Viral TikToker Tommy Winkler 'The Food Guy' Takes On Vegas One Bite At A Time

Tommy Winkler, aka "The Food Guy," is bringing the best bites of Las Vegas straight to your screen!

In this latest adventure, he explores the city’s vibrant food scene, from hidden gems to iconic spots, all while sharing his honest takes and delicious finds; because what happens in Vegas definitely doesn’t need to stay in Vegas when it’s this tasty!

The Blast had the opportunity to tag along with Winkler and his girlfriend Jessica, who helps Winkler with his content creation, as he tried out a local spot that TikTok food critic Keith Lee rated a 10 out of 10 - Taste Budz. We had the chance to not only chat with Winkler about the process of content creation and what led him to it but also got to watch him in action behind-the-scenes.

Winkler, known for traveling around the world and sharing his experiences trying different foods, as well as sharing his favorite food hacks, has a super active social media presence. Viral on multiple social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, Winkler found a niche that has attracted tons of online attention.

"Ever since growing up, I've just always been in the mindset of creating content, or my parents would film me on the little camcorder and I would just be funny, silly. It didn't start to get serious until TikTok in 2019, pre-pandemic," Winkler told The Blast exclusively. "I had a couple of friends tell me to download it and I just started creating anything I could. It had nothing to do with food. It was just creating content, trying to build an audience, trying to learn algorithms on platforms - what performs well, what doesn't."

Winkler explained that starting out was all about the "grind" because he didn't have a niche or a concept of what videos would work well.

"So I created around 700 videos before I started seeing any sort of success, which is from me running out of video ideas and creating a what I eat in a day, the first bite of each item I ate throughout the day, and that put me into this food niche online," he continued. "Because it blew up, I made another one the next day, and it blew up again. That just turned into what it is today by innovating, creating cool ideas."

Winkler visited quite a few restaurants during his recent week-long visit to Las Vegas. One place that he just knew he had to try out and share his review of is popular Vegas spot, Taste Budz.

"I saw Taste Budz got a high rating from Keith Lee and his food review. I saw Kai Cenat was here and when you see that level of influence trying food and saying it's good, you're going to want to try it yourself and hopefully find it a similar taste," Winkler exclusively told The Blast. "So, it's my first time here. Really cool location, the art, I'm just a big fan of the soul food vibe that they have going on, so that's kind of what brought me here."

Winkler tried out many different dishes at Taste Budz, including the jerk chicken, macaroni and cheese, elotes, taffy grapes, banana pudding, and more!

When a viewer challenged Winkler to "only eat soul food for the whole day," he gladly accepted. That's where Taste Budz enters the chat.

In Winkler's review video, he shares all the food he tried, and you can tell he really enjoyed every bite. He captioned his video, "You can taste the love in this food."

It's safe to say Winkler enjoyed his day of eating just soul food and all the amazing dishes Taste Budz served him.

Owners of Taste Budz, Latricsha and Marsean Nelson, started out their business with a food truck that moved around a bit before finding a home behind a Buffalo Wild Wings. They opened their restaurant on North Decatur Blvd. in Las Vegas two years to the day that Winkler visited the restaurant.

"We had the food truck open for a year and had lines down the street with a two or three hour wait," Latricsha told The Blast. "And they just basically pushed us out of the food truck into something bigger to provide more. "

The restaurant is known for its soul food, as well as other delicacies.

"We got everything. You can get any type of flavor in here. People always come in for the oxtail meals, and jerk chicken, mac, and yams, you can't go wrong with that," she said. "We have the best food in Las Vegas. You're gonna get everything you need right here."

The couple is also in the midst of opening their second location.

"We got another location opening up closer to the airport on Maryland Parkway across the street from UNLV, so we're growing," she said. "We expect to have our grand opening January 18," Marsean added.

He also shared, "We've had so many wonderful, beautiful people come here and enjoy the food. Keith Lee, he came twice and he just came to eat. It's been a wonderful journey."

While it may appear to be all fun and games, Winkler said it's not always easy trying to eat so much for content. Something that makes it easier - staying active.

When asked if he ever gets to the point where he doesn't want to see food for a while, he responded, "I feel that a little bit at this moment from traveling."

"My schedule at home is solely just eating, working out, eating, working out. I love to stretch the importance of being active every single day, especially with the food that I consume. If I'm not active, then you know that can really deteriorate me physically, mentally," he said. "I've noticed that in the past, it really takes a toll on not just your body but mentally."

Winkler said that he's "very numerical" and loves to look at the analytics, even with macros and calories, so that he can "calculate something that makes sense for the day and base my workouts on my video ideas and how hard they're going to be."