Foodie feasts on Charlotte cuisine via social platforms

CORY WILKINS

Cory Wilkins of Charlotte photographs restaurant fare to post on The Daily Special CLT, a platform showcase of local cuisine.

Cory Wilkins enjoys Charlotte’s foodie life.

Whenever he is not working remotely as a software developer, Wilkins creates content based on restaurant sites he visits.

“Charlotte had a lot more just food options in general than what I was used to, so I was trying all of these different places,” said Wilkins, an Elberton, Georgia, native. “Exploring the different cuisines that were offered here and then I started seeing a bunch of food and drink specials around Charlotte and I would always be there on the wrong day, so it was always like ‘oh I had known that it was 50-cent wings on Wednesdays.’ I would've come here on Wednesday instead of being here on a Friday.”

Wilkins’ social media is filled with short videos of restaurants and other places he visits around the area.

“I mainly wanted to highlight these places mostly because a lot of places that I was going weren't getting that much media coverage, they weren't often in places in the popular neighborhoods that get a lot of coverage,” he said. “I would go to a lot of food trucks, a lot of small pop spots, a lot of hole-in-the wall restaurants that had a great food, but didn't necessarily have the budget for marketing or even know how to market themselves so I kind of took it upon myself to shine a light on a lot of these places that were often overlooked.”

Wilkins, who moved to Charlotte in 2017 from Augusta, Georgia, where he lived for a decade, said he was seeking to be in a bigger place from the one he grew up in. A job offer led him to Charlotte and a year later, he started creating content based on his culinary experiences – a platform he plans to expand soon.

“I was like ‘There has to be somewhere that list like all of the food and drink specials,’” Wilkins said. “There wasn't so I built it.”

Soon, he launched The Daily Special CLT, a website Wilkins primarily used for himself and his friends to keep track of food and drink specials. Wilkins has more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.

“Of course with Google you know people started searching for food and drink specials and then my site would come up so a lot of people ended up using my website to find and figure out where to eat and get the best deals,” he said, “so that's how I kind of got into the food scene here and then from there, I ended up creating an Instagram to kind of just pair with the website.”

Before TikTok era took over the world, Wilkins bought his own gear to shoot content but once he was familiarized with the platform and grow his following. He is also active on multiple platforms including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

“Last year I made the change just to the Daily Special and that was mainly just due to self-expanding,” Wilkins said. “Charlotte will always be home and where I'm based in primarily what I post, but also as I go to some of these other towns in North Carolina, South Carolina and maybe even eventually around the country. I thought it was best just to drop the CLT off the name officially, but still be present.”
Not only has he been able to spread the word regarding the small businesses, he has also grown their clientele.

“It definitely gives restaurants a huge, huge, boost and has even saved some restaurants from closing,” he said.

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