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Instagram is definitely the best stop if you want you want to gander at food and drink on social media. Because of this, tons of accounts have popped up for this purpose. Earlier this month we highlighted one such account in the Beered Black Man. Jeremy Joyce’s Black People Eats served the same purpose of highlighting eateries throughout the U.S. with a focus on Black-owned establishments.
How It All Started
At 16, Jeremy Joyce got his start at a Chicago-area Culver’s, a restaurant chain with a base throughout the Midwest/Great Lakes area. While fast food can be a daunting job for many—I didn’t even have the patience for it—young Joyce took this as a learning experience. As a cashier, he picked up how to talk with different customers which expanded to speaking with different folks in Chicago’s food scene.
My main takeaway from doing food service was to be considerate to the people making your order and than customers—they can be annoying. Very annoying. Joyce would take his experiences and build them into something amazing.
Frequenting Chicago’s various diners and restaurants, he was encourage to record his visits and share them. Following the success of a video covering Septemberfest, he started an Instagram: Black People Eats.
Gaining Recognition
Joyce’s stage with Black People Eats allowed him to share his cuisine adventures with a larger audience. There, he posted videos pictures and of course, reviews. Over the years, the Black People Eats brand grew but it wasn’t without some hiccups. As mentioned before, Instagram is a food lovers’ haven. On one hand, that’s great but on the other, there are a lot food-focused grams.
This wasn’t the main problem for Black People Eats. No, Joyce’s problem came from the eateries themselves. See, while growing the platform, he would reach out to different eateries for a visit and to review them. As is often the problem here, the platform wasn’t taken seriously.
While this setback would’ve caused many to hang it up and find something else to do, Jeremy Joyce took encouragement from family and faith and kept at it. Some retooling of his platform was necessary but once a local restaurant reposted his review of one of their popular dishes, he knew he had an in. All that was left was to keep producing quality content and build from there.
Black People Eats Today
This brings us all the way to today. Social media serves as a good stage for talents, creations, discussions and promotion but it can be a poor place to archive everything. As years go on, things go further and further down the timeline or feed.
Because of this, Joyce decided to spin the social media presence into its own dedicated site. It features the social media platforms that brought the brand to the dance but also has a directory of Black restaurants to check out. At the moment, only Chicago and Atlanta are featured but expect that to expand rapidly in the future. Swing on through Birmingham, man!
Another focus is the monthly spotlight for restaurants, snacks and desserts. Plus, it’s open for promotion. Needless to say, the Black People Eats is growing having gone from a video to building a community to becoming a platform to spotlight Black cuisine in major cities.
Be sure to check out Black People Eats’ Instagram for mouth-watering eats from places you probably frequent or pass by every day. Who knows, you might find your new spot. And be sure to check out the directory as well. If you run an eatery, it could pop up on the directory next.