Closed On Tuesdays 2003 BILLS OF $35 OR MORE Dine-In or Take Out $5 OFF Not Including Combinations Dinner Only Expires 12/31/21 2050 N. Alma School Rd., #36 • 480.857.4188 Influence from p 34 sine. After a year of culinary school, she did kitchen time at Ariel’s Grotto during an in- ternship at Disney’s California Adventure. Later she headed to ASU’s School of Jour- nalism, where she earned a Bachelor’s in sports journalism. Influencing is hard work, harder than chopping vegetables in the kitchen of a res- taurant named for an imaginary mermaid. Baluch isn’t taking anything for granted, and she’s hardly resting on her laurels. “I kind of have five jobs,” she admits. “I run social media for a PR company and two restaurants. Then I’ve got my TikTok channel, and I babysit.” At first, she reached out to restaurants she wanted to cover; soon enough, they were writing to request coverage. She’s de- vised a system for selecting her next res- taurant profile. “I look at Yelp for a couple of hours ev- ery night. I look at the photos and if they speak to me and the place fits into my brand, I go there. I try to make sure I don’t just do one area, so I go all over the Valley, Tucson, Prescott, Flagstaff, all over.” Sometimes she spots her next client from behind the wheel. “One time I was in Queen Creek visiting my sister and I saw this little yellow shack on the side of the road. I was like, ‘What is that?’ I went in and the food was amazing. Sometimes if you don’t have a sister who lives in Queen Creek, you’re not going to find these small places.” Those little shacks by the side of the road are Baluch’s favorites. “What makes me stand out is I’m not going to the top spots or the new places like other influencers. I focus on the spots you wouldn’t set foot in, that you’ve been driv- ing past for 30 years. That’s my niche.” Baluch isn’t hogging all the fame for herself. She sometimes takes her followers with her when she’s checking out a new restaurant. “They want to meet you, and it’s cool to bring them along and let them see the excitement of being an influencer for a day,” she says. “I’ve grown numb to the whole going-out-to-eat, free-food thing, so seeing the excitement on a follow- er’s face lets me rethink how cool it is that I get to do this.” She says she isn’t a food critic, she’s a collaborator, working with restaurant own- ers to promote their business rather than commenting on whether their chef is any good at his job. Her job is telling people what is bomb, not to promote herself. “In the end, it’s about the restaurant, not about me. If I am worried about the num- ber of likes or followers or views I’m get- ting, I’m not doing this for the right reason. Yes, it helped me get on TV and I get to do things I’ve always wanted to, but what I re- ally want is for the restaurants to succeed.” Under Baluch’s watch, many of them 36 are doing just that. “What I’m about is helping,” she explains. “One really small taco shop I went to, they sold out of meat the next day.” She pauses for effect. “Eighty pounds of meat,” she says. “That’s a lot of meat.” SEPT 9TH – SEPT 15TH, 2021 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com FULL BAR!
