there was storytelling, nuanced personalities and, perhaps most importantly, authenticity. Has our current obsession with bite-sized information ruined food media?

“The problem with this new-wave food culture is that it diminishes the depth, history and appreciation for food that the culinary greats and legends cultivated,” says Ryan Pham, columnist for The Daily Tar Heel. 

Pham argues that the classic approaches of people such as Martha Stewart and Wolfgang Puck have been replaced by digestible content, which isn’t doing much to foster the next generation of great chefs.

Why it Matters: There is a demand for chefs who can create content that is inspiring to young gourmands, while satisfying appetites for easy meal prep. This requires chefs who can combine necessity with cuisine exploration and history, as opposed to filling our timelines with, as Pham puts it, “content focused solely on output, rushing from Point A to Point B without savoring the journey.” (The Daily Tar Heel) 

69%

Consumers who choose restaurants based solely on food quality. (Statista)

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“We hire people who have a natural proclivity for hospitality; it’s in their DNA.”

– Arjav Ezekiel, co-owner of acclaimed restaurant Birdies in Austin, TX, on hiring for personality, not skill set.

(🎧Chef's PSA) 

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