Kis invited that girl to do a collaboration, and when she showed up Luke Sung humiliated her unprovoked. What’s the criticism here? Weird responses IMO
A-Side on 19th Street in SF charges $18 for a slice of Carrot Cake!
I’ll stay home and bake my own cake.
According to SF Eater. Chef Sung questioned the abilities of Karla, the content creator, who was invited by the staff, not Chef. Karla did not respond to questions from SF Examiner and the Examiner appears to doubt her ability to competently judge the restaurant. Clearly, Chef should have been more polite and diplomatic but should an apparent incompetent like Karla, under our current system, have the power to destroy a restaurant and throw its staff out of work? I say no.
As Wundreman wrote in the Examiner, “The very business of influencing can lead to breaking points such as this, because it enables a shift in food critique away from researched reviews to bought-and-paid-for “recommendations” from people who lack the qualifications to be making them.”
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Meh…social media WTF.
Are there spoiled/entitled influencers out there? Yes. But all this girl did was accept an invitation, show up, and receive an unprovoked attack. She didn’t destroy the restaurant and throw the staff out of work, Luke Sung did. Let’s not lose the plot here.
“Unprovoked attack?” I don’t think so. Sung criticized Karla within earshot and questioned her ability. Karla didn’t claim she was attacked but that she was “disrepected.” If the outcome of her recap was not to damage the restaurant, , she should have stood up for the right of Kis to exist and defended it, the cancelled collaboration notwithstanding. The “crime” did not fit the punishment. Has Karla responded to any of the inquiries made of her? Not that I know of.
I have been posting on Chowhound and HungryOnion for 15 years or more but I have never engaged in a collaboration or posted a first-hand substantive critique of a restaurant because I know the undeserved damage it might cause.
SF Examiner:
After pulling up her profile and seeing she had 15,000, he criticized her within her earshot, saying the collaboration was a mistake and that she didn’t have enough followers to justify it. Karla said he then approached her, questioned whether she’d researched the restaurant, and implied her audience couldn’t afford to dine there. He also reportedly bragged that his daughter had 600,000 TikTok followers. Feeling “disrespected,” Karla canceled the collab, walked out, and recorded a five-minute recap that went far more viral than the original promo ever could have. It earned 21 million views, and sparked such a strong backlash against Kis Cafe that the bar closed permanently on Monday, July 28.
Karla didn’t even name the restaurant or the chef in her video. She never asked for any sort of justice or retribution. The internet did that on its own. If you’re mad the restaurant got “canceled”, your problem is with the internet, not Karla. Unless you think she has the power to make millions of random online people bend to her will, the outcome was out of her control.
I can understand someone having disdain for internet/influencer culture, but don’t project it onto this one girl, who as far as I can tell, did nothing wrong.
I don’t have disdain for internet culture. Over the years I have posted probably 1000’s of videos and, to varying degrees, they are an important voice which I have tried to support
Her followers quickly determined it was Kis and her details that it was a new Hayes Valley wine bar with food, no website yet, with a Michelin-starred chef narrowed it down to one.
I don’t know what the terms of the “collaboration” were, but it may have been a free meal for two in return for coverage arranged by the staff or an agent, not the chef. Chef had the right to yank that deal.
The results, I believe were predictable and there are many restaurants that have gone under in nearly similar circumstances.
What I don’t find appealing, I believe, is that Karla portrays herself as some sort of victim even though her trauma is real. She is not entitled to a guarantee of a free meal. New restaurants in SF do not have a great chance of success and it has made owners and chefs understandably skittish. I didn’t see any empathy from Karla for the result which she initiated and I hold her responsible.
When MacKenzie Fegan of SF Chronicle had her encounter with Keller at French Laundry, she sat down with him, explained that her visit was not a review, and they worked it out. Keller then offered to comp the meal, which Fegan declined.
What Karla could have done is too post a video describing the perils and pitfalls of her creative pursuits as a lesson to other creators or her followers, making sure that there were no details that would sink a new enterprise. That she didn’t do and she appears not to care.
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“I was condescending, hurtful, and intimidating. You did not deserve to be made to feel less than or unimportant, nobody does” - Luke Sung’s own words to Karla.
If you don’t think Karla is an actual victim, then we’re just gonna agree to disagree on that. I feel the onus is on Luke Sung to not be nasty to someone the restaurant invited, who was just there doing her agreed upon job. You seem to think the onus is on Karla for not taking the nastiness and keeping her mouth shut so Kis could make it as a business.
Why do you think Karla has to care about or protect Kis and their reputation? Especially after their shabby treatment of her. She doesn’t work there, she’s not a partner. Seems like a weird duty to impose on her. I have no problem with her speaking her truth about an incident Kis instigated.
I think they both wielded their power in inappropriate, but different ways. Luke, if he felt she’s not a good fit for a partnership, should have just gracefully approached Karla and told her the partnership was a mistake and apologized for that, or better yet, worked it out with the host afterwards to redefine the criteria of partnership. Instead, he chose to be a d**k to her.
Karla has a certain responsibility that comes with the power of 15k followers. 15k isn’t that much in the Tiktok world. But 15k, nonetheless is a not an insignificant audience. To put in perspective, its not every day we say something and thousands of people gets to hear it. She might have thought the balance of power tilted towards the chef given her treatment, but underestimated her own power.
Privately communicating to the owner about the incident to get them to appropriately address the situation would have been my preference. People may not always get it right, but they should at least be given one chance to fix their mistake. Publicly communicating about the experience, even with the restaurant unnamed, does have consequences, as the mob have shown. If society tries to solve every problem by magnifying and letting it play out in the court of public opinion, with no consideration of details, nuances, background, we end up getting a dysfunctional society of mobs with pitchforks. This is not just their problem, this is a problem with this country as a whole.
The worst is the trial by mob over the internet these days. No doubt Luke was wrong, but if everything everyone does ever is dissected through the worst possible lens, then conflicts are unnecessarily escalated. Reputation is unnecessarily destroyed. I don’t think anyone, even if we are good people, can have every one of our actions and decisions made in our lives pass that level of scrutiny. People are complicated. In between black and white, are many shades of grey.
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Luke and Thien go late night to Keith’s Chicken N Waffles in Daly City bear Colma BART.
Mike Lim Travel goes to Solano Av in Berkeley:
I visited Chimmelier and Oh G Burger today in Berkeley to see what food they have to offer. I tried the Korean fried chicken, the K-Chicken Sandwich, Spicy Ramen, Kimchi Fried Rice, Fries, Milk Shake, and the Triple Smash Burger. Food was delicious and affordable.
Check,Please! Bay Area. KQED
We begin this episode at Brezo, a cheerful neighborhood spot known for its Latin-meets-Californian menus from sweet to savory. Diners enjoy banana Kahlúa French toast, gorditas stuffed with beans and meat, and the juicy Brezo Burger served with a bright bacon-garbanzo-tomato salad. Then it’s off to San Francisco’s Fillmore District, where Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement honors generations of Southern family cooking with a Bay Area twist. Don’t miss the rosemary fried chicken, creamy mac and cheese, and rich brown butter cornbread — a homecoming meal with history in every bite. The episode ends in downtown San Mateo at Rise Woodfire Pizza & Rotisserie, where a former finance professional-turned-pizzaiolo dishes out wood-fired pies and rotisserie meats in a stunning converted train station. Highlights include the housemade meatballs, tender beef back rib pizza, and a decadent brownie-stuffed cookie for dessert. Plus, in Cecilia Tries It, reporter Cecilia Philips dives into the rhythms, flavors, and reverence of San Jose’s Japantown, from fresh market finds to the drums and dances of the annual Obon Festival.
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from Oaklandside NOSH:
Fried milkfish at FOB Kitchen at 5179 telegraph
Av in Temescal District of Oakland
Daing na bangus is a popular Filipino dish featuring milkfish (bangus) that is typically marinated in a mixture of vinegar, garlic, salt, and black pepper, then fried until golden brown and crispy. Credit: Myron Caringal/East Bay Nosh
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