How LA Superstar Fatima’s Grill Navigates Social Media Fame Amid a Pandemic
One of greater LA’s busiest restaurants became TikTok famous last year, but that comes with its own issues in the coronavirus age
Dance music pounds into the parking lot of a tight, L-shaped stucco strip mall in Downey, California. It’s a Thursday and, as usual, Fatima’s Grill — home of cheesy, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos-laced burgers, giant quesaritos, overloaded fries, and halal Lebanese shawarma sandwiches alike — is hopping with customers ready to eat, phone in hand.
Half the pavement in the strip mall has been taken over by white party tenting, a nod to the makeshift on-site dining needs of the current pandemic. A line of eager customers, all who seem under 30, press against the shaded wall that wraps around and down hectic Firestone Boulevard. Always-energetic owner Ali Elreda, microphone in hand, takes turns calling out order names and wait times from a booming PA system inside the colorful restaurant. In normal times, Elreda might be in the back goofing around with his staff, or going live on Instagram to showcase his nacho-cheese drizzling skills, but now he stands in the dining room surrounded by to-go boxes, tubs bursting with Hot Cheetos bags, unopened cases of soda, and the kind of neon signs that would have made sense if customers could actually sit down to see them.