San Francisco restaurant fires lauded chef, announces closure after viral spat with TikTok influencer

Influencer story of poor treatment at SF restaurant goes viral

A Bay Area influencer posted to social media that she was treated poorly at a SF restaurant, now one of the owners has parted ways with the restaurant.

SAN FRANCISCO - A noted San Francisco chef was axed from his recently-opened restaurant following an allegedly rude interaction with a TikTok influencer that was documented in a viral video.

In the Wednesday night video, self-proclaimed "micro influencer" @itskarlabb said she and the operators of the Kis Cafe in Hayes Valley agreed to a collaboration a week prior to her visit. She said she arrived at the restaurant a little early, and ahead of her husband, to check out the establishment and shoot some video.

When she sat down at the bar seats that were prepared for her, she said she could overhear the host and another man talking "two or three feet away" from her.

"I know that they’re talking about me, because I can hear them saying ‘TikTok, views, followers,’ so I start listening in," the influencer said in the video.

She said she overheard the second man asking the host how many views and subscribers she had on TikTok, and that he was audibly displeased when he learned that she had 15,000 followers.

"He was saying that I have too little followers, and that this was a mistake," the influencer said, adding that the person said that the host should not have invited her to the restaurant.

She said the second man then approached her, and she introduced herself to him. The influencer said she told him that she was still excited for the collaboration, but the other man began to grill her and ask if she had done any research into the restaurant prior to her visit.

Kis Cafe opened in May, and the influencer noted that they did not have a website to peruse. However, she said she was familiar with the menu, and that she knew the restaurant was a wine bar that served smaller portions.

The man responded that the woman did not do any research prior to her visit, and that there was some miscommunication. He then asked to see the influencer’s TikTok page, and began scrolling through her feed while playing her videos "at full volume."

"After scrolling, like, two times, he says to me that he doesn’t think my videos are at the level at which he wants his restaurant represented," she said. "He goes on to say that my audience and my followers are not the kind of people that are going to be at his restaurant. It seemed like he was insinuating that my followers would not be able to afford to eat at this restaurant."

The influencer then said the man asked her if she knew who he was, which she denied.

"He says he’s a James Beard Award recipient or finalist or something, and I’m like ‘great, like, I don’t know what to say to that,'" she said.

The man then said his own daughter had 600,000 followers on TikTok, and that the influencer was not at her level.

He then went on to say that the influencer’s cooking videos were" homey," but that she didn’t understand what they do at Kis Cafe.

The influencer said the interaction left her in tears, and that she told the man that she felt disrespected and was no longer interested in collaborating.

She said the man responded that he was offended that she did not introduce herself to him.

The influencer said that her husband then arrived at the restaurant, and the two left the establishment. She posted the video to her TikTok that night, and it has garnered nearly 15 million views as of Friday morning.

The fallout

Dig deeper:

The influencer did not identify the restaurant or the man she interacted with by name, but viewers quickly deduced, based on the information in the video, that he was Kis Cafe co-owner and chef Luke Sung.

Sung was honored with a pair of James Beard Rising Star Chef nominees in 2000 and 2003, and made a name for himself in San Francisco with the Cal-French restaurant Isa – named after his influencer daughter.

Following the release of the TikTok video, both the Yelp and Google reviews for Kis Cafe and Isa – the latter of which Sung has had no part in since 2009 – took nosedives, with angry viewers lambasting both establishments for Sung’s reported treatment of the influencer.

As of Friday morning, the Yelp rating for Kis Cafe sat at around two stars, with the website disclaiming that its moderation team was monitoring the restaurant’s ratings "for content related to media reports."

Kis Cafe on Thursday released a statement announcing that Sung was let go from the restaurant in the wake of the viral video.

"Our chef’s behavior was unacceptable and he is no longer part of the team as co-owner, a chef or in any other way," the restaurant said. "As of this post, he (Luke) has reached out to the creator with a personal apology."

Kis Cafe went on to say that Wednesday’s events caused them to temporarily close and restructure.

"We want to create a space that’s welcoming and respectful to everyone. In this instance, we failed to do so," Kis Cafe said in a statement.