To Joanna Davis, food isn’t just ingredients and nutrients — It’s a love language.
“In Filipino culture, food is like our love language,” Davis, the woman behind The 850 Foodie Instagram, said. “So my mom doted on me with food growing up, and we’d go to Filipino parties — Have you ever had Filipino food? You need to go to a Filipino party because they will force you to leave with like, to-go plates. It’s just the way of life of the culture.”
But as her mother got older and stopped cooking for her family, Davis looked for another way to spread the love. She found a passion for visiting local restaurants in Navarre, where she’s lived for over 30 years, and sharing her experiences online.
“I got really involved in doing food reviews, and then I just kind of got involved with the local Facebook groups, and then I just got tired of people being mean and nasty,” Davis said. “And it’s like, I live in Navarre. We have like five restaurants there, and it’s like, you guys keep tearing up the same restaurants. We’re not going to have anything good, you know?”
Due to negativity online, Davis started her own food blog in 2020 focused on positivity and local businesses in and around Okaloosa County.
“There was really no food community back then,” Davis said. “Like, I didn’t even know about foodie influencers. That wasn’t even a concept back then. … So I’m like, well, I’ll just take photos of my food, share what I like, and if anything, I like my own pictures. I didn’t think anything would come of it, but slowly, people started to follow.”
Today, @the850foodie has over 66 thousand followers — but Davis said it took years of dedication to build an online community.
“It took me like three years to get to 10 thousand followers,” she said. “So you know, slowly plugging away at it, and I always tell new influencers — I think nowadays people want that immediate gratification of becoming viral, and most people that find success started off slow, and you do it for yourself.”
Through the years, Davis’ content evolved from photos to high-quality videos with several camera angles and aesthetically pleasing shots. She also frequently hosts giveaways, and said giving back to her community while supporting small businesses is her main goal in running The 850 Foodie.
“I always tell people I don’t come as a food critic,” Davis said. “I’m not necessarily a food reviewer. I’m here to highlight what’s good.”
To avoid a negative experience, Davis said she thoroughly vets every restaurant that asks her to come try their food. She’s seen the impact her endorsements can have on a business.
“Cutie Patootie Charcuterie, the owner Jesse, when he reached out to me, he said … they were on the verge of closing because they were a food truck and he didn’t think that they were gonna make it,” Davis said. “And then the video went viral, and people from like an hour, two hours away would drive in to try those sandwiches. It’s cool to be able to see those success stories.”
Years of visiting food spots around the panhandle has shown Davis how deeply food contributes to the area’s culture and community.
“Food really and truly is a love language,” she said. “It’s universal. Like, you can go to the nail salon and people are talking about, like, ‘Oh, there’s this new place that opened up.’ I think [social media] help put [Okaloosa County] on the map, you know? … It’s showing that we may not be Atlanta and Houston, and maybe, yeah, we need more Asian and Korean places, and stuff like that, but we’re growing, you know? And ultimately that was what I wanted to be able to see, is to see my community grow.”
Crafting a social media presence taught Davis about herself, too.
“I never really saw myself as being an artistic person, but art comes in so many different forms, and I didn’t realize that you’re being creative through content creation,” Davis said. “I really enjoy making food look beautiful.”
Regardless of how many followers she gains, Davis has one particular piece of advice for aspiring influencers: “Don’t overthink it.”
“Be willing to take risks and try different things, and play around with it,” Davis said. “I notice some pages, they love having a certain aesthetic, and they’ll have a theme. I thought about doing that, but I’m like, you know what? That’s not for me. It’s boring. I just want to always try different things. … Let’s have fun.”
