🚕 TikTok Series On NYC Yellow Cab Drivers & Their Favorite Eating Spots Is Going Viral
New TikTok series, 'Keep the Meter Running', is going viral as it documents NYC yellow cab drivers & their favorite spots to eat (plus more). Stand up comic Kareem Rahma is the host of the series
Yesterday, the New York Post profiled a new TikTok series called ‘Keep the Meter Running’. According to the Post, for each installment of the series, which has amassed nearly 4 million views over seven clips posted since its October 24th debut, stand-up comedian Kareem Rahma, who’s late father used to drive a cab in Minneapolis, hails a yellow cab and strikes up a conversation with a willing TLC driver. He asks questions about their life and interests beyond driving and tells the driver to “keep the meter running”, as they proceed to spend hours exploring NYC, frequently heading to some of the driver’s favorite restaurants.
The series covers the costs of the entire trip, including food and a 15% tip — one trip lasted 10 hours and cost more than $600. The project is funded by New York-based media company Mad Realities.
After receiving an emphatic “No” from more than a half-dozen drivers who didn’t want to be filmed, the trio met Pakistani geologist-turned-Big Apple taxi driver Abdur. He agreed to give them a glimpse into his world in Queens.
Footage of their hours-long excursion through Jackson Heights — spent unearthing crystals found in rocks lining suburban streets, dining on authentic Pakistani food and exchanging nuggets of wisdom such as Abdur’s advice to Rahma, who is divorced, about having “one wife for life” — garnered 3.4 million TikTok views.
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According to the New York Post, in an upcoming edition of Keep the Meter Running, Rahma will set out on a 10-hour journey with cabbie Ali, originally from Morocco. Rahma states they enjoy “the best food I’ve had in the past 5 years” at a little-known spot called Little Morocco on Steinway Street in Astoria. Other restaurants profiled include Dera Restaurant & Sweet on Broadway in Jackson Heights and Dil-E Punjab Deli at 170 Ninth Ave in Chelsea.
One stat mentioned in the article we found interesting was, according to a TLC driver, nearly half of the City’s 80 taxi-stand restaurants have closed since the pandemic, leaving only around 40 available for NYC’s over 100,000 active TLC drivers to use.
“If you ask a cab driver where you should eat, they’re going to take you to a spot that almost no one knows about, where the food is affordable and f- -king good.”
Click here for Keep the Meter Running’s TikTok page.
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