42 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY OCTOBER 16-22, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com Spooky Sale! Open Every Day Except Monday Sunday 10:00 am - 4:00 pm 10:00 am - 5:00 pm 75% o All Halloween Items and All Clothing! Sale ends 11/1/25 223 Grand Ave, Suite 1 Paci c Grove (831) 312-8991| www.POMDR.org BENEFIT SHOP Ad sponsored by Monterey Bay Whale Watch www.GoWhales.com Ciabatta Want to meet Ciabatta? Please ll out our online volunteer application. If you’d like sponsor our next ad, give us a call. 831-718-9122 | www.POMDR.org Ciabatta is a scru y, soulful sweetheart with pep in his step and love to share. He’s beach-ready, cuddle-approved, and always by your side. This senior Terrier mix gets along well with other dogs and thrives in a calm home. Ready for a loyal little shadow? Adopt Ciabatta! Terrier Mix | ~10 years old | 18 lbs FACE TO FACE It was mid-January this year when Jesus “Jebus” Soto of Salinas made a decision to commit to highlighting local restaurants on TikTok. He began posting videos daily to his @Jebus TikTok account, using the nickname his uncle gave him years ago, starting with fast food places near his home. At first he garnered several hundred views per video. “I’m just going to go all in. Don’t worry about the views, don’t worry about the likes. Just post, post, post,” he remembers telling himself. The numbers changed in May, when one of his videos went viral, a post on Dubai chocolate desserts made by DollyCakes and Supplies in Salinas, with over 100,000 views in a single day. Soto went from about 1,000 followers to over 16,000 as of early October. “And now it’s my life and I don’t think I’ll stop because I know the community likes my stuff,” he says. He’s doing well enough to pay most of the rent on the two-bedroom apartment he shares with his wife Jackie Mireles, who’s supportive of what’s become Soto’s part-time job. On top of going to CSU Monterey Bay full time to become a special education teacher and working at the Salinas Adult School full time, he spends his weekends filming himself eating meals and pastries behind the wheel of his Nissan Altima. In what spare time he has left during the week he edits the videos, enough to post one per day. Soto comes from an agricultural family that immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 2. He came up through Salinas schools and graduated from Hartnell College before transferring to CSUMB where he is in his last semester majoring in social behavioral sciences. “This community has been so supportive,” he says. “They’ve been supporting me since that one [viral] video and they kept on watching my videos.” Weekly: Tell me where you started on TikTok with the number of views. Soto: I was getting anywhere from 500 to maybe 2,000 to 4,000 [per video]. That’s pretty much the average. Those are the views that most beginning creators are going to get, and my views stayed like that for four or five months. I just kept posting every day regardless of the views, even though most of the videos I deleted because I did not like them. I wasted probably $500 a week just on food, just to see where it takes me. Things really picked up after the DollyCakes video. It’s around 600,000 views right now. After that video, the following video did relatively good, and the next video, and then it pretty much kept going. The more local content I did the more momentum I got. People liked watching local content because there’s not really a lot of creators out here broadcasting local content. It’s what works for me and now it pays a huge portion of my rent. So that’s what I’m going to stick with. Why do you think a video can go from a few thousand views to over 100,000 in one day? I think it’s just luck. I can post the same video the following day and I get maybe 5,000 views. It’s just really unexpected when it comes to social media. But I believe in consistency. I posted four months straight without missing a single day. Maybe that’s why they gave me a reward. But really, I don’t know how it works. Now restaurants are reaching out to you? I’m happy to do that. I don’t charge a single dime to locals. If they want to provide the food for free, I’m going to be honest. Most of the time I’ll just go pay for the food, go to my car and do what I got to do. Your followers also recommend restaurants to try. How do you choose what to feature? I usually go for anything that looks attractive food-wise, to catch people’s attention. Attention span is pretty tough on TikTok, you have to get their attention in the first five to 10 seconds. With all that food you are trying, how do you stay in shape? I love sports. I’ve played soccer since I was 4. It’s still a weekly routine. And I have a two-bedroom apartment. One bedroom is for us and the other one is a gym. Are you getting recognized now? I get recognized probably every single day. What’s the favorite video you’ve produced? It’s the Dolly’s one. I love Dolly’s. I go even without making a video. I went yesterday. I just love that place. Going Viral Jesus ‘Jebus’ Soto of Salinas goes all in on local content and finds success on TikTok. By Pam Marino Jesus “Jebus” Soto reacts for the camera as he describes cheesecakes and an almond croissant from Emma’s Bakery in Salinas. Soto has amassed over 16,000 TikTok followers since January posting local food reviews daily. STEVE SOUZA
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