and it was hard to find last year. Someone reminding you that life is absurd and silly—even when it’s incomprehensibly terrible—can pull you out of a quicksand grief trap.He gets meme ideas, check-ins from friends , and fan mail in his DMs now. “There have been people that’ve been in toxic workplaces, or they’ve had a year where they maybe lost their job, or they had to work all through the pandemic, and they had DM’d me and said, ‘I like waking up every morning and scrolling through your memes.
Sometimes followers DM the account to guess which xanthan gum–loving chef a meme is referring to. Eli replies: “No, that’s me.” @thesussmans gets to make fun of some restaurant world news in a way we can’t here in the ramp-and-rhubarb-obsessed food media . When Eleven Madison Park announced it was going completely vegan, the news folk covered it pretty straightforward, Wow, wouldya look at that. @thesussmans posts: “EMP goes meatless. Sous chefs be like: N-U-T-R-I-T-I-O-N-A-L Y….” I loved that one.
Memes don’t pay the bills, though, and unless @thesussmans got a sweet Fashion Nova sponsorship, Eli was still a restaurateur. After months of wondering what he’d do next, Eli was able to resurrect Samesa in a prime lunch spot in Rockefeller Center, which opened this spring. On Instagram, he’ll post the occasional food porny