ESTELLE SMITH
Staff Reporter
Sophomore Leah Pala was having a sleepless night when the idea came to her to create an Instagram account featuring local Newark eateries. After she got her cousin and four of their friends on board, they formed the account called Newark Foodiess and made their first post at the beginning of last September.
According to their original Instagram bio, which is now used as the bio for their TikTok account, the account is run by “just six girls who like to eat who wanna share the best of Newark’s finest food.”
As Delaware locals, the founders wanted to spread the word about quality food spots to students not native to Newark. They do this by posting reviews of different eateries around the city, including pictures of the meal, a description, a rating out of 10 and the cost of the food.
“We didn’t think anything would happen out of it,” Pala said. “We thought we’d get like 30 followers, and then slowly we were like, ‘Wait, we’re getting a lot of followers,’ and then it just kind of evolved.”
Now with over 150 posts in just a few months, Pala wonders if people think she and the other account runners eat out often and spend a great deal of money on food. In reality, the account is largely collaborative and spur-of-the-moment. Most of their posts are from when the account runners or their friends and family are going out to eat.
“Our one roommate, she’s going tomorrow to lunch with her grandmother, so we were like, ‘Alright, take pictures, write down what you think,’” she said.
According to Pala, because of the variety of contributors, some of the reviews are not “on a consistent scale.” However, this has made it possible for them to cover a wide range of establishments, including Klondike Kate’s, Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen and The Original Hot Bagels.
Now at over 5,000 followers on Instagram, Newark Foodiess’ following continues to grow. From posting reviews on a regular basis to following numerous other university groups and student accounts to doing giveaway deals with some of the eateries, the account runners have been busy.
Pala said the giveaways have been a big hit, partnering with restaurants such as Santa Fe Mexican Grill, Roja & Verde Taqueria and Drip Café.
“Basically, we contact the restaurant, and Santa Fe, for example, agreed to give out to two winners $25 gift cards,” Pala said.
To qualify for these giveaways, people need to follow both Newark Foodiess and the restaurant’s accounts, like the post and tag a friend in the comments. The amount of attention these giveaways curated surprised the account.
“Each one you do is an entry,” she said. “So people would tag like 20 different people because they wanted 20 entries.”
Pala said that this has added up to over 1,000 comments on some posts, which takes a while to go through. When the account was still posting up to twice a day and all their phones were “blowing up,” Pala described it as feeling like a job at some points, but now she feels it has slowed down since they have reduced the rate of posts they make.
Now that the account feels more manageable, Pala has had time to work on her editing skills to strengthen the visions she has for the handle going forward. Due to the popularity of their Instagram reels, she hopes to start doing more videos and giveaways.
“Basically, we love food and we know that everyone else loves food,” she said. “We just wanted a way that would bring everyone together.”