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Thursday, Aug 27, 2026

Almost Friday. And there are lots of ways to stay busy in Tampa Bay this week, from checking out local concerts and museum events to grabbing dessert from Dunedin’s newest sweets spot.

[MARTHA ASENCIO-RHINE | Times]

If you’ve ever wanted a peek behind the food influencer curtain to see what the gig entails, you’re in luck. Times senior food and dining critic Helen Freund takes us inside the world of one prominent creator in her latest story.

Helen spent a few weeks on the job shadowing Joe Malinowski, aka Mr. Tampa Bay. Malinowski has gained more than 1.2 million combined followers on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok for his viral restaurant posts and is behind a number of hyperlocal accounts, among them St. Pete is Awesome and Tampa Bay is Awesome.

Unsurprisingly, he dines out a ton for work, at times visiting up to five places a day. But don’t call him an influencer. He thinks of himself more as a consultant and marketing expert, one who focuses on promoting area restaurants that hire him to drum up business.

I asked Helen what reporting this story was like. Here’s what she said:

It’s probably not a surprise that I haven’t always been the biggest fan of influencer culture. As a restaurant critic with a pretty traditional journalism background, the pay-to-play practice of hyping businesses in exchange for money or free meals just doesn’t sit right with me. But over the years, I’ve come to, if not exactly appreciate, respect the hustle of those working in what has so obviously become the future of marketing and advertising.

Whereas restaurants used to loathe getting hit up by an influencer for a “collab” in exchange for a free meal (or steeper demands), it’s now much more common for a restaurant owner to reach out to try and find paid promotion. For someone with a reach like Mr. Tampa Bay? The payoff from a few Reels or posts can be huge.

I wanted to give readers an inside look at just how much the world of content creation has changed and, potentially, how much money could be changing hands. Joe felt like the perfect person to illustrate that. His approach was clear-cut: Restaurants pay him to make Reels and promote their businesses. And as it turns out, he’s made a lot of money doing it.

Give the story a read.

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