Editor's Note: This interview is part of an ongoing Star series highlighting Kansas Citians from historically under-represented communities and their impact on our region. The series builds on The Star's efforts to improve coverage of local communities. Do you know someone we should interview? Share ideas with our reporter J.M. Banks.
When Kansas City native Glenn Robinson started his Hood Dude Food Reviews in 2017, he never imagined that his food reviews would become so popular that people stop him in the street to thank him for his recommendations or that restaurants would invite him to come eat for free.
Growing up in a culturally diverse community opened the doors to the world of food exploration to Robinson. And since, he has made a name for himself on social media and gained a hefty following of folks who like his honest takes on local restaurants and their food.
Recently, Robinson sat down with The Kansas City Star’s culture and identity reporter, J.M. Banks, to talk about how his love of food, KC restaurants and the hazards of food criticism.
Banks: Can you begin by telling me about your early life and upbringing?
Robinson: I grew up in the Northeast area of KC. That’s when I really like started discovering all these different types of food. Over in that area you have Mexicans, Indians, Africans, Chinese people. All these different groups, making the area this melting pot. So I got to try a lot of different foods. That opened the door for me to new cultural experiences and that really helped me to want to venture out when it came to eating food. The food reviews really started from that because I was eating at places that nobody knew about and one day I was like how about I make a post and start telling people about these places.
How do you choose the restaurants you review?
Initially, when I first started doing content creation, I would just be going to new places. I literally would be Googling places and just walking in eating and recording. Now things have solidified. People think of me a lot and ask me to come, and more places have hit me up to ask me to come. Initially I was spending my own money but in the last three to four months I have grown to the point where they are inviting me and covering the bill. Because we really don’t have a lot of content creators here reviewing food, I have been able to make a lot of contacts in the restaurant business and they are happy to have me come.
How do you select what food on the menu will be ordered and reviewed?
If they invite me in, sometimes they will give me a spread and tell me if there was anything in particular that they wanted to highlight. Sometimes a restaurant will let me know they are doing a promotion on a certain item. But it all depends. Some places just tell me to order what I want.
What are the challenges that you face in your career?
People don’t like being criticized and food reviews can be seen as a form of criticism. At the end of the day I do not lie and I do not care if you gave me the food for free. I am not going to say that something was good when it was not because this whole thing is based off of me being honest. This is all my opinion and an opinion is not supposed to be agreed with by everybody. Nothing is completely bad, just like there is no such thing as a perfect dish. I always try to find something positive to say about a place. Sometimes it is challenging to find ways to be witty and finding new clever ways to say something was good or bad.
How do you feel your work impacts the community around you?
I think being able to build relationships with these businesses. We want to start inviting people to come to the reviews and do it in front of people. I think that will also be a way to get those places new business and bring in new customers.
What is the most fulfilling part of your work?
I think getting to know the business owners, getting to shed light on business, and the reactions from the businesses. I get to tell people about the places I like to go and that they may not know about. I started to learn and understand a lot about the other side of the food industry by talking to businesses about the people who come in and order what and how often and I think that is really interesting. But the most fulfilling thing would probably be when somebody stops me on the street and says that they discovered a new place to eat because of me. Knowing that people have been inspired to go out and try something new based on my opinion is really a great feeling.
Do you have a personal motto or philosophy that guides you?
You have to be consistent, consistently. It is something that has really helped me boost my life. I feel like everyone has this thing that they do that they might be really good at and you have to build on that so you have to keep grinding and working.
What are your goals for the future?
We haven’t announced yet but we have started the KC Food Network. We want to have reporters going out and doing stories on restaurants, food and things of that nature. We want to grow and change the landscape. Right now we are just on Instagram but we would love to start traveling around the country. I am working with the KC Defender and Discover KC to throw a big picnic next year so we are still figuring out how to do that.
What advice would you give to someone who is looking to follow the same career path as yourself?
The biggest thing I would say that has helped me the most is to not let anyone stifle you or don’t wait for anybody else. You know when you are really hungry and want to do this. In the beginning I was doing it all on my own, the shooting, editing and everything else. At the end of the day, if I wanted it I couldn’t allow there to be any excuse for why I don’t get it. Everybody has to start somewhere and all legends start local.
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