How one Sacramento couple celebrates the local food scene on social media

Two years ago, Ellie and Lupe Andrade uploaded their first video as the Taste Duo sampling beef carpaccio and pho at Saigon Alley Kitchen and Bar in midtown. Since then, the Sacramento couple has amassed over 41,000 followers on TikTok and over 84,000 Instagram followers.

The Andrades created the social media brand in 2023 to showcase the capital region’s food scene, local events and, occasionally, their travels.

“I wouldn’t call us reviewers, because I don’t think we review food. We are all about the experience,” Lupe said. “We love to go to a place that has history.”

The pair met during their senior year at Galt High School in a video production class with Ellie, originally from Vietnam and in the U.S. as an exchange student, and Lupe, a Galt resident his entire life.

Lupe said that when he first met Ellie, he was not adventurous when it came to exploring new food.

“Before her, I barely ate onions, but now I’m open to everything,” he said. Since launching their social media accounts, the couple has tried everything from squid ink pizza to ramen topped with vanilla ice cream.

While they went to prom together as friends, Ellie said they didn’t start dating until their first year of college.

Ellie attended Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa and San Joaquin Delta College and Stockton before transferring to Sacramento State, initially majoring in theatre and dance. Unsure about a future in performance, she explored various subjects before switching to public relations, thanks to a professor.

Lupe said he enrolled at Universal Technical Institute to study diesel mechanics, following in the footsteps of several family members, but it didn’t stick.

“I realized that there are other opportunities to learn and not have to be under a truck,” Lupe said. “Ellie talked about communications, and it sounded like something that I wanted to do.”

After earning their bachelor’s degrees in public relations, both landed jobs at a corporate restaurant company, Ellie as a marketing coordinator focused on sales analysis and franchising, and Lupe as a social media coordinator.

About a year into her career, Ellie had a realization.

“Why don’t we do this for ourselves? Even if nobody watched it,” She said. “We didn’t think it would be anything. ‘I don’t know, I’ll send it to my mom.’ ”

Looking back, Lupe said he cringes at their early videos.

“We didn’t know what we were doing,” he said. “We just wanted to have fun, and we were figuring it out.”

Ellie said they initially alternated between filming restaurant visits and at-home cooking videos. After a few months, they focused exclusively on restaurant content, finding the at-home productions too time-consuming and complex.

Rather than critiquing food or service, she said they focus on the overall dining experience, seeking out mom-and-pop spots and hidden gems, often based on viewer recommendations.

“We didn’t know that Sacramento had this much to offer before we started doing it,” Ellie said.

She said smaller restaurants need more attention in a crowded field and typically don’t have a marketing budget. “Those places have generations of love,” Lupe said.

“If we’re gonna put a video out, we’re gonna be behind that business,” Ellie said.

She said most of the time, they pay for their meals and only a small percentage of their videos are paid collaborations — even then, they’re selective. Ellie said they’ve refunded partnerships when the food didn’t meet their expectations.

The couple has developed a rigorous production schedule: Ellie said they wake at 6 a.m. to record voiceovers before heading to work, then film, edit and write scripts in the evenings.

“Then the next morning we do it all over again,” She said. “It’s literally the 5 to 9 after the 9 to 5.”

When filming at restaurants, they typically request corner booths or quiet areas to avoid disturbing other patrons.

“I, myself, am super shy, that’s why in some of our videos, you’ll notice we’re at a park or somewhere completely empty, because we take the food and go,” Lupe said.

She said they also draw clear boundaries around what they share online.

“We show only a small aspect of us,” Ellie said. “I don’t think we see ourselves as public figures or feel like we are putting ourselves out there more than we would want to.”

Overall, Ellie said she attributes their positive and supportive community to their focus on uplifting small businesses.

“I was freaked out when we posted our first few videos,” Lupe said. “We started going to more spots because people cared.” A few months after posting, The Taste Duo reached 10,000 followers on Instagram and restaurants began reaching out.

Despite their growing audience, Ellie said their long-term goal isn’t to become full-time content creators. They hope to transition into restaurant consulting, using the Taste Duo as a platform to meet people in the industry.

“Even though a lot of people know us as food influencers, we do have a marketing background that I feel like we can build off of,” Lupe said.

What I’m Eating

Steps away from Golden 1 Center, Koja Kitchen serves fast-casual Korean- and Japanese-inspired bites, post-Kings game or DoCo bar crawl. The king on the menu is the Koja sandwich, which swaps bread for crispy garlic rice buns, and is stuffed with Korean BBQ beef, chicken or other proteins. The menu also features rice bowls, salads, tacos and a range of appetizers.

The Sacramento location opened in October 2019 with a neon-lit karaoke bar tucked away in the basement and serves a full selection of beer and cocktails. Upstairs, the main dining space is casual, catering to the downtown lunch crowd with a self-serve kiosk ordering system.

The Kamikaze fries ($8.75) top waffle fries with minced Korean BBQ beef, drizzled with Japanese mayo and gochujang sauce, and finished with chopped green onions. The dish is sweet, spicy and indulgent enough to stand on its own as a full meal.

The Original Koja ($13.25) is a hefty sandwich that layers thick chunks of Korean BBQ short ribs with lettuce, sesame vinaigrette and katsu aioli, nestled between two crispy rice buns. The Braised Pork Koja ($11.25) delivers a rich combination of miso-coconut braised pork, peppery arugula, a crispy wonton chip and fried onions. The crispy sweetness of the rice buns reminded me of a childhood favorite, bibingka malagkit, a Filipino coconut sticky rice dessert.

You may find yourself needing to open wide to take a full bite, and the rice buns can struggle to hold up under the weight of the fillings. Still, when they eventually give way, a fork does the job just fine.

Address: 732 K St., Sacramento

Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-1:30 a.m. Friday-Saturday

Phone: 916-628-6829

Website: kojakitchen.com

Drinks: Soda, strawberry mango mint lemonade, milk tea and tap beer

Vegetarian options: Teriyaki Zen Koja (soy and portobello mushroom patty), fries and tofu-based rice bowls and salads

Outdoor seating: Yes

Openings & Closings

• Longtime Sacramento taco chain Chando’s has abruptly closed its three remaining locations in North Sacramento, West Sacramento and the Elder Creek neighborhood of the city. Owner Lisandro “Chando” Madrigal said the closures were temporary but did not share how long the restaurants would be closed.
• Pedal Car Pizza & Gelato opened at 222 Vernon St. in Roseville on Tuesday, according to an Instagram post from the business. The restaurant will serve a variety of wood-fired pizzas, gelato and sorbetto.
• International milk tea chain Wushiland Boba is set to open its first Northern California location in Sacramento on Saturday at 2018 Sutterville Road, Suite 116, according to an Instagram post from the business.