Welcome back to Tremento’s Hospitality Marketing School! Today, we’re diving into the best restaurant Instagram strategy we’ve seen in a while—First Watch.
This breakfast, brunch, and lunch chain has mastered the relatable, high-engagement social media marketing, proving that a messy, unfiltered feed can generate higher engagement than overly polished content.
If you’re looking to build the best restaurant Instagram account for your own business, you’ll want to take notes on First Watch’s approach—because they’re doing everything right.
So, let’s dig in! 🍽
Table of content
- Brand Story: How First Watch Became a Social Media Powerhouse
- Branding Strategies: The Playbook Behind First Watch’s Instagram Success
- Marketing Tactics: Why First Watch’s Strategy is the Best Restaurant Instagram Strategy
- Key Takeaways from First Watch’s Instagram
- Three Things You Can Do Right Now to Improve Your Restaurant’s Instagram
- Final Thoughts: Why First Watch Has One of the Best Restaurant Instagram Accounts
Brand Story: How First Watch Became a Social Media Powerhouse
First Watch isn’t just a regular brunch spot. They’ve taken a unique approach to dining by focusing exclusively on breakfast, brunch, and lunch, with their restaurants closing in the early afternoon.
With over 500 locations across 29 states, First Watch has built one of the best restaurant Instagram accounts by leaning into memes, humor, and influencer marketing instead of overly polished, corporate-style content.
Their strategy is proof that having fun with your content can help you dominate Instagram.
Branding Strategies: The Playbook Behind First Watch’s Instagram Success
1. Meme-Driven, Relatable Content 📲😂
First Watch understands internet humor and uses it to their advantage. Their Instagram feed is filled with:
✔ Hilarious food memes
✔ Playful, trend-driven content
✔ Relatable moments (at least for their typical guest)
This approachability makes their brand feel human, not corporate, which is the key to running their successful restaurant Instagram account. Obviously, there are restaurants for whom this approach wouldn’t work (in fact, we’ll feature one soon), but I’d argue that for the far majority, humor is the way when it comes to social media.
2. Smart Influencer Collaborations 👥
First Watch has perfected its best restaurant Instagram strategy by collaborating with fitness influencers, foodies, and parenting figures, creating authentic content that drives engagement.
These personalities show up in videos across First Watch’s feed, creating engaging, authentic content that seamlessly fits the brand’s voice. It’s clear that First Watch is intentional about choosing influencers who align with their lighthearted, fun, and relatable brand identity.
This strategy is key to their Instagram success because influencer-driven content performs well on the platform and keeps their engagement levels high.
3. Family-Friendly, But Not Boring 👨👩👧👦
First Watch leans into family-friendly content, featuring:
✔ Kids having fun at First Watch
✔ Kids literally asking to go to First Watch
✔ Working with influencers who take their kids along to First Watch
✔ Parents bringing their little ones along for a fun, casual breakfast
✔ Creative family-oriented promotions
One standout example? Their Father’s Day hat giveaway. First Watch created a hat that read:
💬 “Hi hungry, I’m dad.”
This post, while not shot at the restaurant, clearly demonstrates that First Watch is a family-friendly place.
4. Blending Influencer Content, UGC, and Real Brand Moments 📸
First Watch is great at blending influencer content, user-generated content (UGC), and their own brand content, so that everything feels effortless and authentic.
They frequently showcase content created by visitors, making it clear that their brand is loved by real people. A great example? Their carousel posts featuring visitor photos, which are likely reposted with permission.
This is a key move for restaurants looking to build a strong Instagram presence, as UGC is more relatable and engaging than highly produced content.
5. Riding the Trend Wave 🌊
One of the biggest reasons First Watch has one of the best restaurant Instagram accounts is their ability to stay on top of trends.
A great example? The egg price surge in the U.S.
- They posted a staff member holding a sign saying: “We got eggs.”
- The caption? “Without the surcharge.”
🔥 But they didn’t stop there.
- They followed it up with an ASMR-style video of eggs frying, captioned: “Enjoy 15 seconds of zen. The sound of no surcharge.” Watch it here.
By embracing trends like the egg price surge, First Watch demonstrates the best restaurant Instagram strategy, sparking conversations and boosting engagement.
Marketing Tactics: Why First Watch’s Strategy is the Best Restaurant Instagram Strategy
1. Making Shareable, Taggable Posts 🔄
First Watch knows how to encourage sharing— a key element of the best restaurant Instagram strategy—sometimes literally spelling it out in the caption.
Examples of their CTAs include:
✔ “send to your brunch buds 🫶🥓”
✔ “Send this to your bae(con) 🫶🥓”
This is one of the most simple yet best restaurant Instagram strategy, because it encourages organic engagement, which boosts visibility in the algorithm. “Can it really be that simple?” Uh… yeah! ASK what you want people to do! Give it a try.
Oh, and then there’s the genius post that broke the internet (okay, maybe not quite, but it did perform super well):
🔥 A simple text-based post that read:
“Like if First Watch has the best breakfast. Comment if another one does.”
But here’s the trick: they turned off the comments.
🚀 Nearly 2,000 likes later, this simple post outperformed plenty of others.
🚀 People shared it, laughed about it, and engaged in droves.
👉 Takeaway: Make content that makes people tag, share, and comment—(the latter when possible… hehe)
2. Prioritizing Reach Over Perfection 📢
First Watch clearly thinks through their content—it’s not random, but it’s also not overly curated.
They aren’t afraid to experiment, test different formats, and let their feed be a little messy—as long as the content is fun, relatable, and engaging.
This is a key lesson for restaurant Instagram accounts—perfection doesn’t always win, but relatability does.
For more actionable strategies on promoting your restaurant on Instagram, check out our this article.
Key Takeaways from First Watch’s Instagram
✔ Memes and humor make brands feel human.
✔ Influencer partnerships work best when they feel natural.
✔ Family-friendly content doesn’t have to be boring—it can be fun.
✔ Showcasing real visitor content builds trust and authenticity.
✔ Trendy, reactive posts get major engagement.
✔ Shareable, taggable content wins the algorithm.
✔ A clean Instagram feed isn’t always necessary—engagement is king.
Three Things You Can Do Right Now to Improve Your Restaurant’s Instagram
1️⃣ Create a meme post about your food. Take inspiration from First Watch and try a fun, relatable caption that gets people talking.
2️⃣ Encourage tagging & sharing. Post something people will WANT to send their friends.
3️⃣ Experiment with a looser, less polished style. See if a less perfect, more real and humorous approach works for you.
Final Thoughts: Why First Watch Has One of the Best Restaurant Instagram Accounts
First Watch is proof that restaurant marketing doesn’t have to be overproduced to be effective.
They’ve nailed the formula:
Humor + Trends + Influencers + Shareability = Growth.
So, if you’re looking to build a strong restaurant Instagram presence, take a page from First Watch and have some fun with it.
And hey—if you try any of these tactics, let me know how it goes! 🚀
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