One of Toronto's top food influencers is trying to open his own restaurant
Influencers are breaking out of their niches in all sorts of wild ways these days: they walk runways, they become boxers, they compete on Dancing with the Stars. But one Toronto influencer is looking to break out of the algorithm by opening a restaurant of his own.
Toronto has a truly staggering number of food influencers. Virtually anyone with an iPhone, a good appetite and the right timing can strike it big, highlighting restaurants in the city, but as with any gold rush, some folks find more success than others.
Marcello of @marcelloeats, with his nearly 140K followers on Instagram and over 115K followers on TikTok, is one such social media food reviewer that's managed to reach the upper echelons of social media stardom. At least by Toronto standards, anyway.
Building his following by reviewing viral food spots around southern Ontario and, in some cases, the world, you'd think that Marcello would be comfortable resting on his laurels, collecting cheques for his cheesepulls and burger bites.
As it turns out, you'd be wrong, because Marcello is — quite literally — cooking up something entirely outside his scope: a new food pop-up, which he hopes to scale into a restaurant, called Cello's Cheesesteaks.
In the first video on the newly minted Cello's Cheesesteaks Instagram account, Marcello explains that opening a restaurant has been a dream of his for almost as long as he's been making food content. Still, he says, he's always held off on pulling the trigger because he wants everything to be perfect when the time comes.
"Being in restaurants every single day, I have so much respect for restaurant owners, and I know all the hard work that goes into it, and I know if I were to do something like this, I can't half-ass it, I have to give it my all," Marcello says in the video.
He goes on to explain that, for nearly the past decade, he's been "obsessed" with cheesesteak sandwiches, seeking out as many as he could in the GTA and even travelling to Philadelphia to find even more.
"It's been my dream to just open my own cheesesteak restaurant," he tells his followers in the video.
The solution in the absence of an actual, physical restaurant? Start a pop-up. That's exactly what Marcello plans to do with Cello's Cheesesteaks. With the concept, he promises top-tier quality sandwiches inspired by his years of market research, which, though they may not come cheap, will be delicious.
The first pop-up for Cello's Cheesesteaks has yet to be announced, but judging by the army of fans and restaurants in the business's comment section, it shouldn't be long at all.
