Ezeli has been making the rounds at Bay Area restaurants with infectious enthusiasm, documenting his meals and singing the praises of local spots to a growing audience. He's become a one-man economic stimulus package for small restaurant owners — no taxpayer dollars required. And in a city where small businesses are still clawing their way back from pandemic closures and increasingly hostile regulatory environments, that kind of organic boost matters more than another round of "small business relief" that gets swallowed by administrative overhead.

What makes Ezeli's restaurant advocacy refreshing is what it isn't. He reportedly bristles at the "influencer" label, and honestly, good for him. The influencer economy is largely a house of cards built on sponsored content and algorithmic manipulation. Ezeli seems to genuinely just love food and love putting people on to good spots. It's the free market working exactly as it should — someone with a platform using it to drive foot traffic to businesses that earn it by being excellent.

San Francisco's restaurant scene remains one of the city's greatest assets, even as operators navigate sky-high rents, labor costs, and a regulatory maze that would make Kafka weep. The last thing they need is another city task force. What they need is more customers walking through the door.

So here's to Festus Ezeli: proof that the best thing a public figure can do for small business isn't lobbying City Hall — it's just telling people where to eat.