New York restaurants are being bombarded with requests by self-declared \u201cinfluencers\u201d for free food \u2014 but are getting wise to many just being scammers.<\/p>\n
After\u00a0wannabe food influencer\u00a0<\/a>Pei Chung walked out on bills totaling over $4,000 at Williamsburg hotspots last month, restaurant staffers across the city are coming forward to expose the shocking demands made by status-chasing, social-media menaces.<\/p>\n Even small restaurants and coffee shops in the city say they get inundated with requests from people claiming to be food influencers, ranging from one or two to \u201cdozens\u201d daily.<\/p>\n Some have the cheek to request\u00a0$300-plus Krug magnums<\/a>\u00a0of Champagne, others expect hundreds of dollars in\u00a0free food to showcase the venue in online posts \u2014 and to boost their own personal brands.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are too many influencers at this point who reap the benefits of coming in and getting free food because they\u2019re \u2018posting.\u2019<\/p>\n Small restaurants and coffee shops like No Nazar Cafe in the East Village, seen here, say they get inundated with requests from people claiming to be food influencers, ranging from two to \u201cdozens\u201d every day. EMMY PARK<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s become a way of getting free stuff from businesses \u2014 it\u2019s not free to us,\u201d\u00a0Rupsi Shrestha, owner of No Nazar Cafe,<\/a>\u00a0a chai and coffee shop in the East Village, told The Post.<\/p>\n Unlike food reviewers from major publications who always pay for their food and dine anonymously, and well-established food accounts online, most problems arise with \u201cmicro influencers\u201d who tend to have up to 50,000 followers and trade food for exposure on their accounts.<\/p>\n Fed up John Truong, owner of Chef Papa Vietnamese Kitchen in Long Island City, Queens, explained how this can easily go wrong.<\/p>\n He says he was approached\u00a0by influencer Fahmida Sultana (@Medesoo0),<\/a>\u00a0who approached the restaurant in September with a proposition \u2014 free food in exchange for a reel posted to her 45,000 followers.<\/p>\n Chef Papa Vietnamese Kitchen in Long Island City and No Nazar Cafe in the East Village claim they have been scammed by influencer Fahmida Sultana, who has 45,000 followers and agreed to post a reel for free food. Chef Papa Vietnamese Kitchen<\/p>\n He was at first skeptical as Sultana usually posts about beauty products, but decided to give her a chance.<\/p>\n \u201cShe came in, I ran through the whole menu and said she can order whatever she wants,\u201d Truong told The Post, explaining she then ordered five entrees, two appetizers and four drinks totaling around $200.<\/p>\n After the meal, Truong says Sultana thanked him and said she\u2019d had a great experience, then that was the last he heard.<\/p>\n It was only after he posted a video calling Sultana out and saying she only left a $6 tip in November that she finally responded \u2014 with a scathing and since-deleted review.<\/p>\n \u201cUs business owners rely on influencers to get exposure \u2026 we trusted this person to come in to record a video and I feel like she scammed us,\u201d Troung said in his video.<\/p>\n Rupsi Shrestha, owner of No Nazar Cafe,\u00a0said Sultana agreed in a message to post about her cafe, then ghosted her when she followed up after hosting her and a friend. EMMY PARK<\/p>\n Stratis Morfogen and one of his empoyees at Diner24. He now says no to most influencers who ask him for free food. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n Sultana said \u201cmiscommunication and lack of urgency \u2026 led to an unfilled collaboration,\u201d\u00a0in a statement on social media,<\/a>\u00a0but did not respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n The truth is social media hugely influences modern dining choices. According to a survey,\u00a098 million diners,\u00a0or 58% of all US TikTok users, have visited a restaurant after seeing it on the platform, an increase of almost a third since 2022, data from a January\u00a0survey by marketing agency MGH shows.<\/a><\/p>\n And 50% of people say food content they see on the app motivates their restaurant choices, according to the same survey.<\/p>\n Smaller businesses, especially when they start up, feel they have to engage when they can and hope the exposure leads to a boost in foot traffic. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven people with little-to-no following have the same expectation as someone with a big following. It\u2019s a big problem for the industry.<\/p>\n John Truong, owner of Chef Papa Vietnamese Kitchen in Queens, told The Post he agreed to comp a meal for Sultana who ordered five entrees, two appetizers and four drinks totaling around $200, but she never posted about the eatery. Chef Papa Vietnamese Kitchen<\/p>\n \u201cRestaurant owners feel the need to follow suit [with others]. But you risk the chance of [influencers] lashing out against you,\u201d Jason Kaplan, a New York-based restaurant consultant, told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone with a phone can become an influencer. It\u2019s the same situation we had in the early days of Yelp. Everybody became a food critic.\u201d<\/p>\n Restaurateur Stratis Morfogen, who\u00a0owns 24-hour Gramercy diner, Diner 24,<\/a>\u00a0told The Post he\u2019s been scammed by faux influencers but he\u2019s learned how to\u00a0vet\u00a0them before dishing out gratis grub, and encourages other businesses to do the same.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I can identify 80% of their followers, likes and comments are fake, or bought [we won\u2019t engage with them],\u201d Morfogen told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the fraud we experience, these \u2018influencers,\u2019 who demand free meals for this one big lie,\u201d Morfogen said, adding he\u2019s been approached for free meals for up to four guests per influencer.<\/p>\n \u201cI say no. We don\u2019t pay for posts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are too many influencers at this point who reap the benefits of coming in and getting free food because they\u2019re \u2018posting,’\u201d Shrestha told The Post. EMMY PARK<\/p>\n However, the reach of social media is strong, and taking a hard line with \u201cmicro influencers\u201d has backfired.<\/p>\n In July, San Francisco chef Luke Sung was canceled after a confrontation with Karla Marcotte (@Itskarlabb) in his wine bar, Kis Caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n Sung had asked how many followers Marcotte had while she was dining and after she pulled up her profile to show 15,000, he criticized her, saying she did not have a big enough following to justify him giving her free food. At the time he was unaware his business partner had organized for Marcotte to dine.<\/p>\n Her viral\u00a0detailing of her\u00a0upset led to huge backlash and the eventual closure of Kris Cafe.<\/p>\n Shrestha said she\u2019s approached by a couple of people every day asking for a \u201ccollaboration.\u201d She also had a bad run in with Sultana, who had approached her saying she was \u201ca big foodie,\u201d but never held up her end of the bargain and posted about the caf\u00e9. \u00a0<\/p>\n According to a survey,\u00a098 million diners,\u00a0or 58% of all US TikTok users, have visited a restaurant after seeing it on the platform, an increase of almost a third since 2022, data from marketing agency MGH shows. EMMY PARK<\/p>\n \u201cSince then, we\u2019ve been very careful with who we collaborate with,\u201d Shrestha told The Post, noting her cafe does not have the budget to pay for posts, though she\u2019s regularly\u00a0approached by influencers<\/a>\u00a0who ask for between $500 to $3,000 just to be featured.<\/p>\n \u201cBusinesses [like ours] need to pay their rent. The coffee is not made by itself. We need the espresso, the milk, the ice, labor,\u201d Shrestha said, noting that other influencers have also taken advantage of her generosity.<\/p>\n \u201cRestaurant owners feel the need to follow suit [with others]. But you risk the chance of [influencers] lashing out against you,\u201d Jason Kaplan, a New York-based restaurant consultant, told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember another influencer wanted three drinks for free when we only offered two. She insisted several times [for us] to give one more drink. That was frustrating for us, but we have to do it for good customer service,\u201d Shrestha explained.<\/p>\n At\u00a0seasonal Greek restaurant Calissa\u00a0Hamptons<\/a>\u00a0in Water Mill, owner James Mallios told The Post an influencer once scoffed at a free, $60 bottle of Veuve Clicquot he gifted as a courtesy and instead demanded a bottle of bubbles priced over $300.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey demanded a vintage Krug magnum claiming, \u2018You said a bottle of Champagne,\u2019\u201d Malios recalled of the incident that happened this past summer.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had lots of followers,\u201d he said of feeling obligated to comply with the request.<\/p>\n Calissa\u00a0Hamptons\u00a0owner, James Mallios, told The Post an influencer once scoffed at a free, $60 bottle of Veuve Clicquot he gifted as a courtesy \u2014 and instead demanded a bottle of bubbles priced over $300.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brooklyn restaurateurs have been on high alert since now-viral Williamsburg dine-and-dasher Pei Chung was arrested eight times, almost all in the same week, for posing as a food influencer and refusing to pay.\u00a0 lu.pychung\/instagram<\/p>\n Chung is\u00a0currently being held on Rikers Island\u00a0and is to undergo a court-ordered mental health evaluation. lu.pychung\/instagram<\/p>\n The influencer \u2014 with more than 20,000 followers \u2014 did post. However, Malios said it\u2019s unclear how much it really impacted his business. Over the busiest three months of the year\u00a0during the summer, he says he fields around 100 requests from wannabes and influencers, but his \u201ceyes gloss over after a few dozen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Brooklyn restaurateurs have been on high alert since now-viral accused Williamsburg dine-and-dasher Pei Chung was arrested eight times, almost all in the same week, for posing as a food influencer at restaurants like Peter Luger, Francie and Meadowsweet and refusing to pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chung is\u00a0currently being held on Rikers Island<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>and is to undergo a court-ordered mental health evaluation.<\/p>\n Meanwhile,\u00a0Kaplan explained the difference between food influencers and professional reviewers, urging social media viewers to take note that making a pretty video doesn\u2019t qualify someone as a critic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hope is you have a food critic that actually knows food. The problem is many of these influencers are not consistent. If you\u2019re reviewing steakhouses, order the same thing at every steakhouse. Anyone that reviews food needs to have an expertise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, what goes around also comes around. <\/p>\n Since making his video calling out Sultana, Truong at Chef Papa said his following has exploded and he gets dozens of requests to feature his restaurant daily \u2014 many from influencers who felt bad about Sultana\u2019s takedown and vowed to do a proper review.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York restaurants are being bombarded with requests by self-declared \u201cinfluencers\u201d for free food \u2014 but are getting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[289,4686,232,9,56,63,65,64,821,10693,4015],"class_list":["post-59515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-food-drink","tag-influencers","tag-lifestyle","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-restaurants","tag-scams","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}