Influencer's viral post leads to San Francisco restaurant closure, public apology

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A San Francisco chef has stepped down and their restaurant is closing after a viral confrontation with a local influencer.

According to the San Francisco Standard, TikTok creator @itskarlabb recently talked about an uncomfortable incident at the Kis Café.

While at a collaboration event, she says the chef, Luke Sung, told her she did not have enough followers, and that the ones she did have "are not the kind of people that are going to be at his restaurant."
Supporters then started flooding her comments.

At the time of the incident, she had about 15,000 followers. Now, she has more than 380,000.

In a statement last week, the restaurant said in part: "Our chef's behavior is unacceptable, and he is no longer part of the team as a co-owner, a chef or in any other way."

It went on to say: "We are closing soon and restructuring after these events."

On Sunday, the restaurant issued a public apology on Sung's behalf, saying, "because he has no public social media pages. He is, however, no longer affiliated with the restaurant in any way or a co-owner."

The Instagram post is four pages and starts with an apology to the influencer, Karla: "I was condescending, hurtful, and intimidating. You did not deserve to feel less than or unimportant, nobody does. Regardless, I thank you for teaching me a valuable lesson in kindness and respect."

Sung then goes on to take responsibility for what happened and apologizes to the staff at Kis Café.

Lastly, he apologized to his family for what happened.