Meeting a social media hero in Edinburgh

During my recent Edinburgh Fringe escapade, I paid an unannounced visit to the China Star restaurant for lunch.

Three months ago, actress Lisa He posted an Instagram video that after 30 years, her family restaurant was dying and the only person left running it was her mother. 

She departed London to return to her Edinburgh home and give herself three months to save China Star.

She worked tirelessly to modernize this classic Cantonese restaurant, keeping crazy hours washing dishes, cooking food, and serving customers.

Slowly but surely, business returned since her videos went viral, many people rooting her on.

Since I was heading to Edinburgh, I had to show my support by having lunch and hopefully congratulating Lisa. Luckily, she turned up 20 minutes after I arrived.

There was a minute where I thought: I hope she doesn’t think I’m a crazy stalker.

I brought her a Knicks cap as a gift, which definitely broke the ice bigtime. We had a great conversation about NYC’s Chinatown, her mom, and the impact of her videos. She’s working at China Star AND a law firm AND auditioning.

Then we decided to shoot our own funny video which we both posted on our respective social accounts. 

Lisa posted a new video this week: her mission succeeded, but what next? Her mother is 70 years old. London is the entertainment center of Europe, not Edinburgh. Does she stay? What should mom do?

One thing we did agree on: when she makes her first ever visit to NYC, she’s bringing her mom and all three of us will meet up in Manhattan’s Chinatown.