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Key Takeaways
- Steven Droulis didn’t know he had a YouTube channel. His brother posted his videos without telling him, and it led to over 1 million subscribers.
- Most restaurant social media pages focus on showcasing food. Droulis found a better strategy.
- His authentic videos caught the attention of foodies across the nation. People traveled to his area specifically to try his restaurant — including Keith Urban.
Steven Droulis has 1 million subscribers on YouTube. He did not even know he had a channel when the first video went live.
Before any of this, Droulis was focused on something else entirely — running his restaurant.
For nearly three decades, he and his family built Vivaldi Restaurant into a neighborhood staple in Montreal. His world was the dining room, the kitchen and the daily grind that comes with ownership. Social media was not the priority.
That started to change after COVID.
“I called [my family] up and said, ‘Listen, I’m tired of these pictures,’” Droulis said. “I knew the way to go was Reels.”
He decided to invest in video, even though he expected it would require more time and resources.
“I told my brother we’re gonna be losing money on this,” Droulis said. “So maybe instead of just building up the brand of the food, we build myself as the brand.”
Instead of just posting dishes, Droulis stepped in front of the camera. He had no script or production team ready. All he had were just the same recipes he had been cooking for decades.
“I was cooking stuff right off my menu that I’ve been cooking for 30 years,” he said.
The goal was simply to stay visible and relevant. He focused on local reach, trying to reach maybe a few thousand people nearby. Then the videos started to move.
“I said [to my brother], could you let me know if we hit a million combined views?” Droulis said. And the response caught him off guard.
“[My brother] goes, by the way, I started a YouTube channel [for you].” Droulis had no idea it even existed. The first video was already at 1.3 million views.
Within weeks, everything accelerated. Followers climbed. Videos spread. The audience stretched far beyond Montreal. “I didn’t understand what that meant,” Droulis said. “What does that mean for the business? I had no clue.” What started as a small experiment became something much bigger.
Now he had a choice to make. “We had to sit down and say, ‘Am I just doing Reels for my restaurant?’” Droulis said, “Or am I gonna become a content creator now?”
He is still answering that question.
Viral to reservations
YouTube changed everything for the restaurant. The views translated into more reservations.
“I had a guy from Tampa fly into Montreal, take an Uber from the airport, eat, and go back to the airport,” Droulis said. “I was like, holy moly.”
For a restaurant that had spent nearly 30 years serving a local crowd, that moment reset what was possible. Then it kept happening. “I had at least five, six different tables a night from all over the world,” Droulis said.
The pattern was clear. People were finding him on YouTube, watching the videos and deciding to visit the restaurant.
A group from Rochester drove in for a concert and made Vivaldi part of the trip. Travelers coming for Formula 1 started booking reservations before they even arrived. Others built entire stops around a single meal, treating the restaurant as a destination rather than a convenience.
“Twenty-seven years, I never had one customer come because of the Grand Prix,” Droulis said. “Now we’ve already got bookings for that week.”
Even the unexpected became part of the story. “My brother calls me and says, Keith Urban’s band is here,” Droulis said. “They had you circled on the calendar.”
A neighborhood restaurant, 30 minutes outside the city, became a hot spot. For Droulis, the impact goes beyond revenue. It changes how guests show up. “They’re so excited to come in,” he said. “Their experience is heightened.”
That connection starts before the reservation is ever made. Guests walk in already familiar with the food, the voice and the person behind it.
“When people get to know you, they feel more connected to the restaurant,” Droulis said. The result is something most operators have never had before.
A global audience, built on YouTube, sitting in a local dining room.
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