Here I am waiting outside the latest London hype shop, CDMX Tacos. It is around the corner from Supernova burger, which prompted long queues last year – more than 100 people at its peak – but which quickly calmed down because those Instagram-fuelled deluges never last. More to the point, Supernova serves credible smash burgers (so long as you get ketchup and mustard, not the house sauce) but it is definitely not worth such a long wait; 15 minutes max. Anyway, I just passed it and it was empty.
Expect queues at CDMX. This is because the influencer Eating With Tod is here and by the time this piece comes out many of Tod’s one million followers will have seen him devour plates of tacos. There’s al pastor (marinated pork), chicharron (crispy pork belly), asada (grilled beef), and nopal (grilled cactus). Never mind that he doesn’t finish everything.
That’s why I’m standing outside, by the way, with an ever-growing crowd, and have yet to order my lunch. To be fair to Tod, he was there before midday, when service starts, but he’s delayed opening on account of content creation. When I walked in I was turned away, likewise three or four others, because Tod was filming grill scenes on his phone and apparently needed the place to himself. The plancha is hot and videos are all.
I don’t know how I feel about this. Let me try to distill my thoughts, and I shall do this as someone who is largely indifferent when it comes to social media influencers. I do not loathe these characters as some do; the energy isn’t worth expending. But right now I’m standing outside in a Soho alley, hungry, and with work stacking up. Tick tock, quite frankly.
First, there is no question that personalities like Eating With Tod create a spark. It worked with Supernova and it will work at CDMX. He has more than one million followers and even if 1% of these visit after he posts his enthusiastic content, the taco shop will go crazy. I absolutely respect the grind. But for how long will Tod’s influence manufacture frenzy?
The internet is willfully and demonstrably fickle. Days will pass and his video will be forgotten. What then? How many of those Tod hangers-on will continue to frequent CDMX once his footage has served its singular purpose? Because, ultimately, it is about repeat custom, isn’t it, and loyalty, and attracting locals who will return and tell their friends and bring out-of-towners when in town. That’s the old-fashioned, organic way: the way good restaurants performed and survived long, long before social media.
It does not escape me that Tod might send so many people to CDMX that the aftermath of his Instagram tsunami sends ripples enough to see the business endure long into the future. But that hasn’t happened with Salt Bae – his London restaurant is tipped to close before the year is out (lawyers, relax) – and the hype at nearby Supernova has now gone. This is true of countless other bars and restaurants that are pumped up like bicycle tyres but soon go flat.
Aside from everything else, it comes down to the quality of the product. There is a Soho pub that has driven social media into a cacophony of excitement these past six months and that is good. But beyond anything, and this is inarguable, the reason it continues to do so well is because it is consistently brilliant: the finest Guinness in all the land and exceptional pub food that is considered, cooked expertly, and sold at a good price.
I am in CDMX now, eating my tacos, one pork, one beef, with a bottle of grapefruit Jarritos, a Mexican soft drink that brings 67% of my daily sugar allowance. Taco shops are springing up all over Europe thanks to more Mexicans, and we are benefiting.
Worth the wait? Sure. The fillings remind me of El Gordo, a much-loved Mexican brand in the US, and one I tried last week in Las Vegas: beautifully tender meat, spiced and doused in salsa, guacamole, onions and coriander. Sloppy as anything and as moreish as Mexican Coke, which I swerve because I prefer Jarritos these days.
Would I wait again were Tod to re-enter? I can’t imagine he’ll be back, you know. But I bloody will.
