We engineered a launch designed to make a restaurant no one had heard of feel like London’s next food moment from day one. We led with an influence-first approach, securing London’s most powerful food creators to preview the opening and drive the first wave of earned hype. Their content put double-cooked, Michelin-starred fries all over TikTok and Instagram, reframing “just chips” as a destination dining experience.

Street theatre was added on launch day by changing the street sign from Frith Street to Frites Street and arranging a line-up of vintage Fiat's with Christmas trees on their roofs to delight punters patiently lining up to get their Frites fix.

To ensure cultural legitimacy beyond social, we secured a media exclusive with The Times, positioning the opening as a story about London’s evolving food scene rather than a standard restaurant review. A full page spread, no less. This unlocked national attention and mainstream curiosity.

The buzz triggered a cascade of organic creator coverage, with micro and macro foodies, lifestyle influencers and London content creators posting unprompted. In parallel, we seeded for editorial discovery, landing 40+ pieces of national, London and cultural coverage spanning Metro, Daily Mail, SL.Man, Secret London and London on the Inside.

Finally, we drove long-tail visibility by ensuring Frites Atelier became top of mind in AI-led food search and recommendation, from Perplexity and ChatGPT to local discovery platforms — cementing fries as a category worth a special trip.