With over 50,000 followers, Philadelphia Foodie (@philadelphiafoodie) has clearly become a fixture in every food-loving Philadelphian’s Instagram feed. This account covers classic Philly staples, hidden gems and even features some homemade dishes that you’ll likely want to remake in your own kitchen. I thought it was time to talk face-to-face with the person behind this budding Insta account. Enjoy.
Who is the Philadelphia Foodie?
Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Foodie
“It’s actually just me, Amanda, right now. I’m currently a high school senior. Remy, the founder, is in India for the year on an exchange program. So it’s just been me running the account since last May, but she’ll be coming back this May.”
How did you build up a serious following?
“We didn’t really do it on purpose, it was almost an accident. I think it just started exponentially growing because our account is unique from other accounts. Whereas other accounts don’t post the location or what the food is, we actually reach out to restaurants so we can let fellow Philadelphians know where we get the pictures and what exactly we’re showing. We also sometimes click on the geotag of restaurants and like the pictures from there for publicity. We don’t do it to gain followers as much as to get the word out about our account.”
Do you use any particular method in choosing pictures to post?
“As long as it’s a food that most people will like and it’s a good quality picture, there’s not too much of a process. Whenever I see a picture I’ll screenshot it and save it to my camera roll for later. We get submissions and use a few of our own pictures. Once I decide on a picture, it takes maybe 5-10 minutes of editing.”
What other food insta accounts do you like the most?
“I really like New Fork City and Hungry Betches the most, but there are a lot of other great ones out there too.”
Are there any perks to being Philadelphia Foodie?
“Sometimes in public, people from my area will recognize me. The other day a random girl at the gym asked me if I was the Philadelphia Foodie, which was really weird. Otherwise, restaurants message us occasionally and offer free food. Mainly, a lot of small bakeries plus Hai Street Kitchen have reached out to us.”
What is the hardest part of being Philadelphia Foodie?
“A lot of people will send me submissions and I’ll reply ‘thanks’, but then they start getting mad that I don’t post their pictures and bombard me with angry messages. I can’t post every picture we get, though! Sometimes it’s also hard to keep up during the school day.”
What item(s) do you seem to get the most submissions of?
“A lot of Shake Shack, ice cream, and Reading Terminal pictures.”
Which pictures tend to get the most likes?
“A lot of comfort foods like grilled cheese, mac and cheese, and ice cream. If it’s a good picture of sushi, that’ll get a ton of likes. Some of our homemade submissions get a lot of likes too.”
What’s your favorite “grammable” Philadelphia food?
“I like most things from Reading Terminal and El Vez. We actually don’t get a lot of submissions from Pod, but that’s one of my favorites. And I can’t forget Hai Street Kitchen.”
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