When dining with James Tir, the digital food chronicler behind @LBFoodComa, it’s imperative to remember one thing: phone always eats first.
It’s half past noon on Wednesday, May 13 and I’m meeting Tir and Signal Tribune Photo Editor Samuel Chacko for lunch at Dilly’s Sandwiches (4144 North Viking Way), a paradoxically memorable yet unassuming deli tucked away in a beige, tree-covered stretch of Lakewood Village. Since he’s the expert, I suggested Tir choose our lunch location.
On this particular day, this meal is sandwiched between a morning brew at Wrigley’s Dedo Coffee and an early dinner at Massimo’s in Naples — a first-time visit for Tir.
When I spot Tir — dressed in a black Barely Alive dad hat, a matching 1800 Tequila T-shirt and blue jeans — he seems blissfully at home, heartily chatting with two workers at the counter like an old friend paying a visit. Of course, I soon find out he’s already been to Dilly’s a handful of times. It’s one of nearly countless spots in his rolodex of local restaurant knowledge.
We find a central spot in a row of long tables and benches, with vibrant pickle figurines decorating the adjacent side wall. There, we split two of the deli’s most unique items: the PB & Pickle — an oddly comforting pairing of crunchy peanut butter and loads of sweet bread & butter pickles on white Pullman bread — and The Carrot, a flavorful combination of kimchi, roasted carrots and melted Monterey Jack cheese on pressed ciabatta. I ordered the former, while Tir took care of the latter.
Once the food arrives, Tir readies himself to photograph our feast, helped by the handy portable spotlight he brought along to liven up his social media stills. He moves swiftly to capture the images, with the instinctive eye of someone who’s done this hundreds of times. After the photoshoot is finished, we dig in.
This experience is ritualistic for Tir. After all, he’s built a localized social media empire due to his ability to capture Long Beach’s deluge of delectable spots and the eats that make them worthy. But to Tir, gastronomic exploration is no mere passion; it’s a necessity, an all-important key to living life to the fullest.
“Food is primal, we eat to survive,” he explained. “When you’re eating, your guard is down, you are at your truest self. And if you’re taking a risk in that context, you’re more likely to take risks in other contexts …When you start with something like this, you’ll eventually become a better person overall.”
James Tir, @LBFoodComa
Tir’s Instagram page — his primary method of reaching hungry viewers since 2014 — is an absolute feeding frenzy of reels featuring hole-in-the-wall joints, newly opened eateries, acclaimed favorites and an assortment of festivals and special events.
It alone is on the doorstep of 100,000 followers (99,400 as of May 20), with an additional 83,000 and change spread across Facebook (52,300) and TikTok (31,100).
As his moniker would suggest, a plethora of mouthwatering bites are featured, decadent meals destined to lull viewers into a comatose state of enjoyment — nearly all of which reside within the confines of his hometown.
“I just couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” Tir said.
Eating Origins
Growing up in Cambodia Town during the ‘90s and 2000s, Tir recalls him and his brother spending time exploring the city with their neighbor, a retired teacher who suffered from schizophrenia. His parents — who made Long Beach their home in the ‘80s after escaping the genocidal Khmer Rouge — were often working at the now-defunct Daily Donut in Westminster during these outings.
Tir looks back fondly on his childhood, and despite his neighborhood being admittedly “hairy” due to the regularity of crime, he believes the explorative lens of his adolescence shaped his modern-day curiosities.
“It opened my eyes to kind of how fascinating and unique the world is, and I think that plays a huge part in why I am the way I am,” he recollected.
Tir was exposed early on to the magical inertia that surfaces when working in a kitchen. He experienced it firsthand while working at his aunt’s Cambodian restaurant Hak Heang (2041 E. Anaheim St.), spending his youth progressing from busboy to sous chef by the time he graduated from high school and cementing his love for the act of culinary innovation.
“I found my love for just creating things with my hands,” Tir said. “I love the fact that I can take all these different elements and make something better than the sum of its parts, or something that’s worse than the sum of its parts. It’s awesome.”
Want more local news?
Sign up for the Signal Tribune’s daily newsletter
In 2013, Tir graduated with a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from California State University, Long Beach, which led to him working what he called a “soulless” job at a skateboarding company. To escape the mundanity of his 9-to-6 work life, he resolved to meet five new people per day, simultaneously expanding his network of foodies and pushing him to explore third spaces — all while documenting his experiences. This strategy served as a helpful foundation when he decided to fully dedicate himself to food in 2018.
As Tir became one of the city’s go-to food influencers and wrote articles for L.A. Taco and Eater, his videography style remained intentionally consistent. The only change has been an increased awareness of how he operates and uses his platform, strengthened by the years spent honing his skills and a specific focus on what’s being served in Long Beach.
“My goal has always been to uplift the Long Beach food scene,” Tir said.
Mastering the Routine
A typical work day sees Tir visiting 3-4 places — plus one spontaneous stop to liven up the otherwise adherent routine — and spending copious amounts of time editing his reels on LumaFusion. On occasion, he’ll cook for himself, and sometimes even don the hat and apron for a special event, but he mostly eats out.
In a given week, Tir will post 7-10 videos on his account. This includes weekly recaps of the best things he’s eaten over the past seven days and curated lineups of filling yet frugal meals available for under $20.
Tir also spends time promoting businesses via disclosed paid partnerships, but says he retains “room for integrity,” allowing him autonomy over what’s ultimately posted on his page.
“I don’t have to cater to the whims of the universe; I can enjoy what I enjoy,” he said.
By this point, when Tir arrives at a restaurant to film, the concept for each shoot is already pre-planned in his head. Even his strategy of what foods to order when dining somewhere for the first time is fairly tried and true.
Fortunately for Tir, he has no allergies, aversions or dietary intolerances that prevent him from trying dishes that may intimidate the average patron. It’s something his Khmer heritage duly prepared his taste buds for.
“Cambodian flavors are really punchy,” he said. “You’ve got lemongrass, galangal, tamarin, everything’s really fermenty and really strong and really herbaceous and really bright. So when that’s your baseline, that’s your normal…everything else is easy, nothing shocks me.”
Oftentimes, he’ll test the spectrum of a menu by ordering a place’s go-to dish and their most “esoteric” option. This, ideally, allows him to taste both the subtle and standout flavors of a particular cuisine, thus receiving intimate insight into a range of palettes.
“As I eat at all these places and I selectively choose the weird and the popular, it gives me such an overarching view of how those countries, those cultures, eat,” he said.
With over a decade of experience under his belt, Tir has noticed a growth in popularity regarding the city’s food scene, which he says has gone from “very boring” to the midst of a “culinary renaissance” since he first began posting. Tir champions this evolution and the influx of local food influencers to the ecosystem that once primarily consisted of Tir and Brian Addison — steward of Long Beach Food Scene and several additional appetite-related ventures — as proof.
Community Resilience
Changes to the local food scene have also come more recently in the form of rising food prices and the chilling effects Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity has had on the city’s diners and workers. For instance, Tir mentions the harrowing story of Babblejit “Bubbly” Kaur, a longtime Long Beach resident and beloved figure in the city’s food scene, who was detained by ICE in December 2025 during a routine appointment to further her green card application.
Following calls for her release by community members and Congressman Robert Garcia (CA-42), Kaur was set free the same month, but not without fears that the people who fueled the city’s culturally diverse food scene remained under attack.
Still, Tir emphasizes the widespread support Long Beach residents have shown for their neighbors, including the pride displayed by those stepping outside their culinary comfort zones. When each bite acts as an entryway into a country’s cultures and traditions, exploration becomes paramount to understanding the city’s people, as much as what’s on your plate.
“We’ve become a community where taking risks in what you eat is cool, and you don’t really find that in very many places,” Tir said. “…Here I’ve found people want to try what’s exciting and new and whatever the signature dish is. It’s really nice to see. I do think that outlook is different from what it was a decade ago.”
James Tir, @LBFoodComa
To expand one’s scope of what the city’s eats have to offer — especially outside of popular areas such as Retro Row and Belmont Shore’s Restaurant Row — Tir suggests the broadening of geographical horizons. Dilly’s is just one pertinent example in a sea of hidden gems spread throughout the surrounding region.
“I do think it’d be nice for people to explore [the] westside, Wrigley and North Long Beach a little bit more because there’s good cuisines out there. You just gotta dig for it,” he said.
What’s Next?
For now, and into the future, Tir plans to keep his account active, acting as a reliable food-finder for those who come across his steady flow of posts. However, he does have a desire to expand into a more curatorial role someday with a few potential ventures, all of which are still in the idea stage.
They include directing a food documentary, a la Netflix’s “Chef’s Table” series and launching a local food festival, building on his experience as co-founder of the Long Beach Tacos & Tequila and Tamales festivals, among others. Plus, Tir envisions opening up a cocktail bar with a theme that unites French colonial architecture with Southeast Asian motifs and ingredients, giving him ample room to play with unexpected flavor combos.
Next time you dine out in Long Beach, consider trying a new restaurant, cuisine or neighborhood for your meal. If you’re doing it right, there’s a good chance Tir has already been there.
