Milwaukee isn’t widely known for its food scene.
But local content creators across the city are working to change that. They’re using social media to highlight neighborhood restaurants, caterers and small food businesses they say are often overlooked.
Meet creators working to change the narrative about Milwaukee’s food scene.
The Robin Hood of food reviews
A nudge from his mom helped Terry “eatingwithtrey” Jackson launch one of Milwaukee’s fastest-growing food platforms.
Three years ago, Jackson posted a video just for fun, but it caught his mother’s attention. Her response was simple: “Keep going.”
He did.
Since then, he’s been making videos highlighting food across the city. Early last year, his posts blew up.
“It just started going crazy,” Jackson said. “Now I’ve been on a couple radio stations. I’ve had other people do interviews about me. It just took off from there.”
Despite his growing online presence, content creation isn’t his primary job. He works as a contractor installing security cameras and fire alarm systems throughout Milwaukee.
He said his videos focus less on well-known restaurants and more on smaller restaurants, caterers, cooks and pop-up events.
“I wanted my platform to mean something,” he said. “The big businesses are OK. I’m more for the smaller people, because I want people to evolve.”
Jackson said many local restaurants currently offer similar menus, featuring food like catfish, collard greens and macaroni and cheese. But he’s especially interested in highlighting businesses experimenting with new flavors and styles.
“These small-time businesses, they’re doing like Creole-type meals and stuff like that,” he said. “I’m looking for the people that’s trying to step out the box.”
When asked for local recommendations, he pointed to a couple of personal favorites.
“If you want any kind of catfish, Kitchen 11 to me has the best catfish,” he said. “And for a soul food dinner, it would have to be Richmond’s inside the Sherman Phoenix.”
Kitchen 11 is located at 6800 W. Brown Deer Road and Sherman Phoenix is at 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave.
As his audience grows, he said his goal remains the same: using his platform to introduce Milwaukee residents to small food businesses that might otherwise go unnoticed.
You can find Jackson on Facebook as Terry Jackson and on other platforms as “eatingwithtrey.”
A family affair
What started as a way to connect with his kids turned into a growing platform highlighting Milwaukee’s local food scene.
A little over a year ago, Lester “Yung Papilez” Gillet, was working as a special education teacher when he noticed that his students just couldn’t stop TikToking. At home, his kids were just as interested in the app. Instead of discouraging them, he decided to join in.
“I told my daughter and my son, ‘Why don’t we just do TikTok?’ ” he said. “But I got bad flat feet, so dancing was out of the question.”
After experimenting, the family landed on food reviews.
His videos often serve to promote local restaurants that may not have the resources for advertising, he said. Instead of harsh reviews, he focuses on positive experiences.
“I don’t want to bash nobody,” he said. “I just eat what I know I like and keep it exciting and informative.”
In his videos, he highlights restaurants in neighborhoods across the city, from the North Side to the South Side, encouraging viewers to try places they might not otherwise visit.
“Some people say, ‘Man, I’d never go to the North Side,’ ” he said. “But if they see a specific spot and want that food, they’ll GPS it and go.”
He said he also feels a responsibility to highlight smaller and minority-owned businesses as his following grows.
“If I’ve got a platform, that’s what I’d like to shine light on,” he said. “If you’re in a position to do that, why wouldn’t you?”
‘Underrated‘ food scene
To him, Milwaukee’s food scene deserves more recognition.
“It’s so underrated,” he said. “We’ve got so many different cultures here and so many different options.”
The city’s diversity is reflected in its restaurants, he said. From Hispanic and Asian cuisine to soul food and Italian, often within the same neighborhood.
When asked what spot he recommends people try, he said Beto’s Pizza, 1234 S. Cesar E. Chavez Drive.
“They don’t miss. They’re clean, they’re nice, and the food is good every time,” Gillet said.
Inspired by the local food community, he’s now preparing to join it. He plans to launch a hot dog cart in the coming months, a project he’s been working on for about a year.
Aside from that, his goal as a food influencer is simple: to keep sharing food, keep highlighting small businesses and keep showing people that Milwaukee’s food scene has more to offer than many realize.You can find Gillet as “Yung Papilez” across social media platforms.
‘Your friendly neighborhood judge’ … and foodie
Derek Mosley’s content career started when he was running for municipal court judge and noticed that many restaurants in Milwaukee weren’t getting the attention they deserved.
“There’s a lot of restaurants that are owned by people of color here in the city of Milwaukee that I didn’t think were getting enough publicity by regular media streams,” Mosley said. “So I started by just posting places that I enjoyed, that I thought people should check out.”
He initially spotlighted staples like Mr. Perkins’ Family Restaurant, 2001 W. Atkinson Ave., and Nino’s Southern Sides, 4475 N. Oakland Ave., by posting photos of meals, short reviews and encouragement for followers to try somewhere new.
His platform quickly expanded.
“The more you start to put out material, the more people realize it,” Mosley said. “Restaurants reach out and say, ‘Hey, I’m opening a new restaurant, why don’t you come in and take a look?’ And then it just starts to snowball.”
But food wasn’t his first foray into social media.
Mosley’s social media following began with politics.
As a municipal judge running for reelection every four years, he looked for a way to connect with voters without spending tens of thousands of dollars on traditional ads. His solution was social media posts about daily life in the community, each signed off with a familiar phrase.
“I would end every post with ‘your friendly neighborhood judge,’ ” he said. “And it just caught on.” Mosley is now the director of Marquette University Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education.
Becoming a food influencer
Over time, different audiences gathered around different posts. Some followed Mosley for his annual Black History Month series. Others followed for community updates. Eventually, he became one of the city’s most enthusiastic food ambassadors.
A look at his Facebook page will reveal hundreds if not thousands of photos of tasty-looking meals.
“I’m not a food critic,” Mosley said. “If I go somewhere and don’t like the food, I just don’t post about it. But if I enjoy it, I’ll show you what I ate, what it costs, where it is. And get the word out so people try it.”
That positive-only approach has real impact, he said. Mosley says local businesses have told him they’ve received orders from as far away as Texas after his posts.
The influence even reached the culinary world’s top institutions. In 2022, Mosley served as a judge for the James Beard Foundation.
For Mosley, though, the mission remains the same as when he started: getting Milwaukeeans to explore beyond their routines.
“Sometimes the worst people to ask about restaurants are people who live here,” he said with a laugh. “We’re creatures of habit.”
When asked his favorite restaurants, Mosley couldn’t choose just one. He named Richmonds, Confectionately Yours Cafe & Bakery, Baked Dreams and the Kinship Cafe as his favorite casual eateries.
Milwaukee’s food scene, he believes, deserves more curiosity and more credit.
“Severely underrated,” he said. “The only way these restaurants survive is if everybody goes.”
You can find Mosley on all platforms under Derek Mosley.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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