Kai Crabb walked into Virtuoso Pizzeria in Omaha’s Benson neighborhood and ordered a slice of pepperoni and a Midwest best. As he waited for his food to come, he walked around the dimly lit pizzeria, using his phone to record the atmosphere. The pizzeria’s red walls are covered with years of memories and recognition from top newspapers.
He found a quiet corner, propped up his phone and started to record his reaction in front of the sizzling pizza slices. It’s become his regular routine each time he visits a new restaurant.
Crabb works a regular 9-5 job as an engineer, but his hobby reaches 17,000 followers across four social media platforms. More commonly known by his social media handle, Kai Big Back Eats, the Nebraska-based food influencer started his platform a year ago as a hobby.
Food influencers like Crabb are becoming the face of food marketing for many businesses.
A survey conducted by Brilli, an influencer insights tool, found that 73% of participants visited restaurants in the last three months after viewing a social media review. The influencers are blazing a new trail in food reviews – similar to newspaper dining reviews that used to drive new customers to local eateries.
Crabb doesn’t consider himself a certified foodie; he just enjoys eating good food and posting online.
“What do I know about food? Like I just like eating food,” Crabb said.
Ever since he was a kid, he liked creating videos for fun, and it stayed as a hobby. One day, Crabb’s dad suggested that he try food reviews online after viewing Scottie Eats’ content.
So Crabb started small, posting videos every day of him trying fast food items. He never set out to make a career out of it. Instead, he just wanted to pursue a hobby that combined his love of eating and creating videos.
Crabb’s setup is simple. He uses his phone, a microphone, a social media editing app called CapCut and occasionally Meta glasses. Usually he has his girlfriend or family members help him record. On the days that he is on his own, he has to get creative with recording. He describes his setup like “an iPad kid” using anything to prop up his cell phone to record.
When Crabb first started, he felt uncomfortable filming in public. He mainly ate his meals in his car. But he noticed an uptick in views when he ate local and began to follow what his viewers liked.
Most of his review videos came out of his own pocket money to buy items. Now, with a larger audience, Crabb is able to monetize his content and make some of the money back. The food influencer said he isn’t in it for the money, but to support local businesses.
“Food brings us together, and that's another reason I like doing it because you see all these comments of people have all these experiences – people debating each other. I really like seeing that because it means people are supporting our local spots,” Crabb said.
The food influencer tries to keep his videos positive and light-hearted, since he feels as though there is a lot of scary stuff in the world. He signs off his videos with a recurring joke to his viewers saying, “see you fatties later.”
“I think there's enough going on in the world that's scary and it's like just have fun, like joke around,” Crabb explained.
With a full-time job, he struggles to find time to fit reviews into his schedule. But he makes time for it in the evenings and on weekends. The process to create one video can take two to three days. Crabb takes a day to focus on voiceovers then another to edit his content.
But the Nebraska food scene hasn’t always been this vibrant with food influencers. Dan Hoppen first entered the food scene in 2015. He described Omaha at the time as a “steak, burgers and red sauce pasta” town. Over the past decade, he had witnessed the Omaha food scene become bold and diverse.
Hoppen describes himself not as a food influencer or critic, but as an Omaha restaurant advocate.
“My role is to talk about what I love in Omaha's local restaurant scene and highlight the people that are really doing it right, and allow people to make their own judgments based off of my pictures and what I write,” Hoppen said.
Hoppen first started his food journey in 2015 after his friends suggested he started a blog because of his love of food. Food was always something Hoppen loved. His mother was a great home cook and his favorite shows were on the Food Network.
Before the social media video reviews, the main format was blogging. People preferred writing and high-quality photos to help them select their dinner plans. Then in 2019, the main format shifted to podcasting. So Hoppen started the podcast “Restaurant Hoppen” under the same name as his blog. In his podcast, the focus shifted from food reviews to the stories behind the food. Now the most popular format is short-form video. The main focus is real-time reactions and showcasing food, even if you don’t really have anything substantial to say, according to Hoppen.
While the formats changed for food reviewers, restaurants followed suit, making changes to stay relevant. Many restaurants used to just have a website and maybe a Facebook page. Hoppen said with people’s shortening attention spans, restaurants have to do more to pique customers’ interest.
A growing trend in food marketing
While it’s more commercialized and mainstream now, influencers have been around for much longer, said Rob Simon, associate professor of practice in marketing, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Word of mouth or celebrity endorsements used to be the thing that brought in customers. For celebrities, it was just a way to make their presence known. This started to change in the early 2010s when social media and ecommerce began to grow.
Simon believes that influencers are so popular because they are more believable and have a personal touch. Social media gives viewers a personal link to the influencer that celebrities lack.
“Critics were chosen by editors because they had a lot of experience with food; influencers are chosen by the audience,” Simon said.
Simon said that social media isn’t an extra but a crucial element for businesses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many small businesses were able to thrive through their social media efforts. He even believes that AI agents will become important in the future for food influencers and restaurant owners for social media management.
Influencers drawing in business for some struggling shops
Near the corner of 26th and Superior streets in Lincoln, the European Grocery and Deli is tucked away in a strip mall. Inside the tiny store, you’ll find a rainbow of Fanta flavors, trendy realistic fruit desserts and various European goods.
Perhaps you have seen a video online of the small business, as it has an estimated 17,000 followers across its platforms. This business is full of life and has a revolving door of customers constantly filling the store. But it hasn't always been this way.
The European Grocery and Deli is one of the businesses that Crabb has reviewed on his platform. Dejan Posavljak was able to learn from Crabb how to create content for his family’s store. He also noted that more people began to come in after Crabb’s videos were published.
“It's become very important for restaurants to have people taking videos of their food, or making videos about their food,” Crabb said. “Because that's kind of what advertisement has become now.”
Posavljak, whose mom owns the store, said it used to be empty, and he would spend his days with his mom talking while waiting for customers to come. Some days they barely had 10 people show up in one day.
Then one day, a customer in passing mentioned using social media to help promote the business. About a year ago, 22-year-old Posavljakis posted his first video online for the business. It was a simple walkthrough of the store's items with no on-screen-text or trendy audio. He said the video “wasn’t good at all,” but to his surprise, it amassed 200,000 views in one night. Now Posavljak runs the social media pages for the business.
Crabb’s goal with his platform isn’t to become a full-time influencer and create a restaurant of his own but to support local businesses and bring people together through his videos. He wants to create videos so businesses can focus on making food, while he uses his influence to shine a light on their food.
“The biggest idea of all this is just supporting our local food spots,” Crabb said. “So as long as we're doing that, it's like I feel like we're doing the right thing.”