Buzz

Joe Isidori is the chef and owner of Arthur & Sons, a meatballs-and-macaroni Italian spot that opened in the West Village last year. He is also an engagement guru, having previously invented the candy-loaded milkshakes at Black Tap Burgers that became a defining beverage of the 2010s Instagram era. “I kind of cracked the code nine years ago,” he says. He’s since left Black Tap and traded burgers for burrata, but he hasn’t lost his deft digital touch, developing an informal partnership — he calls it a “bromance,” and no money is exchanged — with Jack Goldburg, the 24-year-old star of Jack’s Dining Room (261,000 followers), who launched his account last year, partly in an effort to procure free meals. Together, Isidori and Goldburg take a shameless, boisterous approach to chasing views. “I’ve heard all the hype that Arthur & Sons is better than Carbone, so I had to see for myself, but no one told me the owner, Joe, is the fucking man,” Goldburg effuses in one video, as Isidori feeds him a heaping forkful of cheese-drenched tomatoes followed by a plate of shiny Marsala overflowing with sliced mushrooms. The camera zooms in on Goldburg’s bug-eyed, orgasmic expression as a strand of cheese stretches from a mozzarella stick to his mouth. “Let me just say this: The spicy rigatoni blew Carbone out of the stratosphere, the cheesy mozz bites were ridiculous, these homemade balls had me dancing, and the truffle-cream pasta was the knockout punch.”