Will Not Be Influenced By The Influencer, Part 12

California, Editors' Choice, Los Angeles, Managers With A Spine, Restaurant, USA | Right | August 23, 2025

I work at a fourteen-seat-only chef’s table restaurant. We are a reservation-only place with a $250 per person prepaid tasting menu.

The dining room is almost full when a customer strides up to the host stand. The next seating starts in ten minutes. She starts talking into her phone.

Customer: “Okay, guys, I’m about to show you Los Angeles’s hottest tasting menu. Let’s see if they’re smart enough to collab!”

She continues recording and addresses me.

Customer: “I want to feature you tonight. I post stories to my followers in real time, so if you comp my seat, everybody wins!”

Me: “Our seats are pre-paid weeks, sometimes months in advance. $250 per guest, no comps, no walk-ins.”

Customer: *Smiling like she’s explaining something to a toddler.* “You don’t understand the value of exposure. I’ll tag your chef, the location, everything!”

My manager, who’d been plating in the open kitchen, walks over and wipes his hands.

Manager: “Funny how the people who offer ‘exposure’ never seem to be able to afford a meal.”

Customer: “Excuse me?! Do you know how much reach I have?”

Manager: “If you want free food, there are sample trays at Costco.”

Guests at the counter snicker, and she doubles down.

Customer: “It really isn’t a good idea to be in my next video. Restaurants on my s*** list.”

Manager: “You mean ‘Restaurants That Respect Themselves’? Much more accurate title. Anyway, if you’d like to book and prepay for a meal like a normal person, we have an opening in about three months…”

She leaves in a huff. The kitchen gets back to work, and the guests toast the first course, utterly undisturbed.