Who is Mikey the Foodie Guy? Meet the influencer helping Central Valley restaurants go viral
“You have to try this,” Michael Castillo said, pointing at the menu of a Fresno candy store he helped go viral.
“Everyone has to try this,” he added, referring to one of his favorites at Spicy Yummy Gummy: fresh pineapple wrapped in a candy-coated fruit Roll-Up. “You get the sweetness of fruit but also the spice hits you at the end.”
Castillo, also known as Mikey the Foodie Guy, is a Fresno-based influencer who’s made it his mission to promote the Central Valley food scene.
He has about 76,400 followers on Tiktok where his posts have garnered 1.3 million likes, as well as 13,300 followers on Instagram.
“I’m all about the positive vibes,” said Castillo, who turns 41 in October.
Who is Mikey the Foodie Guy?
Castillo, who grew up in Sanger and attended Wilson Elementary School, started his own brand after being inspired by food bloggers in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
Largely home-schooled, he spent his childhood riding bikes and playing basketball.
A few years ago Castillo started noticing “a lot of people” posting food reviews and other food-related content online, he said.
“So I did a couple videos, just for fun and to test the waters,” Castillo said, and posted them on Tiktok.
The initial response was “really positive” and he decided to create Mikey the Foodie Guy two years ago, he said.
“Next thing (I know) I have restaurants messaging me, telling me, “Hey, thank you. (We) had a line out the door,’ ” after being featured in one of Castillo’s videos, he recalled. “I’m like, ‘What, really?’ ”
Castillo soon amassed a following of people as his videos kept getting reshared.
“Once I started noticing all the followers, I felt the need more to try to help more businesses,” Castillo said, particularly those in the Central Valley.
Fresno man reviews local restaurants, stores on social media
Castillo started out reviewing food trucks via social media before moving on to feature restaurants in his posts.
He now supports a variety of food-related businesses in the area, giving everything from pizza and pancakes to tacos and churros the Mikey the Foodie Guy seal of approval.
When deciding which businesses to highlight, Castillo chooses restaurants and other businesses that have recently opened as well as those that are in danger of closing.
In each video, Castillo gives viewers an inside look of the business he’s featuring. He points out his favorite stuff from the menu and encourages his followers to try it out.
Castillo appreciates it when one of his followers suggest a place for him to try out, describing himself as a people person.
“I’m one of those creators that doesn’t like to put my followers on the back burner,” he said.
Some of Castillo’s favorite discoveries include Spicy Yummy Gummy, a candy shop at 4049 E Jensen Ave. in Fresno known for its creative concoctions.
Other finds in Fresno include Carnitas la Piedad, a taqueria in 4123 East Jensen Ave. and Adrian’s Mexican restaurant at 3060 Belmont St.
“I used to post three (videos) a day,” Castillo said. “Now it’s like three a week because sometimes I’m traveling to try spots or doing events.”
He’s posted more than 100 videos in total on his social media platforms.
Why does Tiktok influencer focus on local businesses?
Although Castillo enjoys his position as a Central Valley celebrity, he said helping local restaurants and other small businesses is his main goal.
He uses his influence to get more people to try new food and explore the Central Valley.
This is why he doesn’t post negative reviews, he said.
He makes his approach clear on his social media pages: “If it’s bomb, I post it. If it’s not, then may God be with you.”
If Castillo doesn’t like “the flavor or the food wasn’t good,” he explained, “I don’t put it out there ...”
“I don’t do this to hurt anyone,” he added.
Castillo also wants to avoid negative reactions to his posts.
“People on social media take things really hard,” he said. “I’ve seen other food reviewers that gave a restaurant a bad name and said, ‘Oh, the food wasn’t good.’ Next thing you know it, they’re getting death threats and stuff like that.”
What do local business owners think?
When Spicy Yummy Gummy opened in 2022, owner Irene Membrila said, Castillo profiled it on his Mikey the Foodie Guy feed.
“Nobody knew about the spot until Mikey uploaded a video about us,” she said. “That’s when a lot of people started coming by and we were shocked. “
““It felt really good,” Membrila added.
Diana Lopez, owner of Carnitas la Piedad, said Castillo has also boosted her business after posting about it on Tiktok in July 2022.
“As soon as he did one Tiktok video about the restaurant, we gained about 500 new customers within that same weekend,” Lopez said, “He does a lot for the people in the Central Valley, and he supports lots of small business owners.”
Castillo even helps restaurants test out new menu items.
“They’ll say, ‘Hey, Mikey, we’re thinking about adding this to the menu, but we’re not sure. Can you try it? Let us know,’ ” he said.
Will food content creator expand his brand?
Although Castillo is happy to keep creating food content for social media, he eventually wants to expand his brand
with his own show on Netflix or Max.
One of his inspirations is restaurateur, author and television personality Guy Fieri, star of “Diners, Drive-In and Dives” and other Food Netwok shows.
“My goal is just to show the world that the Central Valley has really good food,” Castillo said. “You don’t really need to travel anywhere to go get some good food. We have it here already.”
This story was originally published September 11, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
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