In a city where politicians love to talk about supporting small businesses, one supervisor is actually doing something — and all it took was an Instagram account.

Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has quietly become one of San Francisco's most effective restaurant boosters, leveraging his social media presence to drive real foot traffic to local eateries. It's not a taxpayer-funded initiative. There's no six-figure consultant contract. No blue-ribbon commission. Just a guy with a phone, a stomach, and a following.

And honestly? It's kind of refreshing.

San Francisco's restaurant scene has been battered in recent years — pandemic closures, rising commercial rents, foot traffic that still hasn't fully recovered in some neighborhoods, and a permitting process that could make a saint weep. The city has thrown money at various "revitalization" efforts with mixed results at best. Meanwhile, Mahmood is out here doing the most analog thing possible: eating at local spots and telling people about it.

The cynics will say it's a branding play — and sure, no elected official does anything without at least one eye on their political future. But here's the thing: it's working. Restaurants he features reportedly see real bumps in business. That's more than most city programs can claim after burning through their entire budget cycle.

There's a broader lesson here for City Hall. The best thing government can often do for small businesses isn't another grant program or another task force. It's getting out of the way — and occasionally, just showing up as a customer. Mahmood seems to understand that the most powerful economic development tool isn't a policy paper; sometimes it's genuine enthusiasm and a platform.

We're not saying every supervisor needs to become a food blogger. (Please, some of them should stay far away from content creation.) But in a city that spends billions annually and still struggles to keep storefronts occupied, maybe the lowest-cost, highest-impact approach deserves a little more attention.

Keep eating, Supervisor. The restaurants need it more than they need another hearing.