Recently, I tried a brunch spot whose raving TikTok reviews boasted phenomenal pancakes. The videos that flooded my feed that week deemed them “100% worth it” and “life changing.” But despite the buildup, I’ve had Eggo waffles 10 times better. Marketed as a must-try dish, I was left disappointed with a half-eaten meal and a bank account $23 lighter. 

Such viral TikTok dining destinations often seem to fall victim to the same lifecycle. It begins with the first phase: An influencer finds a trendy local spot that they deem a “hidden gem” to prey upon to gain more attention and posts a video about it. Phase two: The attention-hungry flood the establishment, hoping to get a taste of the newest thing and jump on the TikTok bandwagon before phase three: Its popularity dies within weeks. 

These trends ultimately result in a boom and bust from virality to irrelevancy that fails to build long term stability and an intimate community for food businesses. Of course, many diners chase this content to fit in with the trends — New York City’s plethora of immigrant cultures and what their accompanying cuisine has to offer cannot and should not be flattened into digestible media. Even in the diverse melting pot that is New York, originality becomes homogenized when businesses become subject to the aesthetics of the masses.

In an attempt to boost their customer base, many small businesses face increased pressure to become content creators themselves. The added workload can be to the detriment of the business owners, over 54% of whom struggle to keep up with social media’s incessant pace. 

The level of effort it takes for businesses to remain camera-ready on the off-chance an influencer strolls in takes a toll on its employees. They did not choose to be background actors in your favorite influencer’s vlog, yet they’re the ones paying for it with exhaustive service industry work paired with an involuntary, short-lived career on camera. 

Of course, some everyday customers do produce more honest review content, in which they share their restaurant horror stories. Yet one bad review from content creators — whether their audiences are big or small — can make or break a business, especially if they have troves of followers to back up their takes. 

NYU students stand at an intersection of city staples and up-and-coming fine dining establishments, with Manhattan alone hosting over six thousand food businesses. As young adults, who consume both immense amounts of social media content and often have to watch our own budgets, we understand that there’s a difference between trying a place out of sheer curiosity and making money off of new-restaurant content — even if at the expense of the establishment itself. 

Especially in a restaurant landscape as tumultuous as that of New York City — where restaurant closures seem to occur just as frequently as openings — real support for local food businesses has less to do with hopping on a trend at the peak of their popularity and more to do with consistently coming back to the places you enjoy. It requires treating it as an element of the neighborhood instead of something new for your Instagram feed, trying different menu items, being kind to the workers, not filming every single time you get your matcha whisked and maybe leaving a real comprehensive review online. 

If you order your meal and more than half the people there are taking food photos and leaving their plates nearly full, perhaps your experience has been clouded by the harmful mentality that food is only enjoyable if it can be neatly photographed. A hidden gem isn’t so hidden if the line is down the block — I’m looking at you, Caffe Paradiso. 

Of course, this desire to try the new cool thing is expected: Customers have been trained to want certain foods such as Dubai chocolate and Labubu cakes because of their status, rather than authentic desire. The best way to be a responsible patron is to routinely show up for the city’s restaurants — especially the small businesses that thrive on community building — in the city in all the non-viral, non-photogenic ways. 

WSN’s Opinion desk strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion desk are solely the views of the writer.

Contact Annika Wilewicz at [email protected].