She’s the cream of the crop — of NYC food influencers.
Rachel Brotman — aka “The Carboholic” on Instagram and TikTok — has distinguished herself from the many food lovers on social media with her positive, genuine approach.
“I don’t have an agenda, I’m not doing anything mean or click-baity to get views,” the 29-year-old told The Post. “I post about restaurants and bakeries around the New York City-area making products from scratch with high-quality ingredients and with a lot of love … it would break my heart to think that I’m out there insulting food that a chef put their heart and soul into.”
Her sweet style — she’s never posted a negative review —has helped her gain more than 250,000 Instagram followers and provided a much-needed boost to city restaurants and bakeries.
“Rachel put [us] on the map,” said Sasha Zabar, the owner of Glace, an Upper East Side ice cream and hot chocolate shop where tourists line up in frigid and scorching temperatures for viral treats.
“People still care about food critics but at the end of the day it’s what they see on Instagram,” added Zabar, who now thinks about the ‘gram when coming up with new menu items.
The product has to be “delicious” but it also has to “capture people’s imagination,” he said.
Brotman left her job teaching first grade at a private school in 2020 to focus full time on content creation. She now makes her living from brand partnerships, consulting and payments from Instagram and TikTok when she hits a certain number of views.
She’s also been brought on to the city’s LinkNYC project, which has turned old pay phones into wifi hotspots with digital screens showing “the best of NYC” — including Carboholic food pics.
In the early days of Instagram, some restaurants bristled at having influencers snapping photos throughout their meals, but most now realize it’s key to their survival.
“There is a real opportunity for social media to revitalize restaurants and other small businesses,” said Brotman. “Restaurants had to get really creative during the pandemic … It coincided with TikTok taking off and [Instagram] Reels taking off and now you’ve seen a lot of restaurants that are creating menu items that are garnered around getting a lot of hype.”
Walking around New York City, many of the lines you see — whether at Glace uptown or healthy lunch spot This Bowl in Soho — are thanks, at least in part, to Brotman.
Caviar Kaspia, a Parisian restaurant that began in the 1920s and opened inside the Mark Hotel last February, saw lines start to grow around the block after Brotman posted about their $35 caviar bagel.
“I’ll be honest, initially, it was a bit overwhelming,” Etienne Haro, General Manager of the Mark Hotel which overseas Caviar Kaspia, told The Post. “One day we had to send someone to the bagel shop six times.”
Putting caviar on a dish, Brotman notes, is a proven strategy to going viral. Coqodaq in the Flatiron crafted an “Instagram moment” by putting a $28 fish egg-topped chicken nugget on the menu.
“Restaurants understand the importance of that visual,” she said. “You really do see it everywhere … it’s a little bit aspirational.”
Scarcity is another driver of online popularity.
“Lord’s Downtown is an example of a restaurant where they make a few burgers per evening and if you want one you have to be in their first seating — it’s not even on the menu,” she said. “You can only get if you’re sitting at the bar and there’s this element of exclusivity.”
On other hand, she said, New Yorker also love to line up with the masses for something great.
“People feel like they’re in it together,” she said. “In a world where we’re all home so much and work is hybrid and we don’t get out and we’re on our screen so much… this gives people something to talk about.”
This story is part of NYNext, a new editorial series that highlights New York City innovation across industries, as well as the personalities leading the way.
Living in NYC, Brotman said she’s never short on inspiration — or delicious food.
“There is so much diversity and any kind of cuisine,” she said, noting the city has some 23,000 eateries. “There is always something new to check out and then there are iconic restaurants over a century old.”
