On Wednesday, July 23, Bay Area-based “micro-influencer” Karla, who goes by @itskarlabb on TikTok, posted an emotional video describing a failed collaboration with Kis Cafe, a new wine bar in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley. According to Karla, while she was preparing to film a pre-arranged promo video, a chef (later identified as longtime San Francisco restaurateur and Kis Cafe co-owner Luke Sung) asked a staff member how many followers she had. After pulling up her profile and seeing she had 15,000, he criticized her within her earshot, saying the collaboration was a mistake and that she didn’t have enough followers to justify it. Karla said he then approached her, questioned whether she’d researched the restaurant, and implied her audience couldn’t afford to dine there. He also reportedly bragged that his daughter had 600,000 TikTok followers. Feeling “disrespected,” Karla canceled the collab, walked out, and recorded a five-minute recap that went far more viral than the original promo ever could have. It earned 21 million views, and sparked such a strong backlash against Kis Cafe that the bar closed permanently on Monday, July 28.
Neither Karla nor Kis Cafe has elaborated on the original business arrangement and did not respond to Eater San Francisco’s interview requests. But influencers like Karla have become an essential component of the restaurant scene in the Bay Area and elsewhere; typically, restaurants pay them to post laudatory videos, either in comped meals or (when the influencer has a large following) actual money. Influencers with fewer than 100,000 followers like Karla (who does not use her last name online) are generally referred to as “micro-influencers,” and are engaged by restaurants because their audiences may be more receptive to their posts than those of mega influencers; they’re also cheaper to employ.
The collaboration with Karla, however, may be the most unsuccessful restaurant promo attempt in TikTok history. In Karla’s original video she didn’t name Kis Cafe or Sung in the video — she said the point of the video was to encourage other micro-influencers to stick up for themselves — but commenters quickly identified who she was talking about. Isa Sung, Luke Sung’s daughter, commented on the video not long after it was posted to criticize her father’s behavior. “No one should ever feel disrespected or uncomfortable in that way,” she wrote. “I’m honestly really embarrassed that you had to go through that.”
This confirmed that Kis Cafe was the bar in question, and soon users were bombarding it with negative reviews. On Friday, Kis Cafe’s Google rating had plummeted to 1.1 stars with more than 4,500 reviews, most of which have since been removed. Its Yelp score when it closed sat at a 2.8, accompanied by an “unusual activity” alert.
Social media reactions poured in. Under the cafe’s public posts, comments ranged from supportive to skeptical. Some noted the irony of a “micro” influencer causing this much fallout, while others questioned whether influencers should wield so much public influence. Several TikTokers joined the conversation, including Ed Choi (@etchaskej), whose reaction video criticizing the chef and calling for the public not to support Kis Cafe has now surpassed 3.2 million views.
Karla posted a follow-up video on Friday, stating that she hadn’t expected the situation to escalate and thanking those who supported her. That afternoon, Kis Cafe posted a statement on their Instagram confirming that the other owners had cut ties with Sung and had reached out to Karla with an apology. (The post also asked the public to refrain from racist or hateful messages.) On Saturday, Isa posted a response video reiterating her support for Karla. She said she disagreed with her father using her name to diminish another creator and added that she was working with him privately to address his behavior.
The next day, Kis Cafe posted a statement via their Instagram from Sung, in which he said he had apologized to Karla both publicly and privately. “I am truly sorry for my actions towards you. I was condescending, hurtful, and intimidating,” the chef wrote He also apologized to Isa.
Over the weekend, Kis Cafe said that it would close temporarily following Sung’s departure. That closure is apparently now permanent.
As for Karla, she can drop the “micro” from “micro-influencer” — after her moment of virality, she now has more than 388,000 followers.
