SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – A new wine bar in San Francisco has has announced that its chef is “no longer” with the restaurant amid fallout from an ill-fated collaboration with a TikTok influencer.
On Thursday evening, Kis Cafe confirmed to internet sleuths on Instagram that it was indeed the restaurant at the center of the recent controversy concerning a TikTok user who claimed she was reduced to tears by the chef.
The Bay Area food influencer, who goes by @itskarlabb on TikTok, had recounted her run-in with the chef, who the restaurant has since identified as Luke Sung.
In her video, which was racked up millions of views since it was posted Wednesday, the influencer said she had made an agreement to feature Kis Cafe’s food on her account. But when she arrived, she said she was berated by Sung for not having enough followers.
“I just left a restaurant collaboration crying,” the influencer said in the video.
“He is not having it, saying to the host that he shouldn’t have invited me and that this was a mistake and that this was bad,” she continued. “… I am turning red because I am so embarrassed and I feel really disrespected.”
“It seemed like he was insinuating that my followers would not be able to afford to eat at this restaurant,” she added at one point. “Then he said, ‘Not to be snobby, but do you know who I am?’ And I say no, because I don’t know who he is.”
At no point in the video does the influencer call out the name of the restaurant, or of Sung, who is a James Beard-nominated chef the San Francisco Standard described as “one of San Francisco’s top chefs from the early 2000s.”
On Thursday, Kis Cafe confirmed the identity of the chef on Instagram and called Sung’s behavior “unacceptable.” The post went on to say that “he is no longer part of the team as a co-owner, a chef or in any other way.”
“As of this post he (Luke) has reached out to the creator with a personal apology,” the post continued. “This behavior does not reflect the remainder of our team. We want to create a space that’s welcoming and respectful to everyone. In this instance, we failed to do so.”
The post went on to say that Kis Cafe was “closing soon and restructuring after these events.”
“In the meantime, we hope to still be able to sustain the livelihoods of our team members and their families,” the post concluded.
As of Friday afternoon, the influencer’s original post had racked up over 15 million views. In a follow-up post, she announced that she had gained “so many new followers” as a result of the incident.
