A self-described micro-influencer has become a full blown macro-influencer overnight after sharing her terrible experience at a restaurant in San Francisco to which she was invited to.
Karla’s story has been viewed 28 million times and received almost 3 million likes from supportive viewers who are outraged by how she was treated by the owner of a new restaurant in Hayes Valley SF. According to her, she was berated by the owner of the establishment after he found out she only had around 15,000 followers on TikTok and even less on Instagram.
Karla told viewers that when she arrived she was warmly greeted by the host who actually turned out to be the individual that contacted her and invited her to do a collaboration with the establishment. However, while she waited for her husband to arrive, she overheard another man, who would later be revealed as an owner, asking the host about Karla’s follower account and loudly badmouthing her for having such a small follower count.
The man then approaches Karla and tells her that her audience aren’t the type of customers they serve at the restaurant before further criticizing her and accusing her of not doing research on the establishment. Let’s not forget, Karla was invited here, this isn’t a case of a small influencer trying to use their following as an excuse to be entitled. Anyways, Karla explains by this point she was in tears and opted to just leave without doing the collab.
TikTok reacts
The community online were quick to offer support and kind words for Karla. In fact, the whole incident resulted in a great deal of attention with her following count ballooning to well over half a million, I wonder if that would have been enough to impress the restaurant owner?
“Cue all of the restaurants scrambling to work with you,” wrote popular TikToker TizzyEnt in the comments. Meanwhile, others wanted to know what restaurant Karla had visited and they also wanted to know who the owner was, especially since he mentioned his daughter who he claimed had 600,000 followers on TikTok.
It didn’t take long for people to figure it out with armchair sleuths sharing the restaurant details, “This is Kis Cafe in Hayes Valley SF.” One commenter explained, “The owner is Luke Sung. He also founded the restaurant Isa. Both restaurants named after his influencer kids, Isa Sung and Sunkis.”
People also found the accounts for his influencer kids with Isa indeed having over 600,000 followers just like he’d claimed. As a matter of fact, Isa commented on Karla’s video to apologize on behalf of her father writing, “please know I’m genuinely on your side, and I’ll be having a serious conversation with my dad.”
According to an article from sf.eater.com the drama actually led to the establishment closing its doors for good at the end of July. The people of TikTok were not sympathetic, “Love how badly this has gone for them,” wrote one viewer in the comments.
