By Harper Stephanopoulos, CNN

New York (CNN) — Trendy restaurants have always existed in New York. Places like The Odeon and Raoul’s to Torrisi and 4 Charles Prime Rib have been eateries to see and be seen, their reputations grown over years through word-of-mouth, critics’ reviews and celebrity spottings.

Now, the era of TikTok has changed the landscape and created a whole new timeline. One video can turn local favorites into tourist attractions overnight, all before the restaurant even realizes.

The Isidori family has seen both sides of the trend, having run restaurants since 1954. Recipes for vodka sauce and garlic bread have been passed down through the generations, now an homage from chef and owner Joe Isidori to his family and old-school Italian food.

Isidori already had a cult following of New York locals when he decided to share a tomato sauce tutorial on TikTok to mark the opening of a new venture. In just 72 hours, it had become a viral sensation and within a week, Arthur & Sons — with its wood, red leather and stained glass interior and red-sauce menu evoking a classic ’90s New York Italian feel — was booked out for 90 days and a second dining room had to be built.

“My sous chef said to me, ‘They’re all here because of you,’” Isidori recalled to CNN. “I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He’s like, ‘They see you on TikTok. That’s why they’re here.’”

Though they had created the content, Arthur & Sons only found out they’ve gone viral when the dining room started filling with out-of-town visitors holding their phones up to record.

It was even more of a surprise at Mei Lai Wah, a three-generation Chinese bakery in the heart of Chinatown, when they went viral due to customer videos. They were beloved by locals, mostly Chinese and Filipinos, for their dim sum and pineapple pork buns but owner Ben Chen said they didn’t have a broad outreach. “TikTok and social media gave us a worldwide recognition, so there’s more people that know about our products now,” he said.

While they are enjoying the new clientele, they are not changing for virality. “We’re just maintaining our core value of being customer oriented and our best in providing the best quality food, best quality service, and just being ourselves” Chen said.

TikTok videos are typically short, but the impact can be long-lasting. On the Upper East Side of Manhattan is Glace, a neighborhood ice cream and candy shop. It became a winter sensation when a hot chocolate video went viral in 2023, and two years later, the line is still around the block, though in the height of summer the hot chocolate is a frozen version.

“You think you have a month’s supply of cups and then it runs out in two days, or we start running out of chocolate,” said Glace’s owner Sasha Zabar.

Lafayette opened in 2013 as a cafe and bakery offering French cooking downtown. It developed the cream-filled Suprême Croissant as the city was re-emerging from Covid restrictions and soon after its debut, a customer posted about it on TikTok. Pastry Chef Scott Cioe noted how on the first day they started to receive traction, they sold out of the treats. The second day, two people were waiting for them to open and on the third day, there was a whole line of customers, he said. “The first customer said, ‘I’ll take two,’ the second customer said, ‘I’ll take four,’ and the third customer said, ‘I’ll take everything you got!’” he remembered.

Cioe summed up the TikTok impact for Lafayette as extreme volume, very quickly. “There was no preparing for that,” he said. “We didn’t create a croissant to be viral or anything. We just wanted something visual, as all pastries are in the history of French pastry.”

A beautiful baked good can whet the appetite even before you can buy it or even smell it. Sunday Morning in the East Village makes cinnamon rolls, seven days a week, in a variety of flavors. It used Instagram and TikTok as part of its launch plans and soon-to-be customers were posting and reposting before the store opened, generating buzz that accelerated once the buns were available for the taste test.

“It happened pretty quickly,” said co-owner Ahmet Kiranbay. “The first week we were blowing up on Instagram and then on TikTok. And I think TikTok brought it to another level.”

One key thing was giving them an opportunity to be noticed. “It gives mom-and-pop startups a great playing field,” he said.

How to stay viral

In December 2024, as TikTok was facing a potential ban in the United States, 94% of businesses using the service in New York state reported that the app had allowed them to increase their operations, including hiring more employees, increasing sales, and expanding to new locations, TikTok said.

Between pork buns and supreme croissants, TikTok can spark a social media flood, but what matters most is what happens after the post.

For Apollo Bagels, which serves an open-style take on the traditional New York bagel, keeping it simple is key. The outlet hosted pop-ups and built a loyal fanbase before opening their first permanent location in the East Village. Founder Joey Scalabrino said his aim was to “make really good food and be nice to people.”

“We’re not chasing trends — we’re focused on consistency, quality, and creating a great experience every time,” he said.

A viral TikTok can have unintended consequences too. When Gautier and Ashley Coiffard were fundraising to launch their L’Appartement 4F bakery, they decided to offer a limited amount of “croissant cereal” as incentives. They posted on TikTok, and the orders and money started to flow in. The cereal was hard to make, Gautier Coiffard said, but they spent a year fulfilling the orders and finally opened their first brick-and-mortar store in Brooklyn Heights.

“Once we opened the doors of the actual store, people were coming to us and were looking for the cereal. So, we quickly realized that we had to put it on the menu daily,” said Coiffard.

Restaurateurs interviewed by CNN agreed: while TikTok can get people in the door, only real food, service, and storytelling can keep the clientele.

“The pressure to perform is always there,” said Lafayette’s Cioe.

And that’s something else that has always existed in the city.

“We’re real. We’re real New York, you know,” said Isidori of Arthur & Sons. “And we have the attitude, the vibe and the food to back it up.”

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