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As a food editor who doesn’t closely follow the NBA, I didn’t know about Festus Ezeli until earlier this year, when I saw the impact of his interest in the local culinary scene via his Festus Feasts Instagram account, which highlights local restaurants daily. His energy is a blessing to the Bay Area.
I interviewed the former Golden State Warriors player, who is now a philanthropist and sports analyst, in April, when he and his mom collaborated with the San Francisco restaurant Chotto Matte to create a charitable Nigerian-Peruvian-Japanese dish called Dodo Nikkei Stew. During that chat, I learned that Ezeli truly takes his platform seriously. He uses it to particularly highlight local mom and pop restaurants with wonderful food and with touching stories—especially if they’ve been unfairly slighted on Yelp or on social media.
“I’ve seen restaurants suffer because of bad reviews,” he said. “I’ve seen small businesses have to close. And if you feel like you’re just saying something just to get a click for your own benefit, that’s really selfish. I think we all should use our platforms better. And if things are not good, then do something to fix it.”
As of this writing, Festus Feasts has 111,000 followers on Instagram. Every time the account grows by 10,000 followers, Ezeli selects some to take out to dinner. Friendships among the guests usually form—with him and with each other—and continue after the meal.
“One thing I found out recently is some of those groups that I put together, they’ve still been grabbing dinner and grabbing lunches and still hanging out,” he shared. “This is a real community that I feel like is building here through this food page.”
