Stumbled into a tiny Thai spot in Brooklyn that cracked the code on TikTok virality

They were doing these live noodle-pulling demos right at the counter, and almost everyone filming their order ended up posting it. I asked the owner about it and he said they got 300k views on one video just from letting people watch the stretch. Has anyone else noticed restaurants building their whole marketing around one visible gimmick?

3 comments

3 Comments

hernandez.finley6d ago

Got a buddy who runs a taco spot in Austin, right. They bought this massive tortilla press that looks like an industrial gears-and-levers machine and put it right in the front window where people wait in line. At first it was just a novelty, people filming the press slam down and the tortilla puff up. But then someone did a slo-mo video of the flour dust explosion and it hit 500k on TikTok. Now he says people literally line up to film it and the whole wait time is just people holding phones sideways. The press broke down last week and he said the comments on their page were insane, like people were mad the show was cancelled.

emma_clark22d ago

The one on 7th Avenue in Park Slope, right... I walked past there last week and saw a crowd three deep around the window. Thing is, I don't think the noodle pulling itself is what got them that many views. It's more that people love filming something that looks cool and easy to share, you know... like watching dough get stretched is oddly satisfying. But the owner's smart for letting folks stand so close and film over his shoulder, most places would shoo you away. I just wonder how long that trick works before everyone's seen it a hundred times on their feed.

kim69322d ago

That part about "watching dough get stretched is oddly satisfying" is so true, @emma_clark. People love that visual ASMR-type stuff on their feeds, it hooks you in. I just hope the place keeps some of that charm going even after the hype dies down.