Tanisha Godfrey recently became a social media sensation after a TikTok video of her saying, “Y’all better come up here and get one of these…It’s a chicken salad…81st Deli…superior” went viral.
“I got chicken, pickles, banana peppers, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions …,” she lists before the video cuts off. The video has since August recorded over 17 million views and the social media attention has increased sales at Wael Herbawi’s restaurant, according to Today.
The Cleveland native has also landed a partnership deal with Weight Watchers and even visited their kitchen to make her dream chicken salad, “The Nisha Chicken Salad.”
“Y’all better come up and get (or make) this #chickensalad. TikTok star Nisha Godfrey came to visit us at the WeightWatchers test kitchen and made us her dream chicken salad. The key ingredients? Raw mushrooms and banana peppers. Loaded with other ZeroPoint faves like pickles, grilled chicken, and tomatoes, this salad only needs a sprinkle of Parm and a bit of vinaigrette, plus a dash of lemon pepper for superior flavour,” Weight Watchers wrote.
Today reports that the sound byte went viral last month after Godfrey was recorded eating at Herbawi’s restaurant. “I had got off work. Because it was hot, I was like, I don’t want anything heavy. So I stopped at the store like I normally do,” Godfrey said.
“And I was like, ‘Hey, you guys make salad now, right? And (Herbawi) was like, ‘Yes.’ So I was like, ‘Can I get a chicken salad?’ and I gave him the extra things to put in. And once he was done, it was a beautiful salad. So he said, ‘Hey, let’s make a TikTok.’ And that’s where it started.”
“Like, it’s me. Wow, it’s me. So I’m still in a moment of surreal,” she said about going viral. “It’s weird. I can’t really explain it. It’s just the whole world knows my name now.”
In October, Herbawi, the owner of East 81st St. Deli, told Today that he used to sell 40 chicken salads a day on average but now averages 300 a day. He has also hired five new employees to meet demand. He is also planning to expand the building to accommodate more customers hazard-free.
“I had to pull out all my contacts because it’s not easy,” he said. “I just ordered 20 cases (of chicken). You’re talking about over 200 pounds of chicken. That’s one day order.”
