New Orleans is a foodie town and there is no shortage of influencers across social media platforms. None of them illicit quite the feeling like you’re talking to one of your best friends more than when you hear, “Hey y’all, it’s Triece.” TikTok star Buku Triece gives a realistic look at the food scene in New Orleans and takes her mama and ‘dem along with her while she hits restaurants around the city. Triece knows the importance of stretching a dollar and spending your last few on a good meal, so if she endorses a menu, you know you can’t go wrong.
Q: How did you get into food reviews on TikTok? When I first got onto TikTok, it was more joke videos or the trending sounds. That really, kind of, took off well for me. I started giving my opinion and doing different things and everyone liked my accent and liked the city. Now I knew I had people’s attention and I thought, “Ok, what am I actually going to do with this?” And what better way than to show off my city, and I started with food. Now, I’m starting to share experiences and am working with different hotels, to show different aspects. You can eat here, you can have fun here,.There’s different things to do.
Q: What has that journey been like? It’s kind of crazy. I’m still working at my same job, so I feel like I’m right in the middle of it. I’m in that moment now of, “Ok, your opinion matters, your TikToks matter,” now how does this turn into something bigger? I always tell people its surreal. I really like when people tell me “I enjoyed your videos and found value in them.”
Q: What’s your favorite part about this whole experience? What means the most to me is people come up to me and tell me how valuable my content is to them. To me it’s almost like, “Ok wow, why do y’all like me so much? I’m just going out to eat with my mom.” But they tell me they plan their whole trips around my content. Even when locals come up to me and tell me they didn’t know [a restaurant] was there, it shows me that I’m creating a valuable thing for people. I think about how hard I work for my money and my few days that I have off, I really want to go somewhere good. If I didn’t have a good experience, or I didn’t like the food that much, I’m definitely going to say that because I know how valuable your time off and your money is… especially in this economy. If I’m paying $50 for something, I want to go somewhere that’s good. I think about that when I do my videos, I show the menus. Maybe we don’t like the same thing, but maybe you’ll see something on the menu that you like. I show you what I got and you can judge their plating or portion size or how something looks.
Q: Why do you think your videos are so popular? I think my honesty. I always like to put a little joke in there. And people love seeing me and my mom. People love it, and I love it too, because we get to bond. She recently retired and she never really got out in the city, so now every place that’s new to me is new to her. This is our catch-up time to eat and talk.
Q: Funniest moment or most memorable video experience? One funny story happened at Jacques Imo’s. Jacques Imo’s has a sort of indoor-outdoor feel. Me and my friend sit down in the back by where the windows are open. They had a bachelor party outside in the back near us, too. We sit down and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, my friend screams. And I’m looking at him like he is crazy. And he said, “I just got stung by a bee.” And I thought there was no way because we’re in a restaurant, how would you get stung by a bee. The waiter comes over because there is a little bit of commotion. He couldn’t believe it. We all think he’s crazy. But next to the table we finally found the bee. We called the waiter back over because I couldn’t believe it and there it was. He actually ended up giving us some alligator cheesecake, and that’s really what I was there for. One for the books.
True Confession
I was voted “Most Creative” in high school.
Lagniappe
Favorite type of food? Shrimp and grits
What restaurants do you suggest for visitors? Surrey’s and Bearcat
Favorite spot for a hamburger? Common Interest in Hotel Indigo
Snoball flavor? Half wedding cake, half pineapple with a little condensed milk