What’s happening?
As Baltimore restaurants dealt with unexpected closures, loss of income, and changing operations during the pandemic, local food bloggers put their social media influence to work by sharing their favorite restaurants, plus how to order and pick up food as the city’s restrictions constantly changed.
One food blogger in particular, Simone Phillips who tweets from @charmcitytable, was especially helpful when posting restaurants’ information to her followers. Jonathan Joseph, owner of Happy Hour Heaven in Fells Point, told WYPR he was able to get interactive and “form a personal relationship” with customers through Phillips’s Twitter threads.
How else have local food bloggers assisted restaurants?
Rachel Lipton ran an 18-week Instagram campaign called #StayAwayGiveAway from her page, @liketheteaeats, where she partnered with more than a dozen bloggers on dolling out restaurant gift cards and giveaways to their followers.
YouTuber Ken Espinosa, who runs the page Baltimore Bite, hosted a three-hour live stream that raised $2,000 for the nonprofit Moveable Feast and encouraged fans to visit local restaurants. “Having Ken do Takeout Thursday during the pandemic has helped us keep our business going now because interestingly our to-go business hasn’t fallen off as much as I expected,” said Cara Bruce, owner of Blue Pit Barbecue in Hampden. “Having our to-go business keep going, it’s helping us through this transition time.”
Anything else I should know?
Here are 5 new Baltimore restaurants that you should try now, according to The Baltimore Sun.
You can read or listen to WYPR’s report on food bloggers here.
